48 Loyal Facts About Dogs That’ll Make You Go ‘Aww’ – Part 3

In 2013, a German shepherd named Talero stayed next to the body of his owner for 23 days after he had died in a snow storm in Argentina. He prevented animals from attacking the body and tried to keep his owner warm by sleeping by his side.

2. Dogs, more commonly elderly dogs, can catch a case of vertigo. It’s a vestibular disease that causes the dog to lose its sense of balance. It can last from one day to two weeks, and unfortunately, there is no treatment other than to wait.

3. In 2019, a Labrador retriever named Hatty was sworn in as an Illinois County “Comfort Dog.” Her paw was on a law book as an oath was read. Hatty’s job is to comfort sexual trauma victims during testimony and interviews. The dog works 9-5 for up to 200 cases per year. She was trained by prison inmates.

4. Boatswain (1803-1808) was Lord Byron’s beloved Newfoundland dog. When he contracted rabies Byron personally nursed him despite the risk. After he died Byron wrote the poem “Epitaph to a Dog” in his honor. His wish to be buried with Boatswain was denied. The dog’s tomb is larger than Byron’s.

5. In the 1930s, a dog named Swansea Jack from Wales saved a total of 27 people from drowning in the River Tawe. He was awarded a silver cup by the Mayor of London and to this day is the only dog to have been awarded two bronze medals by the National Canine Defence League. He was named ‘Dog of the Century after his death.’

A gifted dog named Donny the Doberman has shown arranging some of his 80 plush toys into evenly spaced triangles and lines and chooses to use, for example, only stuffed frogs or monkeys for a particular design, completely of his own accord.

7. In 2015, a guide dog named Figo in New York was awarded the ASPCA’s “Dog of the Year” award for running in front of an oncoming bus to protect his blind owner and didn’t leave her side until she received medical attention even though he suffered a broken leg.

8. An Australia Special Forces dog named Sarbi, who was trained in explosives detection, went missing for 14 months in Afghanistan after she disappeared during an ambush in 2008. She was later rediscovered by an American soldier and flown back to her Australian handlers.

9. Boye, the poodle of Prince Rupert of the Rhine, was believed to possess magical powers and be the Devil in disguise and often accompanied his master into battle during the English Civil War. After the war, the poodle was shot with a silver bullet.

10. Huskies need to train to be better distance runners. While the average pet husky can only run between 10 to 20 miles a day, a well-conditioned race husky can run for 11 hours straight making up to 125 miles. They can repeat this distance for up to 10 days in a row.

Pomeranians used to be much bigger, weighing about 40 lbs (18 kilos). Then Queen Victoria got a tiny one, which immediately became popular. By the time she died 12 years later, the size of the breed had decreased by half.

12. In 1941, a Great Dane named Juliana saved her master's home from burning down during the Blitz by urinating on a German incendiary bomb that had fallen through the roof. For this, she was awarded the Blue Cross, similar to the Dickin Medal.

13. Dogs can get “Limber Tail,” sore tail muscles from working out too hard, often resulting from swimming, and can cause the dog to have such a sore tail that touching the tail may result in the dog crying and the tail may not wag for days.

14. Greyhounds have a 270-degree range of vision. They can see objects behind them and over ½ mile in front of them.

15. The St. John's Waterdog is an extinct breed of dog that was bred for fishing in Newfoundland during the 16th century. Owners started killing female pups since they were taxed more, after multiple laws raised taxes for owning dogs. The last two dogs were photographed in the 1980s.

Smoky was a Yorkshire dog who as found in New Guinea by an American soldier during World War 2. She survived 150 Air Raids. She even parachuted from 30 feet in the air, out of a tree, using a parachute made just for her. She was later rewarded with Eight Battle Stars and was also the first recorded therapy dog.

17. Dachshunds have 125,000,000 “smelling” cells compared to the 5,000,000 that humans have.

18. K9 "Officer Benny", a 2-year-old rescue Labrador Retriever, is Washington state's first wildlife crime detection dog. He is trained to find illegal shipments such as rhino horn, bear gallbladder, shark fin, firearms, spent casings, and elephant ivory.

19. The farthest distance that a lost pet dog has found his way home occurred in 1979 when Jimpa, a labrador/boxer cross, turned up at his old home in Pimpinio, Victoria, Australia after walking 3,218 km (2,000 miles) across Australia.

20. Dogs are not colorblind. They just can’t see quite as many colors on the spectrum as humans. In fact, their vision is better than humans when detecting motion or in the absence of light. It is believed they may even be able to see ultraviolet.

Calamity Jane, Calvin Coolidge's pure white Sheltie was so messy that they installed a dog bathtub in the White House for her daily baths. She was so dirty that the public lost interest in white Shelties, and the American Kennel Club breed standard now forbids more than 50% white coloring.

22. Ruswarp was a 14-year-old border collie who stayed at the side of his fallen master for 11 winter weeks on a Welsh mountainside. He lived just long enough to attend his master's funeral. Now his statue looks across the countryside where he once walked.

23. On one fine more morning in the city of Caballito in Argentina in 1988, a poodle fell 13 stories, hit an elderly woman on the way down and killed her. A second woman was killed after a bus hit her as she came to see the incident. Another man died of a heart attack after witnessing these events.

24. Dalmatians are not born with their spots, but instead, are born pure white. Their first spots start to develop about 3 weeks after birth, with additional spots continuing to form throughout their lives.

25. The idea of St. Bernard rescue dogs wearing casks of brandy comes from an 1820 British painting. In fact, though alcohol makes one feel warm, it does so by dilating blood vessels, hastening hypothermia. The idea is like "rescuing a burn victim with a keg of lighter fluid and a book of matches."