18 Amazing Dog Facts

Did you know a dog can help lower your blood pressure? Does your dog have vibrissae? How fast can a greyhound run? Dogs are wonderful pets that can do some amazing things. It is why we prepared this list of 18 amazing facts about our best four-legged friend.

1. Dogs really are smart. They can understand approximately 250 words and count up to 5. How’s that for doggie brain power?
2. The ancient Greeks made their dogs wear spiked collars to protect the dogs’ throats from wolf attacks.
3. If you leave phone messages for your dog on your answering machine, you are not alone. About one-third of dog owners do the same thing.
4. Prairie dogs are not related to dogs at all. They belong to the squirrel family. The pioneers named them after dogs because they made sounds similar to a dog’s bark.
5. You can lower your blood pressure just by petting your dog. The act of petting a beloved pet has such a calming effect on humans that it has been known to lower blood pressure.
6. If you want your dog to live, make sure it doesn’t eat apple seeds or pear seeds. These seeds contain arsenic and could kill your dog.
7. Feeding grapes and raisins to a dog even in small amounts can be hazardous to its kidney health.
8. Don’t show your teeth to a dog when you smile. They see this as a sign of aggression.
9. Puppies are truly helpless. They are born blind, deaf, and toothless.
10. Dogs are not colorblind. They can actually see colors just not as vivid as humans.
11. Dogs are able to swivel their ears. This ability enables them to locate the source of a sound in less than a second.
12. Watch what you say around a dog. Its sense of hearing is so keen it can hear sounds four times further than a humans’ ability to hear.
13. The Chow-Chow and the Shar-Pei have black tongues. It’s nothing to worry about. They are the only two dog breeds with this trait. All other breeds have pink tongues.
14. Olympic gold-medal winner Usain Bolt has been known to run as fast as 28 miles per hour. That’s fast! But not as fast as a Greyhound which can reach a top speed of up to 45 miles per hour.
15. Want to impress your friends? Use the word vibrissae when referring to your dog’s whiskers. It’s the scientific name for whiskers on dogs and cats.
16. Whiskers (or vibrissae) are touch-sensitive hairs found on a dog’s muzzle, above the eyes and just under the jaws. These whiskers are so sensitive they can detect the slightest change in airflow.
17. A dog’s keen sense of smell is due to the more than 200 million scent receptors located in their noses.
18. Dogs sweat through their paw pads, and not by salivating.

Do you have any interesting facts about dogs?

If yes, we’d love to hear them in the comments section.

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