60 Lesser Known, But Very Interesting Facts About Dogs
1.Research has found that border collies are the most intelligent dog breed.
They'd rather finish your homework than eat it, thank you very much.
2.Pembroke Welsh corgis are revered for their enchanted nature and are known in Welsh folklore as companions and steeds to fairies.
They've also been known to really just let loose at summer music festivals.
3.In the US, Labrador retrievers have been the most popular dog breed every year since 2013.
Jealousy is a disease...get well soon. 😌
4.Basenjis don't bark — they yodel.
Not in chain superstores, though.
5.The first-ever Olympic mascot was a dachshund named Waldi.
The other prospective mascot contenders simply fell short.
6.A group of pugs is called a grumble.
Much cuter than that thing our stomach does.
7.In 1925, a group of huskies helped save the children of a small Alaskan town.
Your faves could never...
8.Greyhounds are the world's fastest dog breeds, with the ability to reach speeds of 45 miles per hour.
This is the only greyhound that won't get stuck in two hours of traffic between New Jersey and the Delaware Water Gap.
9.The Catahoula leopard dog is the only breed capable of climbing trees(!!).
Climbing trees is, like, hard enough for actual humans?? Impressive.
10.Basset hounds use their incredibly long ears to trap scents.
Now you know exactly what you're doing when you walk your basset hound through the streets of New York City.
11.The average dog has an intelligence level equivalent to a 2-year-old human.
According to American Psychological Association, dogs can learn up to 250 words and gestures, which is equivalent to a toddler.
12.Dogs go poop when their bodies are aligned with the earth's magnetic field.
A study published in the journal Frontiers in Zoology found that dogs are sensitive to small variations in the earth's magnetic field. Under “calm magnetic field conditions,” dogs preferred to relieve themselves when their body was aligned along the north-south axis. The study also found that dogs avoid the east-west axis altogether.
13.Dogs have three eyelids.
Two of their eyelids are visible and one is hidden. The third eyelid sits in the inner corner of a dog's eyes and it has invisible tear glands.
14.The world's first dog lived 31,700 years ago and looked like a Siberian husky.
The prehistoric dog was about the size of a shepherd dog, with a wide but short snout and a wider brain case than a wolf.
15.Male dogs may lift their leg when peeing to make themselves appear larger to other dogs.
According to a study done by researchers at Cornell University, evidence suggests that littler dogs lift their legs at a higher angle when peeing as a way to trick bigger dogs into thinking they are bigger than they actually are.
16.Dogs drink with the back of their tongue.
Dogs don't have cheeks, so they can't create suction to drink like we can. Dogs move their tongues very quickly backward to build up momentum which forces water into a column and up into their mouths.
17.Dogs instinctively curl up in a ball when they sleep to protect their vital organs and keep themselves warm.
If a pup sprawls out to sleep instead of curling up, it means they are simply hot or they feel very safe in their environment.
18.Dogs have 18 muscles that control their ears.
For reference, humans only have six. They can rotate and tilt their ears to listen to sound waves efficiently. Their ears can also move independently from each other, allowing them to hear sounds in different directions.
19.Dogs are now capable of watching TV because of the invention of HDTV with higher frame rates. Before that, TV just looked like a strobe light to them.
20.A dog’s sense of smell is 10,000 to 100,000 times more accurate than a human's.
Dogs detect odors in parts per trillion. That is the equivalent of a dog finding one dirty sock in a pile of two million clean ones!
21.Dogs can sweat through their paw pads.
According to Pet MD, dogs have a type of sweat gland called merocrine glands, which are located in their paw pads. However, dogs actually sweating through their paws is relatively rare.
22.Dogs can be trained to detect cancer and other diseases.
In the human body, cancerous cells release different metabolic waste products than healthy cells. The difference is actually so significant that dogs are able to detect it. Dogs may also be able to sniff out cancer cells just by smelling someone's breath.
23.Dogs can get jealous.
Although dogs experience things like jealousy and envy, their emotions are not as complex as the emotions we feel as humans. According to the American Kennel Club, dogs are sensitive to fairness (for example, everyone being rewarded for their efforts), but not equity (for example, whether or not all of the rewards are equal).
24.A greyhound dog could beat a Cheetah in a long-distance race.
Although greyhounds' fastest speeds aren't as fast as cheetahs (cheetahs can run up to 75 miles per hour), cheetahs can only run in sprints. So, in a long-distance race, the greyhound would eventually outrun the cheetah.
25.A dog's nose is wet to help absorb scent chemicals.
Wet noses help dogs regulate their body temperature and cool them down because they don't have normal sweat glands like people.
26.A dog’s normal body temperature is between 101 and 102.5 degrees Fahrenheit.
According to Web MD, a temperature of more than 103 degrees Fahrenheit is considered a fever for a dog.
27.A service dog named Kirsch received an honorary master's degree in mental health counseling for attending all of his owner's classes.
28.Dogs dream, just like humans.
Human brains and dog brains function similarly during sleep. We both have the same type of slow wave sleep and rapid eye movement (or REM). During the REM stage, dogs can dream just like humans. If you see your dog is sleeping and you see their paws moving or twitching, it means they are most likely dreaming.
