25 fun facts about dogs

They’re one of the family, but there’s much about our doggy pals that we don’t know. Here are some cool facts.

Dogs can smell thousands of times better than humans. Their noses have millions more scent receptors – for example, a human nose averages 5 million while a Dachshund’s nose has 125 million – making them useful in sniffing out drugs, dead bodies, bed bugs, explosives and more.

Discover 10 things dogs can smell that humans can’t.

Dogs’ sense of smell might be pretty amazing, but don’t forget about their hearing! Everything from the positioning of their ears to the muscles in them helps them pick up a whole host of sounds that humans can’t pick up. In fact, the most popular explanation for why dogs tilt their heads is that they’re trying to locate the source of a sound.

Dogs have approximately a sixth of the number of taste buds that humans have (1,700 taste buds to humans’ approximately 9,000). This is why dogs will scarf rotting food scraps as voraciously as they’ll eat a bowl of kibble or a hunk of steak. Their less discriminatory sense of taste also has to do with their evolutionary instincts, carried over from when they would scavenge in the wild.

If you’ve ever noticed your pooch twitching in her sleep, this probably means she’s dreaming. Researchers found that dogs have similar sleep patterns and brain activity as humans, and that small breeds tend to dream more than large ones. Psychology Today suggests they’re probably imagining familiar activities like playing outside or chasing their tail.

Learn more dog facts about dog dreams with these things you can learn just from your pup’s sleeping position.

According to canine researcher and author Stanley Coren, your toddler and pup are about on par when it comes to brains. He also explained that man’s best friend can count, understand over 150 words, and even trick people or other dogs to get treats. Intelligence varies based on breed – Border collies are the smartest.

These are the 20 smartest dog breeds, ranked.

If your dog excitedly wags its tail, it means they’re happy to see you, right? Not necessarily. According to Discovery.com, dogs wag their tails to the right when they’re happy and to the left when they’re frightened. Wagging low means they’re insecure, and rapid tail wagging accompanied by tense muscles or dilated pupils can signal aggression.

Find out more fun facts about dogs’ tails and what they’re trying to tell you.

Newborn dogs are still developing, according to Psychology Today, so their ear canals and eyes are still closed. Most puppies open their eyes and respond to noises after about two weeks.

In a 2010 poll, 67 percent of pet owners reported their pets acting strangely right before a storm, and 43 percent said their pets behaved oddly right before something bad happened. The top clues? Whining, erratic behavior, or trying to hide in a safe place. There are even reports that dogs can sense illnesses, like cancer.

See what the science says about whether dogs can see ghosts.

Even though they sweat out through the pads of their paws, their main form of cooling down is panting.

Ever wonder why dogs like to twirl around before they do their business? Well, it’s one of the many dog behaviors that perplex researchers, but the prevailing theory is that it has to do with the Earth’s magnetic field. Dogs like to poop facing north or south, and spinning around helps them correctly orient their internal compasses.

This is one of the most common dog “facts” that are actually false. Despite a prevailing myth that dogs can only see in black and white, your pooch actually can see a spectrum of colour. While they do have trouble distinguishing between different shades of green and red, which will mostly just appear as greys and browns, blue and yellow tones are relatively clear to them.

When your dog lets out a big yawn, you probably just assume it means what it does when we yawn – that he’s sleepy. And it certainly can be a sign of tiredness, but dogs yawn for other reasons as well. Dogs can also yawn to calm themselves down, so repeated yawns could be a sign that your pup is feeling anxious or stressed out.

Dogs’ normal body temperature is slightly higher than that of humans (it hovers at around 38.6° C), which means that hotter temperatures can affect them more. This is why you need to take care while walking your dog on a hot day. Also, don’t forget about the bitumen if you’re taking your dog for a walk – the ground heats up fast in the sun and can be painful on dogs’ unguarded feet. Not to mention, dogs have that thick layer of fur. So a day that may not seem overwhelmingly hot to you can be a scorcher for your dog.

Nope, every dog year does not automatically equal seven human years, as many fun facts about dogs would have you believe. The fact – which does have some factual merit – came from observations that “average,” medium-sized dogs tended to live around one-seventh as long as their owners. However, dogs come in all shapes and sizes, and what’s “average” for a Great Dane is very different from what’s “average” for a Chihuahua. Paying attention to the “life stages” of dogs, and how they correspond to each breed, gives you a much better picture of how old your dog actually is than equating one year to seven years.

