Interesting Dog Facts

• World’s largest dog…The world’s heaviest as well as longest dog recorded was an Old English Mastiff named Zorba. In 1989, Zorba weighed 343 lbs and was 8 feet 3 inches long from nose to tail.
• World’s tallest dog… The world’s tallest dog on record was named Shamgret Danzas. He was 42 inches tall (at the shoulders) and weighed 238 lbs.
• World’s smallest dog… The smallest dog in history was a tiny Yorkie from Blackburn, England. At two years of age and fully grown he was 2 ½ inches tall and 3 ¾ inches long. He weighed only 4 ounces. He was approximately the size of a deck of cards.
• World’s oldest dog…. The oldest dog that has been reliably documented was an Australian cattle-dog ( Queensland “Heeler”) named Bluey. He was put to sleep at the age of 29 years and 5 months. The average dog’s lifespan is 8 to 15 years.
• Dogs and humans are the only animals with prostrates.
• Smartest dogs: 1) Border Collie; 2) Poodle; 3) German Shepherd; 4) Golden Retriever; 5) Doberman Pincher
• Dumbest dog: Afghan
• The United States and France have the most pet dogs. Almost one in three families in these countries owns a dog.
• Germany and Switzerland only have one dog for every ten families.
• The Bloodhound is the only animal whose evidence is admissible in an American Court of Law.
• Big dogs have larger litters than smaller dogs, but smaller dogs generally live much longer than larger dogs.
• The normal temperature for a dog is 101.2 degrees Fahrenheit, compared with a humans which is 98.6 degrees.
• A dog’s heart beats between 70 and 120 times a minute, compared with a human heart which beats between 70 to 80 times a minute.
• A puppy’s eyes do not open till it is 10 to 15 days old. Its vision is not complete until it is about four weeks old.
• Dogs turn around before they lay down because in the wild this instinctive action turns long grass into a bed.
• The world’s longest man-made barrier is the Dingo Barrier Fence which stretches almost 6,000 miles across Australia. Its purpose was to prevent wild dingoes from killing sheep. The fence is six feet tall with small wire mesh on the bottom and barbed wire on top. There is a gate every twelve miles. The Dog fence is 1,000 miles longer than the Great Wall of China. (The fence did not work however as at the time it was built there were already dinogos on both sides)
• According to the Guinness World Records, three dogs have given birth to the largest known litter of 23 puppies.
• According to a 1998 study by the American Pet Association, 17% of dog owners keep a picture of their dog in their wallet or purse.
• There are currently over 65 million dogs in the United States.
• 40% of American dog owners say they acquired their dog primarily for protection.
• A survey by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta (CDC) concluded that dogs bite more than 4.7 million people annually (nearly 2% of the US population).
• According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, approximately 914 people in the US are bitten by dogs per day (368,000 per/year) and which require a visit to a hospital emergency room for treatment. 6,000 of these will need to be hospitalized with the average hospital stay being 3.6 days.
• Every year on average 2,851 letter carriers are bitten by dogs (about eight per/day).
• Being bite by a dog is the second most frequent cause of visits to emergency rooms by children, second only to sports related injuries.
• Mixed breed and not pure bred dogs are the type of dog most often involved in inflicting dog bites. The pure-bred dogs most often involved in dog bites are German shepherds and Chow chows.
• Dogs between one and five years old are involved in more dog bite incidents than dogs older than six years. Male dogs are more frequently involved than female dogs. Dogs not spayed or neutered are three times more likely to bite than sterilized ones.
• Dog bites account for about 1/3 of all homeowners insurance liability claims, costing roughly $321.6 millions dollars per/year. The average dog bite claim in 1998 was $16,600.00.
• The median age of patients bitten by dogs is 15 years old with children; especially boys aged 5 to 9 having the highest incidence rate.
• 77% of dog bite injuries to children under ten years old are facial. Dog bites result in approximately 44,000 facial injuries in US hospitals each year. This represents about 1% of all emergency room visits.
• The majority of dog attacks (61%) happen at home or in a familiar place. 77% of biting dogs belong to the victim’s family or a friend.
• Each year approximately 20 people die from dog attacks. The dogs most responsible for dog attack deaths are pit bulls and rottweilers. On average 67% will involve an attack by one dog; 19% by two dogs and 15% by three or more dogs.
• An unsprayed female dog and her mate can produce over 67,000 puppies over a six year period.
• Canis Major or “The Great Dog” follows his master, Orion, as he makes his annual journey through the sky. The star Sirius, the Dog Star is located on the shoulder of Canis Major and is the brightest star in the sky. It’s rising marks the hottest part of the summer and is the origin of the phrase “dog days of summer”. The name we use for the star comes from the Greek word Seirius, meaning “searing”.
