A while back a group of friends and I were discussing some of the great books about dogs and a short story popped into my head that I had read back in the late 60's or early 70's. It involved the early days of Earthmen in space encountering a hostile race who just wanted to eliminate humans from the galaxy. In the process of boarding an Earth warship and killing everyone on board they come across a small dog who defends his master in spite of the obvious power of the aliens. The aliens are so impressed by the courage of this small creature that they take the dog and its master prisoner to study them. The story ends with a sentence to the effect of: There is a new saying on the alien home world, A dog is a Veen's best friend. I made up the name of the alien race but it may be close to what was actually written. I don't remember anything else, not the author or title of the story. I only remember it was in an anthology and it was a paperback. Any information or even a good guess will be appreciated.

The short story I remember has a human and his dog encountering a new alien race in space. After some negotiations the two ships agree to swap one crewman as 'hostages' for study Of course, the man sent the dog as the man was alone.  Afterwards the two races became friendly, as the aliens were impressed with the dog's devotion. The story ends with every alien in that race having a dog for a pet.

Just writing that makes me wonder what terrible holocaust would have occurred if the human had sent a cat over. Billions would have died and entire planetary systems would be nuclear ash.