amazing dog facts

4 amazing things you didn’t know about dogs

Dogs are great. Who doesn’t love dogs? We can’t get enough of them.

If you don’t like dogs, that’s probably a reflection on you more than anything. But how much do you really know about dogs?

We’ve compiled a list of some of our favorite dog facts that you might not know about.

Dogs can see color

We should specify that dogs can see some colors. Their range is along a yellow-to-blue axis, so they get some nice shades in there, but they don’t see anything close to the full range of human vision.

Their vision is much more similar to someone who might have partial color blindness rather than black-and-white.

Read a summary of the study here

Dogs can understand what you say

Not everything, obviously, but they understand much more than we sometimes give them credit for.

When dogs are spoken to, according to a study, their brains respond in a very similar way to how human brains respond. Vocabulary is interpreted in the left hemisphere and tone of voice is in the right.

The team running the study would run the canines through an MRI machine. While in the machine, a trainer would speak to the dogs with different combinations of tone and vocabulary and they would measure the dog’s resulting brain activity.

Not only did the study find that their activity was similar to that of how humans process the same things, but that their pleasure centers became active when the trainers were speaking in a praising tone with praising vocabulary.

So it’s probably best to be careful what you say in front of your dog from now on.

Read a summary of the study here

Dogs can probably tell how you’re feeling

A study found that dogs can catch a yawn from people, most easily from its owners and other people that it has a close relationship with.

This finding, when applied to larger theories about why yawning is contagious among people, may indicate that dogs have empathy for the people they care about in a way that other animals can’t quite come close to.

This lends some scientific credibility to the phrase “man’s best friend.”

Dogs poop on a north-to-south axis

We’re not really sure why they do it or how they know which direction is which exactly. But a study published in Frontiers in Zoology found that dogs will make sure to align themselves with the Earth’s magnetic field before they start to relieve themselves.

Specifically north-to-south as well. The dogs that the study followed over the course of two years didn’t go east-to-west at all.

BONUS: The Basenji can’t bark

The Basenji, a breed that is used for hunting in central Africa to this day, can’t bark at all—their larynx is a different shape from other dogs. But it does yodel, and it’s pretty adorable.

Here’s a nerdier fun fact that turned up in our comprehensive and important research.

The Basenji and 8 other breeds of dog fall under the classification of “ancient breeds”. This is because their genetic structures are strongly divergent from “modern” European breeds (meaning bred within the last 500 years). This means that they are likely among the first creatures to be considered dogs as we know them.

Hey, there were two bonus dog facts on the house!

So what did we learn today?

Dogs are pretty great. They’re fun and interesting. 10 out of 10 dogs agree you should spend some more time with them!

KME is your go-to IT support and dog enthusiast in Orange County. Whether you have dog questions, need some guidance on IT strategy, or just need a little help with your computers, don’t hesitate to reach out to the experts today.