Dogs wear sweaters with zippers
Some dogs love to wear sweaters, and some dogs hate them. But one thing all dogs have in common is that they look adorable in sweaters with zippers!
Dogs hating mailmen is nothing personal
Dogs are animals who protect their home. They don’t like it when people come to their homes and put things in the box. Mail carriers come back many times so dogs get mad at them.
The best way to keep your dog from getting mad at mail carriers is to be kind to them. You can tell the mail carrier your dog’s name, too, so they will know what he wants before he gets mad.
Male dogs lift their legs when they pee as a sign of dominance
Dogs raise their legs high to let people know they are around and it is a way for dogs to talk to one another. It can also tell if the dog is sexually active. Some aggressive dogs will do this too.
Male dogs lift their legs more than female dogs. It is usually a sign of dominance and will spray urine all over the place as a warning.
Dogs have 18 muscles to move their ears
Dogs have 18 muscles to move their ears, whereas humans only have six. The dog’s ear also has cartilage that helps with movement and an inner ear that gives it greater flexibility. So next time you’re out in the park, take note of how dogs can move their ears better than their owners :)
Smaller dogs live longer
Smaller dogs usually live longer than larger dogs, on average. A study published in the Journal of Veterinary Medical Science looked at veterinary records for more than 50,000 dogs and found that on average, larger breeds such as Old English Sheepdog and Great Dane typically lived for fewer than eight years.
Smaller dogs such as Chihuahuas and Dachshunds typically lived about 11 years.
Medium-sized dogs, like golden retrievers and basset hounds, averaged 10 years.
In one of the latest studies, big dogs averaged a median age of 12.36, while medium-sized dogs had a median age of 14.96.
For further reading, a dog web magazine Praise The Dogs at praisethedogs.com has an interesting article about how dog years actually compare to human years.
Dogs feel envy
Apparently, the dogs are jealous. It has been proven by a series of experiments.
A study has identified that, contrary to previous belief, canines do experience jealousy and they do not like it if you give your attention to another dog – just like humans do. Previously, many dog owners believed that dogs could feel empathy but did not think they were capable of feeling envy.
Tail wagging has its own language
Tail wagging is a remarkably complex gesture. Dogs don’t only swing their tails back and forth, but also up and down, making big circles or other figures of eight, and they may hold the tail rigidly at right angles to the dog’s body or even horizontally as if standing between two lamp posts.
Dog owners know too well how tail wagging can convey a broad range of messages.
- A tail held high and waving slowly from side to side signals a happy and relaxed dog.
- A tail tucked between the legs is an obvious sign of fear, while a tail held high but thumping the floor only occasionally is a sign of arousal and excitement
- A tail held high and wagging rapidly is a threat, while a tail that’s only just moving back and forth signals anxiety.
Dogs dream like people do
The Daily Mail reports that dog sleep closely resembles human sleep patterns. In the first study of its kind, researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital observed brain activity in sleeping dogs and found that dog breeds have similar stages of sleep to humans.
The Daily Mail reveals their findings indicate dog dreams are similar to those experienced by people. For the study, researchers monitored brain activity in sleeping dogs and tracked their movements as they slept.
The goal of these tests was to find out more about the sleep patterns of dog breeds and what happens during those periods.
Dogs don’t feel guilt
Dogs don’t feel guilt as we know it, as they lack the human brain structure that makes us feel bad about our own behavior. Instead, adult dogs sense their owners’ dissatisfaction and will offer appeasement behavior, such as licking or giving a look of “sad eyes.”
That’s the latest claim from researchers in Hungary and Holland who studied dogs and wolves.
Their results suggest that dogs evolved from wolves as scavengers, who began hanging around human settlements and eating the family refuse. Over time, they became more and more dependent on humans, eventually leading to the family dog.
Their ears are pretty impressive
Everything from ear position to muscles helps them hear many sounds that are impossible to hear for humans. It is also commonly explained by the fact that dogs tilt their heads when they hear sounding sounds.
Dogs have a very high-frequency response range of 45-67 kHz depending on the size of their ear canal opening which is roughly twice as large as ours. In comparison, the average human being detects sounds from 20 to 20,000 Hz which is the average hearing range for people.
Dogs pooping has a pattern
They have unique behavior patterns that sometimes seem to confuse researchers. One particular dog behavior is pooping in a circle or in a pattern before the dog has finished its business. This is not an uncommon dog behavior, but it’s widely believed that this is due to magnetic fields.
Dogs prefer to poop facing east or west so they can spin around the inside of their compasses in the correct direction.
How does this benefit the dog? Some researchers think that it doesn’t, but most people believe that this allows them to get one more chance to check out their surroundings before going into overdrive with other activities such as biting…
It’s not abnormal for dogs to eat feces
Dogs eating feces is a behavior that is more common on puppies, but some more mature dogs will eventually become adults and still exhibit this behavior. Although it may seem gross to us, it looks like that is totally normal for dogs to eat feces.