You might think a lick to the face is your dog’s way of giving you a kiss. But that’s another popular dog fact that’s not quite true. “Kissing” isn’t a form of showing affection that comes naturally to dogs, so your snout-smooches may not be received as lovingly as you might think. If they lick your face – or make other motions like shifting their position, yawning, or licking their own lips – this could actually be a sign they want you to give them space, since having a face so close to their own could be viewed as aggressive or threatening. But, of course, dogs have been adapting to live with humans for thousands of years, and the Happy Puppy Site says that some dogs do catch on and learn to associate the kisses with affection.

If the dog facts about dog kisses haven’t convinced you that dogs and humans use different forms of communication, the fact that butt-sniffing is a common dog greeting surely will. A dog’s unique smell is secreted in its glands, and yes, those scent glands are located in their backsides. Dogs’ rear ends are home to glands that produce pheromones, which contain information about everything from the sex of the dog to its health and diet. Thanks to dogs’ incredible senses of smell, they can learn all sorts of information about one another just from the nuances of the odour. So the butt-sniff is basically the dogs’ method of getting a first impression.

Ready for more weird anatomy-related fun facts about dogs? Dogs have three eyelids in each eye! In addition to a top and bottom lid, they have a “nictitating membrane” in the corner of their eye, primarily for removing dust and mucus from the cornea. You might see it when your pet wakes up suddenly, as the membrane is shut when your pet sleeps.

We all know from earlier in this article that dogs can hear many sounds that humans can’t, and The Beatles used that to their advantage in their hit song, “A Day in the Life.” In an interview with Paul McCartney, he claimed that at the end of the song, a frequency was added that only dogs can hear. Play the song and watch your pup towards the end. Music is just as beneficial to dogs as it is to humans and can even help with a dog’s anxiety.

Learn 7 reasons why your pet might have anxiety.

Recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records, the oldest dog ever was an Australian Cattle Dog named Bluey. He lived to be 29 years and 5 months old from the years 1910 to 1939. Bluey lived in Victoria, Australia with his owner Les Hall and worked among his sheep and cattle.

Don’t miss 10 of the healthiest dog breeds with the longest lifespans. Spoiler alert: Australian Cattle Dogs appear on this list.

It’s pretty common knowledge that dogs can’t eat chocolate, but have you ever wondered why? Chocolate contains an ingredient called theobromine which dogs are unable to digest. Consumption of chocolate could create a brutally toxic buildup in their system which could ultimately be deadly. So keep your pup out of the pantry!

See what other foods you should never feed your pet.

Dogs don’t curl up in a ball when they sleep just for cuteness points. They essentially curl up due to a biological instinct to protect their vital organs and keep themselves warm.

Dogs have an amazing sense of vocabulary, with the ability to learn over 1,000 words! For example, a Border Collie named Chaser knows both nouns and verbs and can understand them enough to shape an action. Research on the subject is in full swing with programs dedicated to dog psychology at major universities such as Duke University, Yale University, and Barnard College.

Many veterinarians and breeders agree that between 7-8 weeks is the most ideal time to bring a puppy home for the first time. The largest factor in this decision is the puppy’s socialisation period which usually occurs during weeks 6-12. This period of time is when the puppy is learning the norms of everyday life. It’s best for dogs to enter their new home during this time so they can adapt to their new environment.

Learn the first 8 things you should do to train a puppy.

There are many breeds of dogs that look like wolves, but did you know that all the dogs we love today have descended from the wild wolf? Wolves would certainly not make a good pet and while wolf-dog hybrids do exist, they are only recommended for experienced dog owners.

It’s a challenge to estimate how many dogs currently live around the world, but according to the most recent estimations, there are approximately 900 million. About 75-85 percent of those dogs are considered free-range, meaning they are not owned by humans and an estimated 200 million dogs are strays according to the World Health Organization. With many countries requiring pets to be registered, the country with the most pet dogs is France with a dog to human ratio of 17 to 100.

Now that these dog facts have helped you understand your pup a little better, dig into these things your dog wishes you knew.

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Source: RD.com