71 Interesting Facts About Dogs To Share With Kids

At some point, your little one might start obsessing over having a puppy as a pet. Before you plan on getting one, what if you can educate your child about dogs through dog facts for kids? This is one of the best ways to make your child aware of a man’s best friend and also prepare them before welcoming a pet to the home. Here is a list of some interesting facts about dogs that you can tell your little one. They would love reading through them and also share with their peers

1. Fun Dog Facts For Kids:

1. The oldest living dog was recorded in 1939, and it died at a ripe old age of 29. The dog was named Bluey, and it was from Australia.

2. Dogs are omnivorous animals. They eat a mix of both types of meat as well as non-meat foods. The non-meat foods that dogs eat include vegetables and fruits.

3. Dogs are the most popular pets for humans. On an average, one out of every three families who live in the US owns a pet dog.

4. All dogs have an internal clock, which helps them understand time. As a result, a dog can know the exact time when it has to eat, when it can expect its owner(s) to reach back home when it’s supposed to go for a walk and so on. If the activities are not carried according to the dog’s routine, it can become extremely restless and worried.

5. You should not let your dog eat raisins, grapes, chocolate, onions or garlic, as it could make your dog fall sick.

6. One of the first commands that most doggie-lovers teach their four-legged friends is ‘sit’.

7. Did you know that dogs sweat through their noses as well as through their paws? A dog uses its nose to smell, but it also uses its nose to cool itself in case it is hot.

8. Dogs have a fantastic sense of smell. They can smell even those scents that a very strong human nose cannot detect. In comparison to human beings, a dog has more than five million sensory cells in the nose that help it to detect all types of scents.

9. A dog’s sense of hearing is stronger than humans. A human being cannot hear sounds as far away as 25 yards while a dog can hear a sound that is almost at a ten times distance. A dog can hear a sound that is as far away as 250 yards.

10. A dog cannot eat an apple’s core, but it will happily eat the apple’s slices.

11. If you have ever wondered why a dog turns around two to three times before going to sleep, there is a good reason for it. Long ago, the ancestors of modern-day dogs, which were wild dogs back then, would turn around three times before they went to sleep. It helped them to pat down the grass on the ground and make it smooth before they could go off to sleep.

12. A dog can see much better at night than a human. There is a layer in a dog’s eyes, known as the tapetumlucidum. It helps the dog to see better at night by reflecting any light source. It is also the reason that you may feel a dog’s eyes glow at night.

13. A dog’s normal body temperature is about 102 degrees F.

14. A dog has a huge amount of energy stored inside its body, and it is important that you take it out on a daily walk, as it will help to release the pent-up energy from the body.

15. Did you know that a dog has made it through to the journey to outer space? The first dog that went to outer space was known as Laika. He made the trip in the year 1957 and was sent by scientists from Russia in the satellite Sputnik. In fact, Laika was the animal that went into outer space, much before humans. Laika had a puppy named Pushnika, which later had her own puppies, one of which was named Charlie. The American President John F. Kennedy adopted Charlie as a pet.

16. Ever seen a dog that cannot bark? The Basenji is a type of dog that cannot bark at all. It is a wolf type of dog on the continent of Africa.

17. While the human heart beats at a rate of 70 and 80 per minute, a dog’s heart beats much faster, at about 70 and 120 per minute.

18. The largest breed of dog ever known is the Irish Wolfhound, while the smallest breed of dog ever known is the Chihuahua.

19. Even though the Chihuahua is known to be the smallest breed of dog ever, the smallest ever individual dog was a Yorkshire Terrier. The dog lived in England weighed only four grams and was only two and a half inches tall.

20. In the year 1989, an Old English Mastiff made it to the world record by being known as the largest dog to live. The dog weighed 343 pounds and stood at a height of eight feet and three inches.

21. The St. Bernard is the heaviest the dog in the world.

22. While the breed name French Poodle has the name French in it, it originates from Germany. The particular breed of dog was used as a water dog, to help and catch birds that fell into ponds and water bodies after they were hunted by the hunters.

