Smile

“Nothing makes me smile more than looking into the face of a dog that loves me.” (Anonymous)

Dogs suffer from jealousy just like their human counterparts do. Researchers studied 36 dogs from 14 breeds, and found that most were indifferent when their owners ignored them until the owners chose to give their attention to a stuffed dog. Then the canine’s behavior changed considerably from nice to mean. While dogs are man’s best friend, they still have the capacity to surprise us at times. Do you think you know everything there is to know about your canine companions? Look at the list below of interesting dog facts to give you a better appreciation for these truly incredible animals:

·        A dog’s mouth exerts 320 pounds of pressure (on average). Tests were done on a German shepherd, American pit bull terrier, and Rottweiler. In comparison, human beings exert 120 pounds, white sharks exert 600 pounds, and crocodiles exert a whopping 2,500 pounds! Dogs also have ten more adult teeth than humans (42 versus 32).

·        A one-year-old puppy is as physically mature as a fifteen-year-old human. Different breeds of dogs age a little differently. Large dogs age faster than small ones.

·        A wagging tail doesn’t always mean that a dog is happy. Dogs wag their tail to the right when they’re happy and to the left when they are frightened. Wagging low means they are insecure. Rapid movements accompanied by tense muscles (or dilated pupils) can signal aggression.

·        Allowing your dog to wee on a lamp-post could be more dangerous than you think because the acids in the urine can corrode the metal.

·        Dog’s whiskers help them see in the dark by picking up on subtle changes in air currents by providing them with information about the size, shape, and speed of things nearby. This allows a dog to better sense approaching dangers or prey (even at night).

·        Dogs and cats both drink water the same way by bending the tip of their tongues, and raising liquid in a column up to their mouths.

·        Dogs are as smart as a two-year-old toddler, and understand roughly the same number of words and gestures (250), even perform simple mathematical calculations.

·        Dogs can hear four times as far as humans. Puppies may be born deaf, but they quickly surpass our hearing abilities. Dogs can also hear higher pitched sounds detecting a frequency range of 67 to 45,000 hertz (cycles per second). The human range is from 64 to 23,000 hertz. In both dogs and humans, the upper end of hearing range decreases with age.

·        Dogs can see ultraviolet (UV) light, and don’t need a compass because they can sense the earth’s magnetic fields. It’s believed they can hear some of the ultrasound waves that bats use to navigate in the dark.

·        Dogs can smell your feelings. Your dog can pick up on subtle changes in your scent, which can help him figure out how you are feeling. They can smelling your perspiration when you become nervous (or fearful). It’s also likely how dogs can detect certain diseases like cancer, diabetes, or the early signs of an epileptic seizure. If a member of your household becomes pregnant, they will know that too.

·        Dogs have the same brain wave patterns while they are asleep as humans. Not all dogs dream the same amount. Small dogs actually have more dreams than big dogs. For example, a small dog such as a toy Poodle may dream once every 10 minutes, whereas a Great Dane may have around an hour between each dream.

·        Dogs only have sweat glands in their paw pads. It can help to wet the bottom of their feet on a hot day, and why dogs rely on panting as a means of cooling down. The normal body temperature of a human is 37C, but a dog’s is a whole degree higher at 38C. That’s one reason fleas are more likely to be attracted to your dog than to you.

·        It is a common myth that dogs can only see in black and white but they can actually see colors just not as vividly as humans. They only have two cones in their eyes to detect colors, whereas humans have three. That means dogs see colors on a blue and yellow scale but cannot distinguish between red and green.

·        Researchers found that dogs disregard bad advice from their owners. Dogs will leave out unnecessary actions if they have learned there’s a more efficient way to solve the task. Dogs understand fairness, and will refuse to play ball when asked to carry out a trick if they are not offered the same reward as a fellow dog for equal work.

·        Scientists believe that humans and dogs first became best friends 30,000 years ago and our close bond started in Ice Age Europe when wolves, ancestors of today’s domesticated dogs, were first tamed by the ancient hunter gatherers.

·        The Doberman pinscher was named by Louis Dobermann, a tax collector who feared for his safety. Thus he began to breed a particular genetic line of dogs that combined strength, ferocity, intelligence, and loyalty.

·        The first living being to travel into space orbit was a dog named Laika. This Soviet dog was collected from the street and became the first astronaut on the Sputnik 2 spaceship in 1957.

·        The Saluki (also called the Persian Greyhound) is possibly the oldest dog breed in the world. We can see images of this wonderful dog in Egyptian art dating back to 2,100 BC. Moreover, the Saluki is considered one of the most intelligent and obedient dogs in the world.

·        Your dog’s sense of smell is 1,000 to 10 Million times better than yours. Depending on the breed, your dog has between 125 million to 300 million scent glands compared to only 5 million for humans. The part of your dog’s brain that controls smell is 40 times larger than yours. That’s true even though the canine brain is much smaller than the human relative to size. A human’s brain is about 1/40th of their body weight while a dog’s brain is only 1/125th.

 “When the world around me is going crazy, [and] I’m losing faith in humanity. I just have to take one look at my dog to know that good still exists.”  (Anonymous)[i]

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[i] Sources used:

·         “10 Facts You May Not Know About Dogs” by Cesar Milan

·        “10 Fun Facts about Dogs You Didn't Know” By Josie F. Turner

·         “Convert 72 Kilometers per Hour to Miles per Hour” by calculateme

·        “Dogs get jealous and 19 other facts you probably never knew about man's best friend” by Warren Manger

 

 

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