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.
- Dogs really are smart. They can understand approximately 250 words and count up to 5. How???s that for doggie brain power?
- The ancient Greeks made their dogs wear spiked collars to protect the dogs??? throats from wolf attacks.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Feeding grapes and raisins??to a dog even in small amounts can be hazardous to its??kidney health.
- Don???t show your teeth to a dog when you smile. They see this as a sign of aggression.
- Puppies are truly helpless. They are born blind, deaf, and toothless.
- Dogs are not colorblind. They can actually see colors just not as vivid as humans.
- Dogs are able to swivel their ears. This ability enables them to locate the source of a sound in less than a second.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- A dog???s keen sense of smell is due to the more than 200 million scent receptors located in their noses.
- 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.