1. A Chihuahua can be of any color between 1 and 29 different types of colors.

24. Former US President George Washington had 36 dogs that lived with him and the same breed – the Foxhound.

25. The pet dogs of today are descendants of the gray wolf which is native to Asia, Europe, and even North America. It has taken about 100,000 years for the wolves to become domesticated and become the type of dog that is popular as pets in many homes today. The dogs are the sub-species of the gray wolf, which is endemic to wild areas.

26. While some dogs are born with a particular color of coat, there are others who develop more colors and spots on their coat as they grow up. A Dalmatian, as well as the Airedale terrier, is born with only one color on its coat. As they grow up, Dalmatians start to develop black spots on their coats, while the Airedale terriers develop a mixture of black, tan and gray color on its coat.

27. Did you know that when you smile at your dog with your teeth bared, your dog will not take it as a gesture of happiness but instead, will take it as a gesture of aggression? A dog shows its excitement and happiness by wagging its tail. When it bares its teeth, it means that it is angry. It is mostly a sign that your dog is becoming defensive or aggressive. These were some of the best and interesting information about dogs for kids.

2. Interesting Facts About Puppies:

28. When a puppy is born, it does not know how to walk and has to learn it just like human babies do. A puppy learns to walk between the ages of two and five weeks old.

29. When a puppy is born, its eyes are closed, and it is not able to immediately open them. A puppy can first open its eyes only after it turns three weeks old.

30. Just like human babies, puppies also have milk teeth that fall off to give way to adult teeth. When a puppy is born, it has no teeth, and the first set of teeth appears sometime between six weeks and two months of age. The teeth fall out again to give way to permanent teeth.

31. One of the first senses that a puppy learns is the sense of touch. Just as human beings have various senses; dogs also have the following senses: the sense of touch, the sense of smell, the sense of sight, the sense of hearing and the sense of taste.

32. A puppy has to stay with its mother for at least the first seven weeks after birth. The mother dog will help to keep her puppy warm and will also be able to help it eat and stay clean. Once a puppy becomes about eight-weeks-old, it starts to become independent and can go ahead to be adopted or live on its own.

33. A puppy can sleep up to about 19 hours in a day, and it is normal. On an average, a puppy will sleep for at least 14 hours a day, but in many cases, it easily goes up till about 19 hours. It includes both the naps that the puppy has in the day as well as the sleeping time at night.

34. If your puppy has taken away something and you want it back, do not run after your puppy. Instead, run away from your puppy after making sure that your puppy has seen you doing so. Once you start to run away from your puppy, it will think you are playing a game and will try to chase you and come to you. You can then easily get back what you wanted.

35. Just as human babies need a lot of vaccinations after being born, puppies also require them after birth.

3. Interesting Facts About Guide Or Service Dogs:

36. Guide dogs usually help those people who are not able to see or have low vision.

37. A guide dog has to go through a year or more of training before it goes to live with a family it has to help.

38. A guide or service dog also has to go through a test before it is sent to be with a family or companion.

39. A guide dog is taught how to ignore other people and only listen and focus on the companion that it has to be with. Even if someone else calls out to a guide dog or offers it food, a guide dog will know how to ignore and stay focused on its companion instead.

40. It costs around $20,000 to have a guide dog.

41. Before you want to pet a guide or service dog, you should always ask its companion for permission.

42. Some particular breeds of dog like Labradors make the best guides or service dogs as they are very easy to train and are also obedient.

43. When a puppy is about eight weeks old, it is placed with a volunteer puppy walker as part of the puppy development program. A puppy walker will help to introduce the puppy to various situations that it can often face as a guide dog.

44. Once a puppy turns about 12 months of age, it will be put to six months of intensive training. The puppy will then be ranked on 65 personality and temperament traits, 13 aspects of health as well as 21 tasks of guiding.

45. An adult guide dog will work for about eight to ten years before it is put in retirement.

46. A guide dog are allowed at various public places, such as restaurants, hospitals, clinics, offices, hotels, cinemas, beaches and shops. Unlike other dogs, a guide dog can also travel on various public vehicles such as domestic and international flights, buses, taxis, shuttles, ships, ferries, trains and more.

