10 things you probably didn't know about dogs...

April 8, 2020

It’s a doggy dog world out there and you might be having a ruff time at the moment… to make you feel less melancolliec, here are 10 things you probably didn’t know about dogs…

1- Can dogs feel jealous? According to a study from the University of California San Diego, they can! While this may not come as a surprise to people who have dogs, this study was the first experimental test of jealousy in these beloved pets. The researchers tested how dogs reacted when they saw their owner playing with a stuffed dog or a random object. Dogs were 78% more likely to push or touch their human when they played with the stuffed dog.

2- According to Paul McCartney, a high-pitched whistle that only dogs can hear was added to the famous “A Day in the Life” song from the Beatles.

3- The dog was the first animal domesticated by people (before chickens, cows, goats, pigs…). All domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) descend from the Eurasian gray wolf (Canis lupis), but scientists aren’t sure exactly when and where humans turned wolves into Snoopy- somewhere between 10,000 and 40,000 years ago, probably in Asia and perhaps also in Europe.

4- Dog owners wholeheartedly believe their pets love them, but this is very hard to prove. In a study, scientists scanned dogs with MRI to watch their brain activity in real time. They found the brain reward system lit up when the dogs could smell their owner. Even if dogs aren’t capable of love as we know it, these findings show that humans clearly play an important role in their dogs’ lives.

5- Dachshunds (wiener or sausage dogs) were originally bred to hunt badgers! Their short legs keep them close to the ground, and their streamlined body shape allows them to crawl into badger burrows.

6- A colony of narcoleptic dogs was kept at Stanford University for nearly 20 years to study narcolepsy, a chronic sleep disorder characterised by an excessive need to sleep. The director of the research centre adopted his very own, narcoleptic Chihuahua named Watson.

7- The world’s richest dog is worth $400 million. You read that right – million. This German shepherd, Gunther III, belonged to a German countess who left the dog $80 million when she died. Due to some smart investing by Gunther III’s caretakers, its puppy (you guessed, Gunther IV) inherited a massive fortune of $400 million.

8- Dog tails have their own language! Neuroscientists in Italy showed that a dog is more likely to wag its tail to the right when it sees its owner or other positive stimuli, and to the left when it sees something it doesn’t like, such as a dominant unfamiliar dog.

9- The first dogs introduced in America came from Asia over 10,000 years ago, but these ancient breeds were wiped out during the European colonisation. DNA analyses show that modern dogs were brought to America by Europeans and the ancestors of Inuit people (the Thule people) over the past 1000 years.

10- The genetic signature of ancient dogs lives on in modern dogs, and in a place you might not expect… tumours. Canine transmissible venereal tumours (CTVT) are contagious and amazingly still contain the DNA of the very first dog that contracted it. Researchers compare this type of cancer to a parasitic life form that is thousands of years old.

How many of these facts did you already know? Let us know in the comments below and please share your favourite dog puns!

Sources: