Fascinating Dog Facts To Amaze And Impress Your Friends
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Having a few little known yet highly interesting facts about dogs to toss out into your next conversation at the kennel or in the park, is a great way to impress your friends. With so many different dog breeds, unique abilities and cool facts out there, you will definitely find something on this list that's new.
- Between 22 and 31% of all households in the UK own at least one dog.
- Households with children under the age of 11 are less likely to have a dog than those with children over the age of 11.
- The Labrador Retriever is the most popular dog worldwide, as reported as registered numbers of the breed by the Kennel Clubs around the world.
- A dog's heart rate can virtually double that of humans, with resting rates between 70 and 120 beats per minute, whilst a human heart beats about 70 to 80 times per minute.
- Most dogs have the ability to bite down with 150 to 180 pounds of pressure per square inch.
- The Greyhound is the fastest dog on earth and can run at approximately 72 kilometres per hour over short distances.
- The largest dog recorded in the Guinness Book Of World Records belongs to Zorba, an English Mastiff, who weighed 343 pounds or 156 kilograms. He also measured 2.4 metres from his nose to his tail.
- Dogs are direct descendants of grey wolves and have been domesticated for approximately 15,000 years.
- It is estimated that there were over 400 million domestic dogs in the world in 2001.
- Owning a dog can reduce your risk of stress related illnesses including hypertension, stroke and heart disease. In the British Journal of Health Psychology, Dr. Deborah Wells found that dog owners had lower cholesterol and lower blood pressure readings than cat owners or those without pets.
- An Alsatian has 220,000,000 olfactory cells, a Fox Terrier has 147,000,000 and a human being has about 5,000,000 olfactory cells.
- Laika, a stray dog from the streets, was the first animal to go into space. She was launched in a satellite in 1957 from Russia.
In addition, there are lots of references to dogs in literature. There is the three headed dog Cerberus that guarded the gates of the underworld and more recently, a three headed dog also guarded a valuable treasure in the Harry Potter series. Canis Major is the constellation that is said to resemble a dog, always at the heels of Orion. Dogs are also mentioned in the Bible 14 different times, and are found through many pieces of classic literature from Shakespeare through to Jack London.
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