Top 5 Facts About Dogs

Thanks in no small part to movies, various breeds of dogs have gotten a lot of flack over the years for being overly-aggressive, with many people claiming that it is only in their nature to be so. However, a study done at the University of Cordoba claims that no breed of dogs are vicious by nature; it is all in the interactions with their owner. The most common signs of an aggressive dog are first-time owners, a lack of training, physical abuse, or even not spending enough time with it. Granted, certain dog breeds are more dominant over others, but the researchers say this factor has a minimal effect on their overall behaviour compared to the influence that human interaction has. You know what also has a minimal effect? The stain guarding I paid an extra $100 for.

We humans are told that this pug and this doberman are both dogs even though they look nothing alike, but how can dogs identify who they can and can’t mate with? While it may be obvious that a dog can distinguish between itself and its human owner, a 2013 study showed that a dog's perception goes far beyond simply "dog" and "human." The study showed dogs faces on two different screens. On one screen was a dog, on the other, a different kind of animal or a human. Regardless of what breed of dog was shown, the test subject dog always correctly identified the other dog face.

Whenever a dog eats the cat's poop, chases its own tail, or drops a deuce on my new high pile white carpeting even though I just took him for a walk, we question whether they even have a brain at all. They do (surprise!), and they may be smarter than we thought, according Stanley Coren of the University of British Columbia. He says that intelligence differs between breeds, but the average dog can learn up to 165 words, count up to five, and even show signs of knowing basic arithmetic. They can even intentionally deceive other dogs or people if they have the right incentive. The most intelligent dogs can learn up to 250 words, and if you're curious, border collies are the smartest. This level of intelligence is equal to the average two year-old.

Those who claim "my dog always knows when I'm upset, he's so adorable!" may not just be annoying, but they might also be correct! A 2015 study reveals that dogs have the ability to distinguish between different emotional expressions. The study, published in the journal Current Biology, claims that this makes dogs the first scientifically verifiable species outside of humans to distinguish emotions on species other than their own. The test dogs were shown the upper and lower halves of a face, and they were able to correctly identify the emotion more often than would be expected from random guessing, while also showing their awareness of differing emotions in humans.

We all know that dogs have an insane sense of smell– which makes you wonder why they sit by our feet after a long day at work. Anyhow, some dogs can even smell diseases, such as the specially trained scent dogs that are being used to detect thyroid cancer by smelling urine samples. Their results are equal to, or only slightly below the fine-needle aspiration biopsy, the current method of detection. They were able to correctly identify the difference between cancer and another disease 88.2% of the time. Similar results have also been shown for dogs detecting prostate cancer. Some dogs can even smell seizures, with many epileptics stating that a dog can accurately predict a seizure anywhere from 30 seconds to 45 minutes before it happens!


So, did you learn something new about your dog? And do you have any tips for cleaning pets stains, or on getting refunds from a discount flooring warehouse? For more man’s best friend top tens and for that much money I could have bought a pinball machine top fives, be sure to subscribe to Watchmojo.com.