We think that we know everything about dogs, but it is not right. The dog is the most lovable pet, and we love to be with this animal. A human and dog’s relationship is one based on mutual understanding, love, and loyalty, and hopefully, you and your dog have all three.
You might think that you’ve got every piece of information about your dog locked away in your brain, but there are also a lot of things you might not know. Below, we’ve compiled 10 interesting dog facts and tidbits of information about your adorable pooch.
Check them out, and you might gain a better personal understanding of your pooch.
1. Ancient Wolf DNA Could Solve Dog Origin Mystery
Genetic evidence from an ancient wolf bone discovered lying on the tundra in Siberia’s Taimyr Peninsula reveals that wolves and dogs split from their common ancestor at least 27,000 years ago.
Modern American and European wolves are only very distant relatives of dogs, despite the fact that their DNA matches by 99%.
2 Dogs are champions in a variety of sizes and shapes
Dogs come in all shapes and sizes, at all fitness levels and with a wide range of needs. And just like us, dogs are subject to becoming obese and lethargic, so it is our responsibility to help them keep a healthy weight and exercise regularly. The degree of exercise intensity varies by the dog breed and age and weather conditions.
3. Dogs have a second nose
It’s no mystery that dogs have the gift of the sniff. (We might not actually be too far behind a dog’s sense of smell, but that’s a different story.) Dogs have something of a second “nose” called the vomeronasal organ (VNO), or the Jacobson’s organ. This second smelling device sits at the back of a dog’s nasal passage, on the ready to detect pheromones and other compounds. This is a kind of accessory olfactory bulb with completely different neurons than the ones associated with the sense of smell, anthrozoologist John Bradshaw tells Slate.
4. A dog’s nose has a unique print
Like human fingerprints, each dog’s nose is completely unique to each pup. No two dog noses are alike. Their noses have unique bumps, dimples, and ridges that create a distinctive pattern. These patterns can even be used to identify one dog from another. Nose printing is the most reliable form of dog tracking because a dog’s nose never changes. Collars and dog tags can be lost or changed, and even microchips can be removed.
5. Dogs sometimes pretend to be sick just to get attention
Lovesickness, more often than not, doesn’t have any overt physical symptoms. So, seemingly with that in mind, this clever pup decides to go ahead and invent his own injury, because when dogs are injured, their caretakers often lavish extra affection on them.
6. Dogs can recognize colors
A team of researchers from the Laboratory of Sensory Processing at the Russian Academy of Sciences tested the sight of eight dogs of varying sizes and breeds. Scientist Jay Neitz from the American university carried out experiments on dogs to test whether they could see in color or not. He discovered that while human eyes have three ‘cones’ that detect color and can identify red, blue, green and yellow light; dogs only have two. This means dogs can distinguish blue and yellow, but not red and green.
7. Dogs can smile
Dogs smile to convince their master to give them affection. But a smile does not always mean the dog is happy, it can actually be a sign of nervousness. It does look very cute though.
8. Dogs only sleep belly up in places they feel safe
For a dog, sleeping belly up means letting it all hang out. The dog exposes its privates for the whole world to see — and is supremely comfortable doing so. This means the dog is home, so to speak, and doesn’t have to keep watch for nasty predators looking to steal food or family.
9. Dogs don’t feel guilty
Many owners believe that a naughty dog feels guilty, but scientists say that this guilty look is just a reaction to the gestures and behavior of the owner at that moment. The feeling of guilt is a very complex emotion, the dog simply fears to get into trouble. At some point, your dog learned that when he or she makes these “I’m so sorry” eyes, your heart melts.
10. We have changed the development of dogs
Williams syndrome, also known as Williams-Beuren syndrome, occurs when people are missing a chunk of DNA containing about 27 genes. The syndrome affects about one in 10,000 people, and it is associated with a suite of mental and physical traits, including bubbly, extroverted personalities, a broad forehead, full cheeks, heart defects, intellectual disability and an affinity for music.
The first hint of a link between dogs and Williams syndrome came in 2010 when evolutionary biologist Bridgett vonHoldt and her colleagues examined DNA from 225 wolves and 912 dogs from 85 breeds. They were looking for parts of the genome that have been shaped by selection since dogs diverged from wolves.