Must Knows to Select the Best Dog for You – #5 Fun Facts

Must Knows to Select the Best Dog for You – #5 Fun Facts

This blog is going to be fun because there are some things about dogs that are so funny! Even though this information isn’t a ‘must have’ before you select your dog, it could steer you in a particular direction.

NAMES
Let’s start off with names for dogs. Usually you name your dog after you at least see it or own it because it’s an expression of the dog and possibly you. For instance, you might select your favorite food/snack name like Taco, Toast, Espresso, Tater Tot or. You might focus on the sex of the dog and go with Jobie, Jagger, Ryder for a male or Breeze, Keke, Sheena or Birdie for a female. Making a statement with your dog’s name is also possible with names like Crush, Chopper, Arrow and Dino. Do you have a favorite actor, singer or music group like Elvis, Prince, Bono or Adele. Nature may speak to your heart, and if it does a name like Atlas, Breeze or Rain could be your choice. How about your dog’s appearance or disposition? Names like Happy, Busy or Tails could be your choice. As you can see, the name Fido or Rover are not your only choices. Be creative and have fun with the process.

SIZE
The fun fact of dog sizes is very interesting and varies a lot, sometimes within a breed. The heaviest dog breed according to the American Kennel Club (AKC) is the English Mastiff which can weigh between 110 – 345 pounds! Even the small Mastiff is huge don’t you think? They aren’t the tallest breed though, that award goes to the Great Dane, whose origin indicates that they came from a crossbreed between English Mastiffs and Irish Wolfhounds. The average Great Dane stands about 28-30 inches tall but the tallest guy, Zeus stood 44 inches tall! How about the tiniest dogs? We can’t leave them out can we? The smallest breed is the Chihuahua which comes in at less than 6 pounds and stands only about 8 inches at the shoulder, per the AKC.

TRICKS
National Train Your Dog Month happens in January, but dogs love to learn so feel free to teach them tricks all year long. The top tricks that any dog can learn are kiss, shake hands, fetch, roll over, play dead, spin and hug. My favorite book to use is 101 Dog Tricks: step by step activities to engage, challenge and bond with your dog, by Kyra Sundance. She does an excellent job and the pictures help a lot! In case you need a little inspiration, take a look at this video.

SENSES
It’s not a surprise that smell and hearing in dogs are exponentially better than humans. But the fun fact is that they can register sounds of 35,000 vibrations/second in comparison to 20,000/second in humans and they can shut off their inner ear in order to filter out distracting sounds. That’s amazing! The dog breeds with longer noses have the most acute sense of smell and immeasurably better than humans. That’s why we can use dogs to track missing persons, detect drugs, explosives and even cancer.

SPEED
In general dogs can run about 15-20 mph for short distances. Of course that varies quite a bit depending on the breed and its size but it’s impressive don’t you think? In comparison, Olympian, Usain Bolt can run about 22 mph for short distances and cats run about 30 mph for a short distance. If you own a runner, for fun you can enter races, like this El Paso Wiener Dog Race (with after race entertainment).

BEHAVIORS
I have owned dogs for most of my life which gives me so much opportunity to observe some unique, quirky behaviors. Have you noticed your dog burying food or chasing their tail? How about turning around to sleep or licking other dog’s (or people’s) faces? These are all normal dog behaviors mostly linked back to their heritage with the wolf. I want to share one caution about these behaviors with you, and that is any of these can become obsessive, in which case you need to redirect your dog with exercise, spending time with toys or possibly a KONG from the freezer with a little peanut butter in it.

TALK
Dogs talk, or rather communicate, but in different ways than humans do. Here are a couple fun facts about how they do it and what it means. Dogs tilt their head because they are listening more intently. It’s a behavior inherently built into dogs and happens instinctively so they can direct their ears towards a sound. Sneezing is something humans do when we have a cold or allergies, but dogs sneeze due to excitement and anticipation. The last tidbit is about smiling. Do dogs smile? Yes they do and you will know your dog is smiling when its ears are forward, eyes are relaxed and its mouth is wide open with a floppy tongue. Dogs will also smile by parting their lips in the front to reveal their front teeth as they pull their lips back in a grin!! This is very cute. So they smile, but do they sing? I found this video to help us decide.

This completes our series on the Must Knows to Find Your Best Dog. I hope you have learned just what you need to in order to find that perfect dog for you.

Cheers!

Julie