Did you know owning dogs is good for your health? Learn more from the article 10 Science-Based Benefits of Having a Dog by Scoopology friend Kaitlyn Arford. For more doggy knowledge check out the following interesting facts.
Dogs curl up in a ball when they sleep – for a reason!
As much as dogs like to run, play, and sniff out the world around them, they also like to snooze. Healthy adult dogs spend an average of 12 to 14 hours per day sleeping, and puppies, senior dogs or those with health problems may require even more rest.
Dogs who like to curl up to sleep can trace that comfy position back to their origins. Before they were domesticated, dogs slept in dens and made nests to keep warm at night. Even though your dog has a warm, dry shelter, they still have hardwired behaviors from their ancestor’s pre-domestic days. This may also explain why dogs “make the bed” by digging into blankets or the couch. They’re preparing their nest for the night.
Dogs and humans go way back
According to research, the first domesticated dogs came about 33,000 years ago, migrating to Europe from south east Asia. Dogs became self-domesticated, evolving from wolves who had scavenged alongside humans for generations, into the loyal companion that we know and love today.
Dogs can understand us
The average dog is thought to be as smart as the average 2-year-old, understanding roughly the same number of words and gestures. According to findings from a psychologist and leading canine researcher, dogs can understand more than 150 words, they can count and they are smart enough to intentionally deceive other dogs and people in order to get treats.
Dogs can sniff out diseases
The first evidence for their ability to smell disease, published in The Lancet in 1989, was of a dog sniffing and biting a woman’s mole, which turned out to be a melanoma1. That raised the idea that cancer might be detectable by smell, and that dogs could be used in diagnostics.
In 2004, a UK charity called Medical Detection Dogs reported that dogs could sniff out bladder cancer in people’s urine. Since then, researchers have been looking at how dogs could be used to diagnose other cancers as well as diseases such as diabetes, malaria, and COVID-19.
Dogs have a unique “fingerprint”
Although we’re used to seeing adorable images of animal paw prints, it turns out that a dog’s equivalent to a human fingerprint is located in their nose! Just as no two fingerprints are the same, no two dog noses are the same. The Canadian Kennel Club has been accepting dog nose prints as proof of identity since 1938.
To learn more about dog nose prints read the fascinating research article by Hyeong In Choi of Seoul National University, in the scientific journal Animals. The objective of the study was to focus on the canine nose pattern (nose print) by studying if it can be used similarly to the human fingerprint as a unique biometric marker for each individual dog.”
More fun facts about dogs
- Dogs and humans release the same “love hormone,” called oxytocin – which may explain the bond between the two.
- Forget their sense of smell – a dog is able to locate the source of a sound in 6/100th of a second!
- When a dog does their business, they align themselves with the Earth’s magnetic field – their sense for the magnetic field also explains why they are great at finding their way around.
- Despite popular belief, dogs can see in color! While we all know that dogs can see black and white, they can also see in blue, green, yellow. and grey too.
- Approximately 21% of all dogs snore in their sleep.
So, there you have it, these are just some of our favorite facts about dogs! How many did you know already? If you’re looking for a pet waste removal service, look no further than Scoopology. We do the doody work for you!
