15 INTERESTING DOG FACTS
Even the most experienced dog owner will be surprised by these interesting facts about our beloved canine companions!
1/ Tigger the bloodhound holds the record for the longest ears on a dog ever, with his lengthy lobes measuring 34.9 cm (13.75 in) and 34.2 cm (13.5 in) for the right and left respectively. Followed by Harbour, a black and tan Coonhound.
2/ Each day, dogs deposit between four and five tonnes of excrement on London streets.
3/ Spiked collars were originally fashioned in ancient Greece to protect dogs’ throats from wolf attacks.
Harbour
Newfoundland
4/ The Newfoundland was originally bred to rescue people from drowning and assist fishermen with hauling their nets. As such, they have webbed feet and a water-resistant coat.
5/ Dogs can be trained to detect cancer and other diseases in humans. Cancerous cells release different metabolic waste products than healthy cells in the human body.
6/ The only dog unable to bark is the Basenji from Central Africa. It is thought the ability was bred out of them because a barking dog would have historically betrayed people’s presence to enemies. The noise they make when excited is often described as yodelling.
7/ Your dog can smell your feelings. In fact, your dog’s sense of smell is approximately 100,000 times better than yours.
Basenji
Saluki
8/ The Saluki holds The Guinness World Record for the oldest dog breed. The breed dated back to 329BC and was kept as royal pets in Ancient Egypt.
9/ The famous Poodle haircut was originally designed to improve the dog’s swimming abilities as a retriever, the pom-poms being left in place to warm the dogs’ joints.
10/ The largest breed of dog is an Irish Wolfhound, while the smallest is a Chihuahua.
11/ Approx 30% of Dalmatians suffer from deafness in one or both ears. This is because they don’t have many melanin-producing cells in their inner ears, common in dogs with a piebald or albino coat.
12/ ‘‘At the end of A Day in the Life’’ by The Beatles, a high-pitched dog whistle was recorded by Paul McCartney for his sheepdog.
Wolfhound and Chihuahua
Tibetan Mastiff
13/ An 11-month-old red Tibetan Mastiff became the world’s most expensive dog when his breeder sold him to a Chinese multi-millionaire in 2011 for £945,000.
14/ Dogs don’t need a compass because they can sense the earth’s magnetic fields. It’s believed they can hear some of the ultrasound waves that bats use to navigate in the dark.
15/ There are approximately 600 million dogs in the world. It is estimated that nearly 400M of those dogs are strays.