• The Lundehund breed has 6 toes. They have different or more control over the muscles in their ears. They can scrunch them closed in an unusual position that keeps water and dirt out. The neck has special joints, and it is so flexible that it can turn its head 180 degrees over its back. This physical feature, no doubt, allows it to turn around in tight places. This neck structure is unique only to two mammals in the world--Lundehunds and reindeer.
• The basenji, an African wolf dog, is the only dog that cannot bark.
• Irish Wolfhounds rank as the largest breed, Chihuahuas as the smallest breed and St. Benards as the heaviest breed of dogs.
• Dalmation puppies are pure white at birth.
• Chihuahuas are born with a “molera” or soft spot like a human baby, which usually closes as they mature.
• The only sweat glands a dog has are between its paw pads.
• Dogs do not have an appendix.
• A puppy is born with no teeth. At 3 to 4 weeks 22 “milk” teeth break through. At 4 to 7 months these will fall out and be replaced with 42 teeth.
• A dog can hear sounds 250 yards away that most people cannot hear beyond 25 yards. Some authorities’ estimate that some dogs sense of olfaction (smelling) is as high as 1 million times greater than mans.
• Dogs cannot see as well as humans. It is thought they can see color but not as vivid a color scheme as we see. It is probably much like our vision at twilight. A dog sees objects first by their movement, second by their brightness, and third by their shape.
• Dogs naturally have wonderful sense of smell. They have many more sensory “smelling” cells than man. A man has about 5 million, a dachshund about 125 million and an Alsation 220 million. Truffle hounds can find the fungus delicacy even when it’s a foot underground.
• Sadly, statistics estimate that 4 million dogs lose their lived in animal shelters each year due to overpopulation.
• The pom-pom cut on poodles was originally developed to increase their swimming abilities as a retriever. The haircut allowed for faster swimming but the pom-poms were left to keep the joints warm.
• According to the AKC (American Kennel Club) the ten most popular dog breeds for 2006 are: Labrador Retriever (137,867) * Golden Retriever (48,509) * Yorkshire Terrier (47,238) * German Shepherd Dog (45,014) * Beagle (42,592) * Dachshund (38,566) * Boxer (37,268) * Poodle (31,638) * Shih Tzu (28,087) * Miniature Schnauzer (24,144)
• The ten most popular dog names for 2005, listed from 10 th to 1 st. Lucy, Daisy, Coco, Shadow, Lady, Buddy, Rocky, Princess, Lucky, and Max.
• The Labrador Retriever has been the most popular dog breed in the US since 1991 (16 years). The Cocker Spaniel was the most popular breed of the last century. It was the most popular dog from 1936 to 1952 and again from 1983 through 1990, for a total of 23 years. The Poodle was the second most popular dog from 1960 through 1982, a total of 22 years.
• There are over seven hundred distinct breeds of dogs recognized by various groups throughout the world. The AKC (American Kennel Club) currently recognizes 157 registrable dog breeds which are organized into 8 separate classes: Sporting, Hound, Working, Terrier, Toy, Non-Sporting, Herding and Miscellaneous.
• The Greyhound is the fastest dog and can run at speeds of 45 miles per hour for short durations.
• Dogs are mentioned 14 times in the Bible.
• A dog has been listed as its owner’s primary beneficiary over 1 million times in the US. In 1993, tobacco heiress Doris Duke left $100,000.00 to her dog Rodeo, a Shar-Pei. A will written by actress Betty White is reported to leave all of her $5 million dollar estate to her pets.
• Based on a life-span of 11 years the cost of owning a medium size dog is $13,500.00.
• The oldest known breed of dog is the Saluki, which is an Arabic word meaning noble one. These dogs were raised as hunting dogs by ancient Egyptians.
• The oldest breed of dog native to North American is the Chihuahua. It also has one of the longest average life-spans for a dog, fifteen years.
• Survivors of the Titanic included two dogs: a Pekingese belonging to Henry Sleeper Harper and a Pomeranian belonging to Miss Margaret Hays.
• The Doberman breed was created in the 1860’s by Louis Doberman, a German tax-collector who created the dog to protect him while he worked.
• Dogs can alert their owners of an epileptic seizure up to an hour before it occurs.
• Every known dog, except the chow, has a pink tongue - a chow's tongue is black.
• Every Year, 1.5 Billion Dollars is spent on pet food. This is four times the amount spent on baby food.
• The first heart transplant was on done on a dog. Dr. Alexis Carrel performed the first heart transplant in 1905. Although the dog lived for just a few hours after surgery, this experiment laid the foundation for the development of human heart transplants. For his groundbreaking research, Dr. Carrel received the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1912.