Tag Archives: facts

Dog Facts

The Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts, and the 4-H Club all offer merit badges in dog care.
NEVER punish a puppy for chewing – just be sure to provide the appropriate objects. Puppies need to chew to stimulate the loss of their baby teeth and to help place their permanent teeth.

A dog’s heart beats between 70 and 120 times a minute, compared with a human heart which beats 70 to 80 times a minute.
A female carries her young about 60 days before the puppies are born.
Many foot disorders in dogs are related to long toenails. Check your dog’s nails once a month and trim when necessary, avoiding the vein.
Though neutering has no effect on the overall personality, male dogs tend to display less aggression, and territorial behavior when they are neutered. They are also less likely to contract urogenital diseases.
If your dog has bad breath, he may need his teeth cleaned.

The basenji, an African wolf dog, is the only dog that cannot bark.
Irish Wolfhounds rank as the largest dog, and Chihuahuas as the smallest dog. The St. Bernard is the heaviest dog and other breeds range in size between these extremes.
A dog can hear sounds 250 yards away that most people cannot hear beyond 25 yards. The human ear can detect sound waves vibrating at frequencies up to 20,000 times a second. But dogs can hear sound waves that vibrate at frequencies of more than 30,000 times a second.
Dogs cannot see as well as humans and are considered color blind. A dog sees objects first by their movement, second by their brightness, and third by their shape.

The catgut formerly used as strings in tennis rackets and musical instruments does not come from cats. Catgut actually comes from sheep, hogs, and horses.
A large majority of white cats with blue eyes are deaf. White cats with only one blue eye are deaf only in the ear closest to the blue eye. White cats with orange eyes do not have this disability.
Neutering a cat extends its life span by two or three years.
Ten human years translate to about 60 cat years. A one year old cat is similar in age to an 18 year old human.

Besides smelling with their nose, cats can smell with an additional organ called the Jacobson’s organ, located in the upper surface of the mouth.
Cats can’t taste sweets.
The chlorine in fresh tap water irritates sensitive parts of the cat’s nose. Let tap water sit for 24 hours before giving it to a cat.
The average cat food meal is the equivalent to about five mice.

Cats sleep 16 to 18 hours per day. When cats are asleep, they are still alert to incoming stimuli. If you poke the tail of a sleeping cat, it will respond accordingly.
In Great Britain, black cats are thought to bring good luck.

Like birds, cats have a homing ability that uses its biological clock, the angle of the sun, and the Earth’s magnetic field. A cat taken far from its home can return to it. But if a cat’s owners move far from its home, the cat can’t find them.
Hunting is not instinctive for cats. Kittens born to non-hunting mothers may never learn to hunt.
Cats bury their feces to cover their trails from predators.
Mother cats teach their kittens to use the litter box.
Among other tasks, cats can be taught to use a toilet, come, sit, beg, eat with their paws, heel, jump through a hoop, play a piano, play dead, roll over, open a door, hide food in boxes, shake, and fetch.

The ancestor of all domestic cats is the African Wild Cat which still exists today.
In ancient Egypt, killing a cat was a crime punishable by death.
In ancient Egypt, mummies were made of cats, and embalmed mice were placed with them in their tombs. In one ancient city, over 300,000 cat mummies were found.

Tylenol and chocolate are both poisonous to cats.