Canine Wonders Part 3: 40 More Captivating Facts about Dogs

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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

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.

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

8. 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.

9. 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.

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

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.

12. 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.

13. 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.

14. 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.

15. 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.

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.

17. 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.

18. 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."

19. Fufu, pet poodle of the current King of Thailand was given the rank of Air Chief Marshal in the Royal Thai Air Force and attended galas dressed in formal evening attire complete with paw mitts. The death of Fufu in 2015 was followed by 4 days of Buddhist funeral rites.

20. Zanjeer was a Sniffer dog who helped detect over 3329 kg of RDX explosives, 249 grenades, and live ammunition during the 1993 Mumbai Blasts and thus helped save thousands of lives. He died of bone cancer at the age of 8 and was buried with full state honors.

Bulldogs have wrinkly faces because they were bred to be fighting dogs and the wrinkles act like gutters to keep blood away from their nose and mouth.

22. A dog’s behavior changes when it senses the pregnancy of its owner (or family member). Some dogs become more protective while other dogs become more rebellious, chewing on items or peeing inside the home.

23. The Chow Chow and the Shar-pei are the only dogs that have black-blue tongue pigmentation.

24. Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, the 18th most popular purebred dog in the USA, were nearly all killed during World War 2 and every dog today descends from just 6 survivors.

25. The Salish Wool Dog is an extinct breed of white, long-haired, Spitz-type dog that was developed and bred by the Coast Salish peoples of what is now Washington state and British Columbia. The fur of the Salish Wool Dog was prized for making the famous and rare "Salish" blankets.