Dog Facts

It is believed that the ancient ancestor of the dog was the wolf and that they began to bond with humans as a way to get food. The wolf offered a level of protection from other predators and in return had the chance to eat the food scraps. Over the years, the dog was domesticated and the bond between humans and dogs has been so great that humans began to breed them for specific abilities, talents and even appearances.

Interesting facts about dogs:

Dogs can see in color but not as sharply as humans. They do have better vision than humans in lower light due to the development of their retina that contains a light-reflecting layer.

• The dog has a single area on the body that has a sweat gland and that is in their paws. This is why a dog pants to get rid of excess heat when they are hot.
• The United States has the largest population of dogs in the world, with France listed second for the population of dogs.
• If left unchecked (not spayed) a female dog, combined with her mate and their puppies can produce over 66,000 puppies in six years.

A dog’s mouth is very strong. It can exert anywhere from 150 to 200 lbs. of pressure per square inch; however some breeds can exert over 450 lbs. per square inch.

• A dog, one year of age is physically as mature as a fifteen year old human.
• Large breed dogs live an average of twelve years, whereas smaller breeds can live to sixteen years or longer. Dogs that live in cities can live three years longer than those in the country.
• 87% of those that own dogs indicate that their dogs curl up at their feet or beside them while they watch television.

Dogs have an incredible sense of smell which is 100,000 times stronger than a human’s sense of smell. They can be trained to scent out a variety of things including the smell of people, drugs, materials, toxins, poisons, and bomb parts. They can also detect the change in a human’s body when they are going to go into an epileptic seizure and have been trained to send a warning.

• Some dogs have the ability to detect cancer that has not been diagnosed in humans.
• Dogs cannot eat certain foods that people do as they are poison to them. Some of these foods include: chocolate, grapes and raisins. Chocolate contains a natural chemical called theobromine that is deadly to dogs.