You’ve owned several canine companions and shared your life with different breeds – so you think you know everything about these lovely furry balls. But wait! Don’t rush into conclusions just yet. Here are 10 surprising doggy facts you may have never heard before.
1. Dogs are as smart as 2–year olds. Ever wonder how your dog gets along so well with your little one? Simple. They share an understanding of the same number of words – 250!
2. Dogs slurp water as cats do. Don’t believe it? Messy drinkers, as our canine friends appear to be, drink by bending the tip of their tongues and raising liquid in columns up to their mouths, just as how a feline will do.
3. Dogs have a sense of time – and they know if you’ve been gone too long! Are you puzzled about how your dog appears to know when it’s time for a walk or play? That’s because they pick up our routines and habits. Not only that, they also sense how much time has passed, so if you’ve been gone too long, you better have some treats for them when you get home.
4. Dog’s whiskers help them “see’ better at night. Nope. It’s not some superpower. Their whiskers are able to pick up even the most delicate change and movement in their surroundings. This helps them figure out the size, shape, and speed of anything nearby, giving them a higher chance of dodging approaching danger.
5. Dog sweat glands can only be found in their paws. Unlike humans, dogs do not sweat as much. The only way that their body gets rid of excess heat is through the sweat glands found in between their paw pads.
6. A dog’s mouth can exert 320 pounds of pressure. In a study conducted, German shepherds, American Pitbull Terriers, and Rottweilers can employ an average pressure of 320 pounds from their mouth versus human beings only at 120 pounds. In addition, dogs also have 42 adult teeth, while humans have 32.
7. A one–year old pup is a 15–year old human in physical maturity. If your puppy has just turned one, you can compare his physical ability and strength to that of a 15–year–old human. But of course, this is if you have a medium-sized dog. The Dog Age Calculator will provide you with a more accurate comparison depending on your dog’s size.
8. A dog’s sense of smell is 1,000 to 10 million times better than human’s. Dogs have 125 million to 300 million scent glands! No wonder they have a more powerful sense of smell than people do. More so, the part of the brain that controls smell is 40 times larger.
9. Dogs can hear 4 times farther than humans. Some puppies are born deaf, but they can outstrip our hearing abilities swiftly. They can hear higher-pitched sounds at a frequency range from 67 to 45,000 hertz, while the human range is only 64 to 23,000 hertz.
10. Dogs can smell human emotions. Whether you’re sad or stressed, your dog knows. Human scent and perspiration change as emotions do. It‘s also the same way how our canine friends detect when we are ill or when someone in the family is pregnant.
Now we ask, do you already know everything about your furry friend? Think again!