Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Some Dog Facts

-Female dog bites are twice as numerous as male bites.
-The name of the dog on the Cracker Jack box is Bingo.
-The Beatles song Martha My Dear was written by Paul McCartney about his sheepdog Martha."
-The canine nose works one million times more efficiently than the human nose.
-The average dog has 42 permanent teeth.



  • Rin Tin Tin was the first American dog movie star and signed his own contracts for 22 movies with a pawprint.
  • Toto’s role in The Wizard of Oz was played by a female Cairn Terrier named Terry.
  • In the late 1800’s, Lassie type Collies were known as Scottish Sheepdogs.
  • Former US President Teddy Roosevelt’s pit bull Pete, once ripped off a French Ambassador’s trousers at a White House event.
  • Zorba, an English Mastiff is the heaviest dog on record, weighing 155kgs at the age of 8 in 1989.
  • According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the smallest dog on record was a Yorkshire Terrier in Great Britain, who weighed just 4 ounces.
  • The longest lived dog, according to the Guinnes Book of World Records, was an Australian Cattle Dog named Bluey, who lived to be 29.
  • The first living being to travel in space was a small mixed breed dog named Laika. She was sent into space in an artificial earth satellite in 1957 by the Russian government.
  • John F Kennedy’s terrier, Charlie sired 4 puppies with Liaka’s daughter Pushinka.
  • Dalmatian puppies are pure white at birth.
  • Dogs do not have an appendix.
  • An adult dog has 42 teeth.
  • The only sweat glands a dog has are between the paw pads. The only way they can discharge heat is by panting.
  • If a dog isn’t spayed or neutered, a female dog, her mate and their offspring can product 67,000 dogs in 6 years.
  • The most successful mountain rescue dog ever was a St Bernard named Barry, who lived during the early 1800’s and saved 40 lives.
  • Dogs have about 100 different facial expressions, most of them made with the ears. Unfortunately the likes of bulldogs only have 10 due to their breeding.
  • One of the world’s oldest breeds of dog is the Saluki. It is thought to have been developed in Ancient Mesopotamia around 3000 B.C.
  • A dog’s sense of smell is one of the keenest in nature. If a pot of stew was cooking on a cooker a human would smell the stew, while the dog could smell the beef, carrots and all the other ingredients in the stew.
  • It was recently discovered that dogs do see in colour, just not as vivid as the colour that humans see.
  • Two dogs survived the sinking of the Titanic. They escaped on early lifeboats carrying so few people that no one objected. Miss Margaret Hays of New York brought her Pomeranian with her in lifeboat no. 7, while Henry Sleeper Harper of the publishing family boarded lifeboat no. 3 with his Pekinese, Sun Yat Sen.
  • Giving dogs chocolate could be fatal for them because theobromine, an ingredient of chocolate stimulates the central nervous system and cardiac muscle.
  • In the original 101 Dalmations movie, Pongo has 72 spots and Perdita has 68 while the puppies had 32 each.
  • The largest dogs among all breeds, at least in terms of height, is the Irish Wolfhound.
  • Nearly all but two breeds of dogs have pink tongues. The two exceptions? The Chow Chow and the Shar-pei, both with black tongues.
  • The Poodle haircut was originally meant to improve the dog's swimming abilities as a retriever, with the pom-poms left in place to warm their joints.
  • Cats can see a lot better than dogs. In fact, dogs first distinguish objects by movement, then brightness, and finally by shape.
  • Among dogs officially registered with kennel clubs in the U.S., Labrador Retrievers are the most popular breed followed by Rottweilers and German Shepherds.
  • All dogs, regardless of breed, are direct descendants of wolves and technically of the same species.
  • A dog's whiskers -- found on the muzzle, above the eyes and below the jaws -- are technically known as vibrissae. They are touch-sensitive hairs than actually sense minute changes in airflow.
  • Dogs are capable of locating the source of a sound in 6/100ths of a second by using their swiveling ears like radar dishes.
  • Dogs have a sense of smell that is one of the keenest in nature. Humans might smell a pot of stew cooking on the stove, but a dog can distinguish the smells of each individual ingredient, from the beef itself to the potatoes.
  • The ancient Chinese royalty loved the Pekingese, carrying them tucked into the sleeves of their royal robes.
  • Dachshunds were bred to fight badgers in their dens.
  • The oldest breed of dog native to North America is the Chihuahua.
  • Survivors of the Titanic included two dogs: a Pekingese belonging to Henry Sleeper Harper and a Pomeranian belonging to Miss Margaret Hays.
  • Every minute, dogs take ten to thirty breaths.
  • The only mammals with prostates are humans and dogs.
  • There are 42 teeth in a dog's mouth.
  • Whippets can reach a maximum speed of 35 miles per hour.
  • Contrary to popular belief, dogs are not color blind but can, in fact, see color. However, their color scheme is not as vivid as ours and can be likened to our vision at twilight.
  • There are more than five million puppies born in the United States each year.
  • Have you ever seen a dog curled up with his tail covering his nose? They do that to keep the nose warm in cold weather.
  • Many dogs' eyes reflect the color green in the dark, but some also reflect orange or red.
  • The top five favorite breeds of dogs in the US are: Labrador Retriever, Golden Retriever, German Shepherd, Beagle, and Dachshund.
  • The Doberman breed was created in the 1860's by Louis Doberman, a German tax-collector who created the dog to protect him while he worked.
  • The name Pug is believed to have derived from this dog's resemblance to the pug monkey.
  • The Basenji is the only barkless dog in the world.
  • Greyhounds can reach a speed of up to 45 miles per hour.
  • When a puppy is born, he is blind, deaf, and toothless.
  • Dogs don't actually sweat by salivating. They sweat through the pads on their feet.
  • Smiling at a dog causes him to think you are baring your teeth to show aggression.
  • There are about 68 million dogs with owners in the United States.
  • The Taco Bell dog is actually a female Chihuahua named Gidget.
  • One of the very first animals domesticated by humans was the dog.
  • The "spring" in Springer Spaniel referred to this dog's ability to spring or startle game.
  • Dogs have been domesticated for 10,000 years.

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