You love your dog or dogs. They are your constant companions. You seemingly know everything about them. Sometimes they are like your child. You feed them, bathe them and take care of them. You know exactly when they get their dinner and what their favorite places to be scratched are. But you might not know everything about your beloved canine friends. Here are ten things you probably didn’t know about dogs.
1. No two dogs noses are the same.
Similar to that of human thumbprints, no two dog noses are ever the same . The ridges on them can actually be used to prove a dog’s identity. While there are actually a few places in the United States that have begun using nose prints as a form of identification, the Canadian Kennel Club has been using this as a form of identification since 1938. This is due to the understanding that nose prints are an easier form of identification since collars and tags can easily be lost (and often are).
2. Dogs actually have the ability to learn to drive.
In New Zealand dogs were trained to drive cars in an attempt to show how smart and capable dogs are. This was in the hopes of boosting adoption numbers from shelters; places that many dogs do not make it out of.
3. Puppies are born blind and deaf.
This may seem a bit hindering evolutionarily speaking but this was actually quite advantageous. Puppies are born this way so that they are completely dependent on their mothers for care. This allows them to be safely tucked away in a den while the mother goes out hunting instead of slowing down the pack by having to be carried or kept track of.
4. Studies suggest that dogs don’t feel guilt.
Even though they might look it, there are studies that show dogs don’t actually feel guilty. Instead, it is suggested that the appearance of their guilt is simply the result of dogs having lived with humans and adapted. They have merely learned to act submissively when their masters show anger.
5. Studies show dogs are either right or left pawed.
According to a study in 2006, dogs are fairly evenly split with 50% being right pawed and 50% being left pawed. However, their paw preference is often weakly expressed, unlike humans.
6. Dogs only have sweat glands in their paws.
Dogs do not need to sweat to cool off like humans, and a majority of other animals. Instead, panting is their main form of cooling down. It is for this reason, that the only area dogs have sweat glands is on their feet.
7. A dog’s smell is 40 times that of a human’s.
Dogs have an extremely acute sense of smell and some odors dogs can detect in parts per trillion. This means that dogs could detect a teaspoon of sugar in a million gallons of water for example. This is due to the 300 million olfactory receptors that are found in their noses. Meanwhile, humans only have about six million.
8. Dogs can see black, white, blue and yellow.
It used to be assumed that dogs could only see in black and white. Now, though, Russian scientists have proved that dogs have a limited color range that allows them to distinguish the difference between blues and yellows.
9. Dogs can predict the weather.
This is due to a dog’s
10. Dogs have 3 eyelids.
The third eyelid is called the nictitating membrane or haw. This helps clean and protect the eye. This is why sometimes when a dog is asleep the upper and lower eyelids open and make it look like the dog is sleeping with his eyes slightly open. This is because the third eyelid is closed.