29.But also, dogs can see in the dark far better than humans.
While dogs have fewer cones in their eyes, they have more light-sensitive cells, or rods, toward the center of the retina. A larger pupil also lets in more light.
Don't go by this GIF, though. It must have been hella dark.
30.A dog's noseprint is as unique as a human's fingerprint.
It is widely believed that no two dogs have the same noseprint, and the Canadian Kennel Club has been accepting noseprints as proof of identity since 1938 (for dogs only).
31.Dogs like rolling around in smelly things because, to them, that shit smells ~divine~.
Not only do dogs have way more olfactory receptors than us, but they're probably designed differently as well.
This means they perceive smells differently, and it might explain why it's a delight for your dog to roll around in their own doodoo, but not acceptable for you to do the same.
32.The saluki, the oldest dog breed still existent today, has been hanging around humans since 329 BCE.
Some historians identify the saluki as a distinct breed of dog as early as 329 BCE in Egypt. For some perspective, that was around the same time when Alexander the Great invaded India.
That would make the saluki breed well over 2,000 years old.
33.Dogs can hear about four times the distance of a human.
34.Some dogs, like the Newfoundland breed, have webbed feet.
Breeds that tend to do a lot of work in water, like the Newfoundland and the Portuguese water dog, have specially modified webbed feet to help them swim better.
35.They can gauge your emotion by listening to your voice.
The human brain has an audio cortex which differentiates voices from other sounds and reacts based on the emotion expressed in the voice. A study found that dogs have one too, and it's located in a very similar area of their brain.
This makes sense, since humans have been breeding dogs for centuries, so at least a portion of their brain must go toward interpreting human cues.
36.Chinese nobles would hide Pekingese dogs in their sleeves as a form of attack.
Pekingese dogs were bred as guard dogs for royals in imperial China. Emperors would carry the smallest and fiercest ones in their sleeves and release them to scare away any shady characters.
They were ancient pepper spray, basically.
37.Despite those puppy eyes, dogs feel no remorse.
Veterinary scientist Susan Hazel believes that "it’s pretty clear that dogs don’t feel or display guilt." They've just learned to act that way to appease their masters when they're angry.
So don't trust those puppy dog eyes after they've broken something in the house. THEY DON'T GIVE A SHIT.
38.If you're over 30, you were alive before every dog living in the world today.
This isn't so much a scientific fact as a shower thought, but it's still true AF. The longest a dog has ever lived is 29 years, so by that math, every dog alive today was born at least after 1993.
If you were born in or before 1993, congrats! These dogs look up to you as some sort of god.
39.There is a place on earth that, quite literally, looks like doggy heaven.
Territorio de Zaguates, or "Land of the Strays," is a volunteer-run shelter in Costa Rica. They have about 900 dogs there, and they have special hikes across the hills with you AND THE DOGS. OH MY GOD.
Every one of the dogs in the shelter is up for adoption.
40.The golden retriever has never won the Westminster Dog Show.
41.Dalmatians are born without their signature spots.
42.The name "pug" most likely came from the Latin word "pugnus," which means "fist," because the shadow of a fist resembles a pug's profile.
43.A dog once walked 2,800 miles through plains, desert, mountains, and rivers during the coldest part of winter to get back to his family.
44.Most French bulldogs' hips are too slim to deliver puppies, so their litters are almost always delivered via C-section.
45.A neuroimaging study revealed that dogs prioritize the smell of their humans over everything and anything else.
46.Doug the Pug, the world's most famous internet dog, has an estimated net worth of about $500,000.
47.Three border collies were once trained to run around Chilean forests wearing backpacks that released native plant seeds — this was an effort to try and rebuild areas devastated by wildfires.
48.Dogs have evolved to understand human laughter.
49.Dogs sneeze to show other dogs that they're not being aggressive.
50.Roselle, a guide dog, saved her blind owner during 9/11 by leading him out of the North Tower and down 78 flights of stairs.
51.There once existed a breed of dog called the Turnspit that was bred to run on a wheel to make meat turn and cook evenly.
52.Some 26,000-year-old canine paw prints were found fossilized next to those of a child, revealing the oldest evidence of dog being man's best friend.
53.Corgi is Welsh for "dwarf dog."
54.A bloodhound joined a half-marathon after her owner let her out to pee. She ran the entire 13.1 miles and finished seventh.
55.If you leave your dog a piece of clothing that smells like you, the scent will comfort them and it can help curb their separation anxiety.
56.The Norwegian Lundehund is the only dog that has six toes on each foot!
57.Dogs don't ONLY see in black and white — they can also see blue and yellow!
58.Bloodhounds are able to trace scents that are over 300 hours old.
59.The US is the country with the highest pet dog population, at around 75 million.
60.The Beatles included a whistle that is only audible to dogs in the song "A Day in the Life."
Martha My Dear. London, 1969. Photo by Linda McCartney #TBT #ThrowbackThursday #loveyourpetday
This article contains content from Syd Robinson, Krista Torres, Shayan Roy, and Kaelin Tully. It was compiled by Kelly Rissman.