47. A guide dog for a visually challenged person will usually work best as a team for seven years. After the said time, the person will usually opt for a different guide dog.

48. A guide dog is taught to walk in a straight line in the center of the pavement in case there is no obstacle in the area.

49. A guide dog will not turn on a corner unless it is told to do so.

50. A guide dog is also taught how to stop at a curb and wait to get the command to cross the road, to turn left or to turn right. It knows how to make its way safely through traffic and how to deal with a particular situation that is related to traffic.

51. A guide dog is also taught how to assess height and width so that it can help its companion avoid any bumps on the head or the shoulder.

52. A guide dog has to spend about four weeks of intensive training with its to-be companion before it is qualified to work as a team. Once the training is over, and the team gets approval, the guide dog will get a yellow or white harness. These were some of the best and interesting guide dogs facts for kids to know.

4. Interesting Facts About Police Dogs:

53. Some of the first known human cultures in which a dog was used to help a police officer were the Greeks, the Persians, the Assyrians and the Babylonians.

54. More than 200 years ago, the European police department started to use bloodhounds to help them sniff out criminals.

55. In New York, police dogs were used for the first time in the year 1907.

56. Dogs were used by police teams during World War I as well as during World War II.

57. The smelling sense of a police dog is almost 50 times more powerful than the smelling sense of a human being. A police dog can sniff out bombs, weapons, and even drugs that the human nose cannot smell.

58. The most common breed of dogs that are used as police dogs is the male German Shepherds as they are extremely smart, strong and even aggressive. The first type of police dogs that were ever given to K9 police officers was the German Shepherds.

59. A police dog goes through a rigorous and extensive set of training, and the training process can cost as high as $ 8,000.

60. Only the best of the police officers, who are also known as K-9 officers, are allowed to have a dog as a partner. Once they are allowed to work together, the K-9 police officer and the police dog remain a team until the dog retires.

61. A police dog is trained to be aggressive and scary even when it growls or barks. In some cases, a police dog can scare a criminal by just looking at it or giving it a low growl.

62. The police dog trainers help to train their dogs by using a different mix of games. Police dogs especially love to play a game of tug of war in which the officers use old towels. The police dog trainers also hide various items, including drugs, to encourage the dog to go and find it. Only when the dog can find the items the police dog trainers allow them to play.

63. The police dogs live with their police officer partner.

64. Sometimes, different dogs are trained for different jobs with the police. While some dogs will be specifically trained to sniff out bombs, others will be trained to sniff out and track people. In most cases, a Beagle is trained to sniff out items such as drugs in the bags of people at the airport. There are also search and rescue dogs that are trained to search and watch out for people who are hurt or who are missing.

65. A tracking police dog is one who is specially trained to use its sense of smell and track down criminals or people who have gone missing. A tracking dog is first given training for some years, and once it is fully trained, it can track down the most cunning of criminals.

66. A substance detector police dog is one who is specially trained to use its sense of smell by focusing on a particular substance that the police officer is looking for.While some dogs are trained to specifically sniff out bombs and dangerous explosives, others may be trained to sniff out illegal substances.

67. A police dog that is trained to sniff out bombs and explosives is not only taught to detect the explosives but is also taught how to respond very carefully to the situation. It is also taught to let carefully its police partner know where exactly the explosive is located.

68. A police dog that is trained to sniff out illegal substances can help its police partner to avoid a long time of search through luggage and body and instead immediately help to locate the exact position where the drug is kept.

69. A police dog is also taught to help a police officer with the duty of maintaining law and order situations. In some cases, a police dog will have to chase a criminal and hold the person in place till the police officer arrives. In some cases, a police dog that has to help with law and order situation may just have to guard a particular area, such as a jail or a prison, to prevent any criminal from escaping.

70. A cadaver dog is a type of police dog that is taught to sniff out and locate dead bodies. It is a very important job that the police dog helps the police officer with.

71. Once a police dog retires, it often goes to live in the house of the same police officer who it has been a team with for all these years. As the dog and the police officer both form a very strong emotional bond through the many years spent working together, such an alliance is the most common one.

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