There are many dog breeds that are more prone to this behavior, as well as other dogs will copy this demeanour from their peers. The research tells us that this is a natural thing for dogs to do and there is no need to be alarmed.
Whiskers help dogs see in the dark
Dogs sense of smell is known to be highly developed. And it turns out that their sense of hearing and ability to sense vibrations in the air may be just as acute, if not more so.
An interesting fact about dog whiskers is that they are not just for sensing movement. Now researchers have found evidence that dogs also use their whiskers to sense visible light, making them basically ‘superheroes’.
A dog’s nose is its fingerprint
No two dogs noses are the same! The nose on the dog has the same characteristics as the fingers and each has its own ridges and creases.
Just as you would only need to glance at a co-worker’s fingerprint to know it was them, canines use their noses for identification. The cool part? Dog noses are so unique, they can’t be stolen!
When dogs meet face-to-face, it’s their sense of smell that gets them acquainted. They also rely on this in order to identify owners or other pets in a pack. It’s not just how your dog smells you, but how it smells others and at what time that helps them identify each other.
While humans need to rely on passwords and pins, your canine simply needs a quick sniff of its nose to stop any nosey intruders.
In fact, dogs have been known to solve crimes by using their cool noses to help crack a case. You read that right: a cool dog helped with the case by sniffing out evidence!
Dogs can smell your feelings
A study, carried out at the University of Budapest, found that dogs could be trained to detect changes in people’s emotions by scent alone.
The ability is similar to that used by sniffer dogs employed by police and customs officers to detect illicit drugs or other prohibited items.
Psychologists believe that canines use their sense of smell to detect chemicals released by people’s bodies when they are emotionally aroused. The findings offer an explanation for why dogs have traditionally been used, often successfully, to provide therapy for people with certain psychological conditions.
The results give weight to the idea that dogs are remarkably good at picking up on our feelings or at least learning to associate certain emotional states with specific scents.
“Dogs can discriminate the smell of fear or happiness in humans,” – Márta Gácsi, a senior author of the study and an animal behaviour expert at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest.
Dogs have a sixth sense
If you’re a dog owner, chances are your pooch has alerted you to something brewing long before the skies darkened and the wind picked up.
A survey showed 67 percent reported pet behaviors as strange before storms and 43 percent reported pets behaved oddly right before the storms happened.
There’s this idea out there that animals can predict earthquakes, and for the most part, it seems like dogs are the animal that people think of first in this regard. A lot of people believe that their dogs act strangely before an earthquake actually happens, and sometimes they’re right!
Dogs are aggressive when walked by a man
Dogs are more likely to be aggressive when walked by a man, new research suggests.
Researchers at Queen’s University Belfast studied the walking habits of hundreds of dog owners over two years. They found that men were almost twice as likely to be bitten or attacked by dogs whose gender was not known.
Liz Hughes, a research student at Queen’s University, said: “When we analysed our results it was clear that the sex of the dog and the sex of the owner unwittingly play a major role in determining whether or not an individual gets bitten.”
Dogs are as smart as a two-year-old baby
A study in the United Kingdom found that dogs are as smart as a two-year-old baby because they can learn lots of things. They can learn different languages and tricks to get treats from people.
A group of dog owners also said their pets could do “clever ” tricks such as rolling over, sitting up and playing dead.
In a survey conducted by the American Kennel Club, out of more than 1.000 dog owners in the US said that their dog knew about 165 words or actions when asked if their dog understood what they were saying to them.
Dogs sweat only on their paws
They do not sweat throughout their entire body, unlike humans. The small amount of sweat they create on their paw pads is not enough to cool them down.
Instead, dogs rely on panting to release heat from their body. Panting works because warm air from the lungs is passed over the moist tissues of the tongue and mouth.
Dogs mark their territory with glands on their paws
Dogs mark their territory by leaving their scent behind. They have glands on their paws that release a smell when they walk.
This lets other dogs know that this territory is taken and to stay away. And if this doesn’t work, they will start marking their territory by urinating around the area.
Your dog’s feet might smell like corn
Dogs sweat from their paw pads, and the sweat can accumulate with bacteria on a dog’s thigh, trapping the smell of corn under a dog’s foot.
Experts say that dogs’ feet – or any foot for that matter – shouldn’t have a noticeable odor at all. The most likely culprit in this situation is yeast or bacteria, which cause an unpleasant aroma when they thrive in warm wet places such as dog paws and armpits.
Small dogs can hear sounds in higher ranges than big dogs
Smaller dog breeds typically have a higher range of frequencies that they can hear than larger dog breeds. This is because the smaller dog’s head is typically proportionate to their body, while the larger dog’s head is often much larger in comparison.
This allows the smaller dog breed to detect sounds that are farther away and with more precision than the larger dogs.
