Canine Wonders Part 2: 45 More Interesting Facts about Dogs

The Cordoba Fighting dog was a dog breed so aggressive it preferred to fight rather than mate, leading to its extinction.

2. Dogs were originally listed as non-self-aware, due to failing the "mirror test". However, since dogs are not visually oriented, a new test, "sniff test of self-recognition" was developed, and it has shown significant evidence of self-awareness in dogs.

3. The skulls of pugs are so malformed that if you pull on a pug's leash too tightly, you might pop one of their eyeballs straight out of the socket

4. The average dog can count to 5 and understands about 165 words, including signs, signals, and gestures. The smartest dogs understand up to 250 words, putting them on par intellectually with two-and-a-half-year-old humans.

5. The Great Dane was first bred in Germany, not Denmark, for boar hunting. It is the national dog of Germany, where it is known as a German Mastiff.

Three border collies have been trained to run around a Chilean forest devastated by wildfire in 2017. They wear special backpacks that release native plant seeds as they run around the forest.

7. A service dog named Belle bit 911 into a cellphone after her owner collapsed from a seizure. She became the first canine recipient of the VITA Wireless Samaritan Award, given to someone who used a cell phone to save a life.

8. In 2014, when a sick Great Dane was rushed to the emergency hospital, several unidentifiable foreign objects showed up in his stomach x-ray. Hours later, the surgeon reported removing 43-and-a-half socks from the dog's stomach, saving his life.

9. A senior Labrador retriever named Ma Kettle was surrendered to a shelter by her owners. She then escaped her new home and walked nearly 30 miles to return to her previous owners- who would not take her back.

10. In post-Soviet Russia, feral dogs have learned to commute on the subway to broaden their food scavenging range including getting to know which stops they are looking for based on the announcements over the PA.

Most beagles are born with a white tipped tail. That was a trait selected by breeders to make them easier to identify among tall grass and dense vegetation while hunting.

12. Doug the Pug has a net worth of over $500,000. He is the most followed pug on the internet. Doug's Facebook page has over 6 million likes and 10 billion Facebook video views; his Instagram account has over 3 million followers, and his Twitter account has over 2 million followers.

13. In 1923, Bobbie the Wonder Dog walked a distance of at least 2,551 miles (4,105 km) through plains, desert, and mountains in the winter to return home to his family, swimming in rivers and even crossing the Continental Divide in the coldest part of winter.

14. When dogs get the "Zoomies", it's known as Frenetic Random Activity Periods, or FRAPS, which is pent-up energy.

15. The dog named Terry from the Wizard of Oz was paid $125 per week which was more than some of the other actors in the film.

The boxers are named so because they will paw at you, or 'box you', to show affection.

17. After years of inbreeding by kennel clubs, modern bulldogs' noses are so squashed they can barely breathe, their heads are so big they almost always have to be born via C-section. Their tails can become ingrown, they all have hip dysplasia, and their average life expectancy is 6 years.

18. After banning pit bulls in 1991, the rate of dog bites in the UK remained the same.

19. In 2007, a 9-year-old Jack Russell Terrier named George sacrificed himself to save 5 children from an attack by 2 Pit Bulls. All 3 dogs had to be euthanized, but George was posthumously awarded a PDSA Gold Medal and his heroism was commemorated with a bronze statue.

20. Rin Tin Tin, a German shepherd that starred in many silent films, almost won the first Oscar for best actor but the Academy, "believed that this new idea of handing out these Oscars could possibly be damaged by the first Best Actor being a dog."

Pugs originated in Tibet and were brought as presents to the ladies of sailors as presents and went by the name "little Turks."

22. In 2016, when a sheepdog named Pero was sold to a sheep farmer in Cumbria in United Kingdom, he escaped the farm and made a 240-mile solo journey back to his birthplace of Ceredigion to reunite with his original owner.

23. Barry, a mountain rescue dog in Switzerland, saved more than 40 lives of stranded people buried under avalanches during his lifetime.

24. The poodle is historically a hunting dog, and its iconic pom-pom haircut is intended to help the dog stay buoyant while retrieving waterfowl.

25. Pit Bulls were once known as "nanny dogs" because of how kind and protective they were of children.