Biology
- Whereas a cat laps up water from the top of its tongue, a dog in fact forms the back of theirs into the shape of a cup, and draws water into its mouth this way!
- A dog’s noseprint is as unique as your fingerprint.
- It is a myth that dogs only see in black and white - they do in fact see in colour, although we do not know if they perceive different wavelengths of light in the same way that we do.
- Dogs have excellent eyesight in some situations. Although one cannot usually see you if you stand still at a distance of just a couple of hundred metres, if you are a mile away and waving your arms your dog will recognise you right away!
- A dog can hear sounds that are four times further away than an average human can perceive.
- Of course, dogs have an excellent sense of smell. Whereas a human has around five million cells that detect scents, an average dog has an incredible two hundred and twenty million. Even the part of the brain that processes smell signals is four times larger in a dog than in a human. All of this combined means that your dog has a sense of smell around one hundred thousand times better than yours!
- A dog’s urine tells another canine a great deal about its owner, including what sex it is, how old it is, how healthy it is and even if it is happy or sad.
- A bitch’s pregnancy usually lasts for around sixty days.
- The shoulder blades of a dog are not connected to the rest of their skeleton, which allows them to be more flexible when running.
- In addition to their upper and lower eyelids, dogs also have a third lid on each eye, known as a nictitating membrane (or a ‘haw’) which helps to protect the eye and keep it moist.
A Greyhound