Fun Facts About Dogs

~  Dogs were the first animals to be domesticated by humans...about 10,000 years ago.

~  The first animal to go to space was a dog named Laika. It was 1957 via an earth satellite.

~  Dogs curl up with their tail covering their nose to keep warm.

~  The breed Basenji is often referred to as African Barkless because they yodel instead of bark.

~  Dogs have three eyelids The third eye lid (nictitating membrrane or "haw") protects the eye and keeps it lubricated.

~  Dogs with sharp or pointed faces generally live longer than dogs with flat faces.

~  The United States is the country with the highest population of dogs and France is second.

~  In general, the life span of city dogs is three years more than the lifespan of country dogs.

~  One major problems dogs face is obesity.

~  A dog's heart beats between 70 and 120 times a minute, compared with a human heart which beats 70 to 80 times a minute.

~  According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the smallest dog on record was a Yorkshire Terrier in Great britain who, age the age of 2 years, weighed just 4 ounces.

~  According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the oldest dog lived to be 29 years 5 months of age and was an Australian Cattle Dog named Bluey.

~  It is a myth that dogs are color blind. They actually see color, just not as vividly as humans.

~  The only sweat glands a dog has are between the paw pads.

~  Dogs' sense of hearing is more than ten times more acute than a human's.

~  The world's smartest dogs are thought to be the Border Collie, Poodle, and Golden Retriever.

~  More  than 1 in 3 American families own a dog.

~  The ten most popular dogs, according to the American Kennel Club, are in order: Labrador Retriever, Yorkshire Terrier, German Shepherd, Golden Retriever, Beagle, Boxer, Dachshund, Poodle, Shih Tzu, and Bulldog.

~  Dogs were the first animal domesticated by people.

~  A Greyhound can run as fast as 45 miles an hour.

~  Small dogs live the longest. Toy breeds can live up to 16 years or more. Larger dogs average 7 to 12 years.  However, some breeds, such as Tibetan Terrier live as long as twenty years.

~  Eighty percent of dog owners buy their dog a present for holidays and birthdays. More than half of them sign letters and cards from themselves and their pets.

~  The dog name "Fido" is from Latin and means fidelity.

~  Dogs are mentioned 14 times in the Bible.

~  It has been established that people who own pets live longer, have less stress, and have fewer heart attacks.

~  A dog's whiskers are touch-sensitive hairs called vibrissae. They are found on the muzzle, above the eyes and below the jaws, and can actually sense tiny changes in air flow.

~  Dogs can smell about 1,000 times better than humans.  While humans have 5 million smell-detecting cells, dogs have more than 220 million.  The part of the brain that interprets     smell is also four times larger in dogs than in humans.

~  In 2003, Dr. Roger Mugford invented the "wagometer," a device that claims to interpret a  dog's exact mood by measuring the wag of its tail.

~  A dog's shoulder blades  are unattached to the rest of the skeleton to allow greater flexibility for running.

~ The most dogs ever owned by one person were 5,000 Mastiffs owned by Kubla Khan.

~  Pekingese and Japanese Chins were so important in the ancient Far East that they had their own servants and were carried around trade routes as gifts for kings and emperors. Pekingese were even worshipped in the temples of China for centuries.

~  During the Middle Ages, Great Danes and Mastiffs were sometimes suited with armor and spiked collars to enter battle or to defend supply caravans.

~  The most popular male dog names are Max and Jake. The most popular female dog names are Maggie and Molly.

~  The Mayans and Aztecs symbolized every tenth day with the dog, and those born under this sign were believed to have outstanding leadership skills.

~  The name of the dog on the Cracker Jacks box is Bingo.

~  The name of the Taco bell Chihuahua is a rescued dog named Gidget.

~  Plato once said that "a dog has the soul of a philosopher."

~  In Iran, it against the law to own a dog as a pet. However, if an owner can prove the dog is a guard or hunting dog, this restriction doesn't apply.

~  Dachshunds were bred to fight badgers in their dens.

~  Dalmatians are completely white at birth.

~  French poodles did not originate in France but in Germany.

~  Alexander the Great is said to have founded and named a city Peritas, in memory of his dog.

~  The term "dog days of summer" was coined by the ancient Greeks and Romans to describe the hottest days of summer that coincided with the rising of the Dog Star, Sirus.

~  The earliest European images of dogs are found in cave paintings dating back 12,000 years ago in Spain.

~  It costs approximately $10,000 to train a federally certified search and rescue dog.

~  Hollywood's first canine superstar was Rin Tin Tin.  He signed his own contracts with his paw print.

~  Eighteen muscles or more can move a dog's ear.

~  Touch is the first sense a dog develops.

~  The oldest known dog bones were found in Asia and date as far back as 10,000 B.C.  

~  The first identifiable dog breed appeared about 9,000 B.C. and was probably a type of Greyhound dog used for hunting.

~  There are an estimated 400 million dogs in the world.

~  Dog nose prints are as unique as human finger prints and can be used to identify them.

~  Dogs in a pack are more likely to chase and hunt than a single dog on its own. Two dogs are enough to form a pack.

~  Petting dogs is proven to lower the blood pressure of dog owners.

~  Dogs have lived with humans for over 14,000 years.

~  Zorba, an English Mastiff, is the biggest dog ever recorded.  He weighed 343 pounds and measured 8'3" from his nose to his tail.

~  The average dog can run about 19 miles per hour. Greyhounds are the fastest dog on Earth and can run at speeds as high as 45 MPH.

~  Dogs have a wet nose to collect more of the tiny droplets of smelling chemicals in the air.

~  Dogs like sweets a lot more than cats do.  While cats have 473 taste buds, dogs have about 1,700 taste buds. Humans have approximately 9,000.

~  Different smells in a dog's urine can tell other dogs whether the dog leaving a message is female or male, old or young, sick or healthy, happy or angry.

Sources:  www.gomesite.com/pets/50-fun-facts-about-dogs/

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