30 Stunning Dog Facts You Need To Know
Dogs are popular pets because they are generally playful, friendly, loyal, and listen to humans, they have been raised by humans for a long time and were the first animals ever to be domesticated. Dogs are called man’s best friends because they are loyal and like being around humans. Dogs usually have a job such as police dogs, army dogs, messenger dogs, hunting dogs, rescue dogs, or assistance dogs. Dogs improve our lives in many ways, but how much do we really know about our furry friends?
Here are the 30 stunning facts about the dogs that we need to know:
1. Dogs are smart as two-year-old
Dogs can understand more than 150 words, can read our cues, show emotional connection towards their owner, and also display jealousy. Dogs not only pay attention to our tone but also to the words of our speech, they even trick people and other dogs to get treats. The intelligence of pooch differs based on their breed.
2. Puppies are born blind and deaf
Puppies cannot see or hear until they are two weeks old. They rely on their sense of smell to find their mom. Their responses to objects and sounds when they are 2-2.5 weeks are particularly just reacting to the newness and strangeness.
3. Dogs have a sixth sense
Dogs have the ability to detect the approaching disaster before. If your dog is standing in a corner and barking at nothing visible could be that it is sensing something out of the ordinary. Most of the pet owners reported that their pets acted strangely before a storm by whining, hiding in a safe, and showing erratic behaviour.
4. Dogs feet smell like corn
Pet owners are awed about the smell emitting from their dog’s skin, this is because of the sweat and the bacteria build up in the paws. You might have noticed the faint scent of corn lingering around their paw, smell that is emitting from dogs feet is called Frito feet.
5. Dogs have sweat glands in their paws
Dogs do sweat but differently than humans, as they have two sweat glands that are quite similar to the human sweat gland. The presence of the Merocrine gland in dogs paw pads helps pooch to cool down.
6. Dogs get jealous
You might have noticed your pooch acting jealous when you give attention to other dogs, this is because they want their share of attention that you provide. The jealousy dogs experience is not exactly the same as how we experience, research shows that it is similar to how infants get jealous.
7. Dogs heat up more quickly than humans
Dogs are hotter than humans, as their normal core body temperature ranges from 100 to 102.5 degrees Fahrenheit. It is very important to take care of dogs on a hot day because the hotter temperature can affect them more. A day that may not seem overwhelmingly hot to you can be critiqued for your pooch.
8. Dogs have three eyelids
Dogs have an extra eyelid in each eye at the inside corner of their eyes which is called nictitans or nictitating membrane. The third eyelid sweeps across the surface of the eye, it also has a tear gland attached at its base. It provides protection and distributes the tear film.
9. The smell centre of a dogs brain is 40 times larger than humans
Dogs possess 300 million olfactory receptors in their nose, the part of a dogs brain that is devoted to analysing smells is 40 times greater than ours. Hence, dogs can smell thousands of times better than humans, the presence of neophilia makes them attracted to new and interesting odours.
10. Dogs' sense of taste is less developed
Dogs sense of taste is about one-sixth as powerful as ours, as we humans have 9000 roughly taste buds while dogs have only 1700. Dogs are more sensitive towards salty and sugary food, even dogs can identify sweet, sour, salty and bitter like we humans.
11. Dogs dream like people
When it comes to sleeping patterns and brain activity dogs are similar to us, they may move their legs as if they are running, whine or whimper as if excited, may breathe rapidly or hold breath for shorter periods. Nobody knows what exactly dogs dream about. We can guess that they dream similarly to humans.
12. Tail wagging has its own language
According to the research, dogs wag their tail left when they are frightened and to the right when they are happy. Dogs will wag their tail to express their range of emotions like happiness, nervousness, anxiety, excitement etc. A fast-paced wag indicates that your pooch is happy or excited.
13. Dogs don’t like rain
Dogs being domesticated for years don’t like their little paws getting wet and also amplified sound of rain can hurt their sensitive ears. Most of the canines have a phobia of thunderstorms.
14. Dogs are able to smell weak fingerprints
Dogs can smell 100000 times better than humans, people have taken this as an advantage and trained dogs to detect certain odours. Dogs have the ability to smell human fingerprints that are a week old.
15. Dogs can locate sound in 6/100ths of a second
Dogs can hear all sorts of things that humans cannot hear, as they can hear 40 to 20000 Hz while humans can hear 20 to 20000 Hz. Dogs have an amazing ability to listen to high-pitched sounds which humans cannot pick up.
16. Dogs have a sense of time
Dogs have a sense of time as they can forecast their daily activities such as walks and meals as long as they appear at the same time each day. Like humans, they don’t have the ability to build actual measures because they don’t understand the concept of time.
17. Dogs can be trained to detect disease in humans
Dogs are known for detecting various ailments in humans, from cancer to diabetes. Dogs have an ability to smell organic compounds in the human body that shows it isn’t working perfectly.
18. When dogs howl they adjust their pitch according to how other dogs howl so that their howl can appear uniquely. Howling is the sign that they can hear the sound and express their desire to join in the action.
19. Sticking your handout isn’t the best way to introduce yourself, because not all dogs want to be touched by people. Hence, by keeping your hand to yourself you can respect them and not force them into situations that they are not comfortable with.
20. Obesity is the number one health problem
Obesity becomes more common among dogs in their old age due to the imbalance in energy intake and usage. During old age dogs' ability to exercise will decrease due to arthritis and other issues.
21. Chocolate can be fatal
Chocolates are toxic for dogs as it can result in serious illness because it contains theobromine chemical and caffeine which is very difficult for dogs to metabolize.
22. Dogs sleep curled up
Dogs curl up while sleeping to protect their vital organs and keep themselves warm. By curling up tightly and tucking their nose under their tail will maintain body heat.
23. Dogs can learn 1000 words
Dogs have an amazing ability with regard to vocabulary as they can learn over 1000 words. The world’s smartest dog knows more than 1000 words, average dogs can learn at least 165 words including signals.
24. Dogs enjoy rolling around dirt
Rolling in the mud can mask their scent and allow them to sneak up on prey more skilfully. For many dogs’ muds is like a toy or a game.
25. Dogs have 42 teeth
Adult dogs have 42 teeth in their mouth 20in their upper jaw and 22 in the lower. Out of 42 six are incisors, two canines at the front and a lot of molars and premolars at back.
26. Dogs take their food or treats to another room, as they think you are alpha to the pack hence they always prefer to eat in private where you are not able to steal their treat from them.
27. Dogs have more than twelve independent muscles in their body which will control the movement of their ears.
28. Dog's nose print is unique
No two dogs will have a similar nose pattern, just like human fingerprint even dogs noses have unique patterns of ridges and creases.
29. Human blood pressure goes down by petting a dog
Spending time with your furry friend will lower the stress hormone and can reduce the blood pressure by 10%. Petting a dog is effective in releasing a relaxation hormone.
30. Dogs are not colour-blind
It was widely believed that dogs are colour blind, but it is not true, Dogs can see a colour spectrum similar to humans with red-green colour-blindness. Dogs have two colour receptors while most humans have three.