ワンワン (another word for DOG)

An alternative to inu (犬 ), one can use ワンワン (wan wan) to refer to our canine friends. 
As was explained to me, a typical usage of this word would look something like this:  a parent is out walking with his/her young child.  A dog appears on the sidewalk across the street.  Parent then says to the child, "ほら！ワンワン来たよ！"  (Translated literally, this would mean "Look!  A dog came!"  A more natural translation would simply be "Look!  A dog!")

ワンワン also denotes the sound of a bark.  Its English equivalents:  bow wow, woof woof, arf arf, etc.  This was probably the first example of Japanese onomatopoeia that I learned.  I've heard that the Japanese language makes more use of onomatopoeia than does English, although I haven't seen any hard evidence or research.  Intuitively, though, I believe it.