Intriguing Facts About Dogs

Article by Tristan Andrews

Man's best friend is a very interesting animal. To see what some of the interesting things about dogs are, we can look at physical traits, historical facts, famous dogs, and phrases concerning canines.

Physical

- The pressure applied by the mouth of the average dog is 150-200 pounds per square inch and 450 pounds of pressure is applied by some dog's mouth's. - The canines sense of smell is 100,000 times more powerful than a persons.- Dogs have 2x more ears muscles for movement than humans.- It takes about 12 days after birth for puppies eyes to open completely.- A 1 year old dog and a person 15 years old are are equal in physical maturity.- A dog's normal body temperature is 101.2 degrees F.- A dog's range of hearing includes sound waves that vibrate at frequencies over 30,000 x per second.

Historical

- President Lyndon Johnson's 2 beagles were named Him and Her.- The Russian dog Laika was the first space dog in 1957.- Davy Crockett's dog was named Sport.- Collies were first called Scottish sheep dogs; this changed in the 1800's.- Marie Antoinette's spaniel was named Thisbe.- The Bible mentions dogs 14 times.- George Washington owned 36 foxhounds. One's name was Sweetlips.- Three dogs were survivors of the Titanic; the breeds were Pekingese, Newfoundland, and Pomeranian.- Roman mounted soldiers were accompanied by mastiffs in light armor.- Pete, the dog of Teddy Roosevelt torn off a French ambassador's trousers, while he was visiting the White House.- The ancient Egyptians bred greyhounds.

Famous

- The Cracker Jack's dog's name is Bingo.- Toto from the Wizard of Oz was a Carin Terrier, female, and named Terry. - The first canine Hollywood star was Rin Tin Tin.- All of the dogs that played Lassie were male.- Gidget is the Taco Bell dog's name.

Phrases

- Richard Brome wrote a comedy The City Wit or The Woman Wears the Breeches in 1653 that has this line in it: "It shall raine... Dogs and Polecats". - Jonathan Swift's poem, A Description of a City Shower, which was published in 1710 mentions drowned puppies and dead cats being washed through the streets during heavy rainfall.- The phrase 'dog days' or 'dog days of summer' comes from the belief that the hot summer days were caused by Sirius, which is the Dog Star. Its brightness is second to the sun. The ancient Romans made sacrefices to the star to stop the anger of Sirius, so the humidity and heat would lessen. The Roman term was caniculares dies; it means 'days of the dogs.' The Dog Star rose around the time of sunrise. It is called the helical rising. The name Dog Star comes from the Egyptians naming it after the god Osisrus.- Here are a few other dog phrases: that dog won't hunt, it's a dog eat dog world, top dog, and every dog has its day.

About the Author

Tristan Andrews is a freelance author who writes articles about dogs and dog food.

iTunes single: itunes.apple.com Hello yes this is Dog! It's a song about dogs on the phone. Obviously. Animated by the man known as Shmorky who you may know from SomethingAwful.com You can see more of his stuff here: www.somethingawful.com
Video Rating: 4 / 5

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