Dogs are most common and popular pets among all Animals and the reason for the same are many, most common being the connection that a dog establishes with its Handler and family members.
Let us go through some of the most fascinating facts about Dogs:
There are MAX-imum chances of anyone naming the Dog as Max:
- Max is the most popular Name in the world for Dogs.
Habits we believe indicate a state of mind are not always fully true:
- It is a popular belief that Dog wags the tail when they are Happy. Reality is a Dog can also wag the tail as a sign of fear, insecurity and aggression depending on the situation.
- United States of America is the country with largest population of Pet Dogs. There are approximately 76 million (7.6 crores) Pet Dogs in USA of the total 600 million (60 crores) Dogs in the World.
- Total Dog Population of the World is 600 million whereas 400 million are stray Dogs that manage to live on its own.
- Dog’s smelling sense is very famous and that is why they are used as sniffer Dogs. It can smell 1, 00,000 times better than a human being. Yeah, you read it right, its 1 lac or 100 thousand times better than a human being.
Dogs have 200 million smell receptors which is too many compared to 5 million that we humans have.
Such is power of smelling and finding out the suspicious item from a hidden place that the Mexican Drug Gangs had put a bounty of $300,000 that is Rs.2, 20, 57,350 was put on the heads of sniffer Dogs of the United States of America’s Custom Department Dogs named Rocky and Barco. Imagine the smelling power of these 2 Dogs that the entire Drug Cartel was feeling the loss incurred and estimated the loss they will keep incurring because these 2 smart Canines were catching the illegal Drugs left, right and center.
- This seems unbelievable yet it is true that a Grey Hound can beat a Cheetah in any long distance race. It can run upto 7 miles or 11.26 Kms at 35 miles per hour speed. Cheetah tends to slow down after couple of yards of running whereas the Grey Hound can run at high speed for long distances. So never mess with a Grey Hound.
- You are wrong if you think you almost all the breeds of Dog on Earth. There are 360 Breeds of Dogs in the world and this is as per the World Canine Organisation. The number can go higher upto 450 if one includes the cross breeds or experimental mixed breeds like a Golden Doodle-a cross between a poodle and a golden retriever. These 360 are what is known as the Purebreds.
- Dogs not only have very high smelling power, it also has very sensitive ears. Dogs can hear upto 45 kilohertz whereas human cannot. A human can only hear upto 20 kilohertz.
The very famous singer of ‘The Beatles’ band ‘Paul McCartney’ even added a frequency in the song ‘A Day in the Life’ that only Dogs would hear. Next time try playing the song in front of your Dog, may be you will see some reaction.
Dogs use the ears like Radars to find the origin of the sound.
- You read the fact about Grey Hound, now it’s Bloodhound. The sense of smell of a Bloodhound is so strong and precise that it is can trail up to 230 miles, i.e. 370 Kilo metres.
Such is the precision of Bloodhound’s smell that is it even admissible in the court of law in many courts of United States of America.
Millions of Dollars have gone and going in the research to find out how the Dogs have such powerful sense of smell. The most high tech smell sensors that can detect IEDs or Bombs in simple words can detect only 50% whereas the Dogs can detect more than 80% of IEDs.
- The dog that holds the Guinness World Record for being the Tallest Dog ever is Zeus- Great Dane. Great Dane are anyways the tallest of all Dog Breeds.
- The African Hunting Dog holds the World Record for being the most successful land hunters with success rate of 50-70%. These are also called Cape Hunting Dogs or popularly known as Hyena. They are known as the best Predators that attack in groups making a perfect strategy ensuring the Prey doesn’t get any corner to run away.
- Petting is also considered an activity that helps a human being calm down and especially in case of petting a Dog or Dogs. We release the love hormone-Oxytocin if look into the eyes of the Dogs we Pet and this is true for both Dog and the Human who Pets it.
- There is a breed of Dog that doesn’t Bark. Its called Basenji. Basenji is also popularly known as the ‘Barkless Dog’. It makes a Yodel like sound instead of Barking. The Dog belongs to Central Africa and it is a Hunting Dog.
- Chihuahua is the smallest Dog breed in the World with 15cms to 23 cms height. Some of it can go up to 38cms. However, Chihuahua is known to live the longest with life span from 14 to 20 years and is one of the expensive breeds to own. Known to be owned by the super rich in the world.
- Saint Bernard is one of the biggest yet very beautiful cute looking Dog Breed. It’s from the Alps in Italy & Switzerland & is known for its Tales of rescues in the Alpine. This breed an survive and flourish only in the Cold Climate.
Barry-the St.Bernand Dog is known to have rescued and saved 40 people from the Apls in the early 1800.
- Dog can mate and produce the number of Puppies that is simply unbelievable. This is precisely the reasons Dogs are spayed. A Dog & its mate including the offspring can produce 67,000 Dogs in 6 years.
- Unlike the human baby, a puppy is Blind & Deaf when takes birth. It takes 8 weeks for the Puppy to develop full vision and hearing.
- It is a popular belief that 1 year of Dog is equivalent to 15 human years. The fact is however a bit different. The ‘first year’ of a Dog is equal to 15 human years, year ‘two’ of Dog is equal to 9 human years and after that each year of Dog is equal to 5 human years.
So if your Dog survives for 14 years then the Dog actually lived 84 human years. Do the Math. And this means if any Chihuahua manages to live for full 20 years then it actually lived for 114 human years.
- Dogs can see all Colours. They are not Colour blind.
- There is a breed of Dog that had 6 toes.
Body parts evolve over a period of many years depending on the Geography one is surviving in. It is true for the Lundehund breed of Dogs. It is the only Dog in the World that has 6 toes on each foot, 4 of which are pointing outside and 2 are pointing inside which creates a great grip especially for the rough terrain of Norway-the home land of Lundehund
