Fun facts about dogs.
1. The Labrador Retriever has been on the AKC’s 10 Most Popular Dog Breeds list for 30 years in a row—longer than any other breed.
2. Dog nose prints are unique, much like human fingerprints.
3. 45% of American dogs sleep in their owner’s bed.
4. Speaking of sleeping…all dogs dream, but puppies and older adults dream more often than adult dogs.
5. Seventy percent of people sign their dog’s name on their vacation card.
6. Dogs’ sense of smell is legendary, but did you know they have as many as 300 million receptors in their noses? For comparison: a person has about 5 million noses.
7. The famous German Shepherd Rin Tin Tin was nominated for an Oscar.
8. A dog’s nose can sense heat/radiation, which explains why a blind or deaf dog can still hunt.
9. Only one breed made the top five most popular breeds in 1934 – the Beagle – which is still in the top five today.
10. The name Collie means “black”. (Sheepdogs used to graze black-faced sheep.)
11. Yawning is contagious—even in dogs. Research has shown that the sound of a human yawn triggers a dog’s sound. If someone he knew yawned, it was four times as likely to happen.
12. The Dandie Dinmont Terrier is the only breed named after a fictional character – a character in Sir Walter Scott’s novel Guy Mannering.
13. Dogs curl up into a ball to protect their organs while they sleep—a holdover from the days when they were vulnerable to predators in the wild.
14. Technically, Basenji isn’t “barkless” as many people think. You can yordle.
15. The Australian Shepherd doesn’t actually come from Australia – it’s an American breed.
16. …The Labrador Retriever is originally from Newfoundland.
17. People’s blood pressure drops when petting a dog. And that dog.
18. The United States has more than 75 million pet dogs—more than any other country.
19. People who hunt with terriers are called “terriers”.
20. Dogs are not colorblind. You can see blue and yellow.
21. All puppies are born deaf.
22. Dalmatians are born entirely white and develop spots as they age.
23. Dogs have about 1,700 taste buds. We humans have 2,000-10,000 of them.
24. The dog kicks back after going to the toilet, not to hide it, but to mark its territory with the scent glands on its feet.
25. A recent study shows that dogs belong to a small group of animals that treat others willingly, selflessly and without compensation. This is a fact that dog lovers have always known.
26. The Norwegian Lundhound is the least popular dog breed and the only one created for hunting puffins.
27. Greyhounds can beat cheetahs in one race. While cheetahs can run twice as fast as greyhounds, they can only stay at 70 mph for about 30 seconds. Greyhounds can maintain a speed of 35 mph for about 7 miles. So the cheetah can go first, but the greyhound will soon overtake him.
28. The bloodhound’s sense of smell is so precise that its tracking results can be used as evidence in court.
29. Some dogs are bigger or heavier, but according to Guinness World Records, a mastiff named Zorba is the tallest dog in the world ever. Zorba weighs 343 pounds and measures over 8 feet from nose to tail. He is described as about the size of a small donkey.
30. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the Guinness Milli Chihuahua is the smallest dog ever. Born in 2011, Millie is just 3.8 inches tall and weighs 1 pound.
