Incredible facts about Dogs

I’m always delighted to find out incredible facts about Dogs. Through ongoing learning, these facts are simply staggering and are by no means, the only ones you’ll come across. Anyway, here are just a few of the examples listed below:

Reading our Body Language.

One incredible fact about Dogs is use their sentience and their emotional intelligence. Dogs are so good at ‘reading us’, that they can override their instinct of self preservation to follow their human wherever they go. This includes things like jumping off a 2000ft cliff edge for BASE jumping! This trust is down to their innate ability to read body language. If we look calm and assured about something, they are willing to follow. Doesn’t mean to say that they will not show expressions of wariness but they love us and trust us to do the right thing. Watch the video of one such jump HERE

Empathy.

Scientific facts about dogs tells us that Dogs who have lost a Pet companion, suffer from Depression. It shows that 80% becoming more affectionate to their owners. They can also show solidarity when their loved human hurts themselves. They can pretend to suffer the same or similar condition in order for their owner to feel loved. One such event sees a Lurcher copying it’s owner by limping with him in sympathy when he’s injured.

Communication.

Here is an incredible fact about dogs and their understanding of us. A study in the US at the University of San Diego, found that with a set of communication buttons, programmed with a pre recorded word in English, to help find a common communication process. One particular dog, Bunny, has 90 buttons to express herself and can combine them to create short sentances. They can show more than just basic. needs using this method. They can express far more with a surprising cognitive subtlety. One dog told their owner they were in pain and where the pain was. A self diagnosis if you will. This means that dogs may even have a sense of self. Something normally only attributed to humans! The study is still ongoing… read more about it HERE

Increased Intelligence

Another fascinating fact about dogs can also be learnt and attributed directly to our children. The more we enrich their lives, the better their cognitive skills get. Neville V. Scarf (1962) summarised his article ‘Play is education’ by stating “Play is the highest form of Research.” He took this information from a longer quote that Einstein made establishing that the brain needed to explore concepts based in associative play. This is exactly true of Dogs too, We need to make sure use more than a ball or a tuggy to ‘play’ with them, reinforce their natural love of learning and learn to work with them using a variety of techniques and toys.

Dogs have Animal Magnetism!

The facts about dogs regarding magnets? They have the ability to sense magnetic energy for direction and also where and how they wee and poo! They have a particular light sensitive molecule also to be found in Birds. This molecule reacts to the magnetic fields of the earth when stimulated by light. Another study now been found to even have influence over how they face when they need to go to the toilet. A study of 70 dogs over two years, all of mixed type, showed that they prefer facing the north/south axis and not east to west. To make sure it was accurate, the scientists ruled out time of day, angle of the sun and wind conditions in off-lead, open fields.

Dogs don’t see Red.

I’m not talking about managing their temper either. Another biological fact about Dogs is the world of sight. Those of us who take part in scent detection will have heard that dogs do not see the colour red. Unlike humans, how have red, blue and yellow ‘cones’ in our eyes to figure out all manner of colours, Dogs eyes have evolved to not see red light waves. This is because they descend from a long line of scavenger/hunters, who would actively get their best results catching prey at dawn and at dusk. As these times of day have the fewest red light waves due to the lack of perceived light, hence not needing to see red. Now they live with us, they still don’t need this level of colour sensitivity.

Smell is a true Superpower.

We know that our Dogs can smell better than we can but, DC Comics and Marvel can move over, We actually have true Superheroes living with us in the form of our Dogs! From the fact that their sense of smell is the equivalent to our eyes in terms of variations and sensitivity, it is actually better than our 20/20 vision in comparison. Right down to the fact that Dogs can actually smell molecule changes in our cells hence the fact they are training to source disease, neurological conditions, emotions and more. Thier amazing noses even use scent information as a way of telling the time, historical information on how the scent has decayed and pick up scent in large bodies of water. For more great information about how scent works for out dogs and which classes I offer to harness that special superpower, click HERE.