Storms can actually hurt dogs
Dog lovers are all too aware of the heart-wrenching howls that pets emit when a storm is raging overhead. Despite their concern for our four-legged friends, pet owners might not realize that such noise and activity actually inflicts pain on dogs.
“The sound waves from storms can actually damage structures in dogs’ ears,” says Dr Jeff Werber, a veterinarian with the Los Angeles–based L.A. Pet Hospital Group. “When we see pets during storms and there’s no external ear irritation, we want to make sure they don’t have an underlying ear disease.”
Dogs can be left or right-pawed
This is determined by your pup’s dominant paw. Dominant paws are described as the ones that dogs prefer to use for activities such as eating, retrieving, and pawing.
Paw preference is observed from a very young age because studies have shown that puppies indicate a preference before their first birthday.
Dogs come in 2 categories, dominant left or dominant right. Just like with humans, it is uncommon for a dog to have both paws dominant.
It is also not common for the dog to be ambilateral, which means they do not prefer either side.
Dogs aren’t actually colorblind
While dogs and humans both have cells in their eyes that help them see, the cells in dog-eyes are organized differently than in human eyes, making it difficult for dogs to see color.
Dogs can see contrasts in color, but not necessarily colors themselves. They are best at seeing shades of blue and yellow, although they can’t distinguish between red and green.
This occurs because dogs have cells in their eyes called rods and cones, as do humans. Rods and cones tell the eyes how to adjust when light is either bright or dim.
Research shows that dogs aren’t actually colorblind.
The “smell” center of a dog’s brain is 40 times larger than yours
Your dog can sniff out more than your favored brand of toilet paper. In a new study, researchers found that a dog’s brain contains a smell center that is 40 times larger than ours, which may explain why your pet can smell things that are undetectable by humans.
The average dog has about 220 million olfactory receptors in its nose. This is significantly more than the 5 to 20 million found in humans.
This, along with a cool feature known as Jacobson’s Organs (found above your dog’s upper jaw and behind the teeth), makes the average canine capable of “smelling” around one quadrillion different scents! A human can only smell about 10,000 different scents.
“Dog breath” is actually unhealthy
New research suggests that dogs’ bad breath is actually a sign of serious disease (90% of bad breath in dogs is due to periodontal disease).
Dental tartar and gingivitis usually accompany bad breath. Cleaning your dog’s teeth can prevent or lessen the chances of developing serious health problems.
However, dogs are actually very clean. They clean themselves just like cats do, but they have one major difference that often leads to problems with bad breath. While cats tend to avoid eating near where they bathe, dogs will eat as close as two feet from their water bowl.
Puppies are born blind and deaf
Newborn puppies are deaf and have blurry vision that is likely limited to distinguishing between light and dark but their senses develop over time.
It takes approximately two weeks for the eyes to open, while the ears take about two months.
Dogs can fall in love with you
That’s right, your pet feels absolutely no different than anyone else. They can fall in love with you just as much as another human.
In a study conducted by Azabu University in 2015, dogs’ emotions were monitored when they looked into the eyes of their owners. The study showed that due to tense stares, their levels of oxytocin increased.
Dogs don’t like hugs
According to an animal psychologist, dogs don’t like hugs because hugging can make them irritable. It may seem cute, but dogs can become stressed out by hugs.
It’s important to always be aware of the signs a dog tells you that they don’t like it.
If a dog’s ears are pointing back and its mouth is closed, it could be feeling stressed or anxious. It may also be licking its lips, looking away or closing its eyes to avoid eye contact.
Dogs can live 30 years or more if they’re taken care
In Australia, Maggie was a healthy dog for the vast majority of her life. She spent her days on a dairy farm and was able to live until she was 30 years old.
This is an incredibly long lifespan for a dog, and it’s thanks to the care that she received from her owners.
Funny Fujimura is the world’s oldest living dog, and she’s a miniature dachshund. Funny was born in Sakai, Japan on May 27th, 1999, and she’s currently 22+ years old. The Guinness World Record title was given to Funny when their age was verified in November of 2020.
Dogs only mate twice a year
Dogs only mate twice a year, contrary to the opinion that they do it all year round.
According to veterinarian João Varela, of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Lisbon (ULisboa), it is not healthy for the animal to do so, since females only ovulate twice a year. He also noted that there are two periods when the animal wants to mate, in spring and autumn.
Owners must prevent their pets from mating during the other seasons.
There are over 400 breeds of dogs
There are over 400 breeds of dogs with a total of 8.5 million dogs registered with the World Canine Organization. 250 breeds are recognized by the American Kennel Club, including 7 out of 10 of the most popular dog breeds.
There are several types of dogs that are not recognized by the American Kennel Club, including the Poodle, Bulldog, Schnauzer, and Boxer. These breeds are all recognized by the World Canine Organization.
There are also over 800 crossbreeds recognized by the American Kennel Club.
