12 Interesting Facts About Dogs

You might think that you know all there is to know about your dog, but trust me, there’s a lot you haven’t yet heard. The following are 10 interesting facts about dogs you probably haven’t heard before.

1. The fact that a dog is wagging his tail, doesn’t always mean that he is in a good mood. In fact, it could mean the exact opposite – it might mean that he is about to attack somebody.

2. If you’d live in Iran, the law wouldn’t allow you to have a dog as a pet. Owning a hunting or guard dog, though, is still okay.

3. One can estimate his dog’s life expectancy by viewing the dog’s facial features – dogs with long, sharp faces intend to live longer than those who have a more flat face.

4. Dalmatian puppies are born completely white, the black spots start to appear when they are about three weeks old.

5. While many of healthy human foods are just as good for dogs as they are for us humans, there are a few things we eat that are dangerous for dogs to eat. Even as little as a few grapes or raisins can be lethal for a dog. Nuts, onions, garlic, and anything containing caffeine are also on the top of the list of things you should never feed your dog. Also, while, in moderate quantities, it’s good for dogs to eat apples and other fruits, the seeds of apples and most other fruits contain poisonous cyanide, which is not that harmful for us humans, but in large quantities can be lethal for dogs.

6. Not all dogs can bark. The Basenji - a small hunting dog – is a dog who sings or yodels rather than barks.

7. Dogs do not only have an amazing sense of smell, but they can hear rather well too. In fact, they can hear sounds from up to 4 times farther away than us, and hear some sounds we do not hear at all.

8. There are over 75 million dogs in The United States, and over 400 million dogs in the world. The United States is on the top of the list of countries with most pet dog population, followed by Brazil and China.

9. Greyhounds, the fastest dogs in the world, can run at a speed up to 45 mph.

10. George Washington owned 36 foxhounds at once. It might sound like a lot because it is a lot, but it’s far from a record. The most dogs ever owned by one person were 5000 Mastiffs by Kubla Khan.

11. According to research by animal psychologists, the average dog is as smart as the average two-year-old human child. Dogs can understand up to 250 words and gestures, count up to 5 and perform some basic mathematical calculations. In Moscow, Russia, some stray dogs have even learned to use the subway. In search for food, the stray dogs use the subway to travel from less populated areas to more populated areas.

12. Dogs do not like to be hugged. In fact, while us human take hugging as a sign of affection or love, dogs interpret hugging as a sign of dominance.