Dog facts and facts about dogs, from court-admissible hounds to the nights that took three of them.
117 facts on this shelf
Prairie dogs, those little pups popping in and out of holes on vacant lots and rural rangeland, are talking up a storm. They have different "words" for tall human in yellow shirt, short human in green shirt, coyote, deer, red-tailed hawk and many other creatures.
The bloodhound is the only animal whose evidence is admissible in an American court.
The Canary Islands were not named for a bird called a canary. They were named after a breed of large dogs. The Latin name was Canariae insulae - "Island of Dogs."
The sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." uses every letter in the alphabet. It was developed by Western Union to Test telex/twx communications
"Mudpuppies, also called waterdogs, are one of only a few salamanders that make noise. They get their name from the somewhat embellished notion that their squeaky vocalizations sound like a dog's bark."- national geographic
Despite the name, the French Bulldog's story starts in England, where lace workers in Nottingham kept toy-sized bulldogs. When many of those workers moved to France during the Industrial Revolution, they brought the dogs along, and the breed was refined into the Frenchie in France.
The French Bulldog's signature upright "bat ears" exist largely because of American breeders in the late 1800s, who pushed for bat ears over the folded "rose ears" some European breeders preferred.
French Bulldogs are terrible swimmers. Their heavy front ends, short legs, and flat faces make it hard for them to stay afloat, so a Frenchie near a pool should ideally wear a dog life jacket.
Most French Bulldog puppies are delivered by C-section. A veterinary study found that more than 80% of French Bulldog litters required a cesarean, largely because the puppies' big heads don't fit easily through the mother's narrow hips.
French Bulldogs are brachycephalic, meaning flat-faced, so their shortened airways make it harder for them to breathe and cool down. Because of the risk of overheating and breathing trouble in stressful, hot cargo holds, many airlines restrict or ban snub-nosed breeds like the Frenchie from cargo travel.
A French Bulldog named Gamin de Pycombe sailed on the Titanic in 1912 and didn't survive. His owner, Robert Daniel, survived and later filed an insurance claim of $750 for the dog, which was a big amount at the time.
French Bulldogs aren't known as big barkers, which is part of why they work so well in apartments. They "talk" more with snorts, grumbles, and yawns than with nonstop yapping.
In 2021, two of Lady Gaga's French Bulldogs were stolen in Los Angeles in an armed robbery in which her dog walker was shot. The dogs were later returned safely. The case highlighted how often Frenchies, which can sell for thousands of dollars, are targeted by thieves.
According to the AKC breed standard, a French Bulldog should weigh no more than 28 pounds. That makes it a compact dog with a surprisingly muscular, heavy-boned build for its size.
The American Kennel Club officially recognized the French Bulldog in 1898, so the breed has been part of AKC history for more than a century.
Ironically, the Labrador Retriever comes from Newfoundland, not Labrador. It descends from the St. John's water dog, which fishermen used to haul in nets and fetch fish that escaped from lines.
English aristocrats, especially the Earls of Malmesbury and the Dukes of Buccleuch, imported dogs from Newfoundland in the 1800s and developed them into the Labrador Retriever. Their breeding programs essentially saved the breed after the original St. John's water dog died out.
The Labrador Retriever has a thick, rounded, tapering "otter tail" that works like a rudder, helping the dog steer while it swims.
The AKC recognizes only three Labrador Retriever colors: black, yellow, and chocolate. "Fox red" Labs are technically a dark shade of yellow, and "silver" Labs aren't accepted under the breed standard.
Many Labrador Retrievers are genetically wired to be hungry. A 2016 University of Cambridge study found that about 23% of Labs carry a mutation in the POMC gene that disrupts their sense of fullness. That helps explain why Labs are famous for begging and prone to obesity.
The Labrador Retriever was the most popular dog breed in the US for 31 straight years, from 1991 until the French Bulldog finally dethroned it in 2022.
Labrador Retrievers have a dense, water-resistant double coat. The soft undercoat insulates and the harder outer coat sheds water, which let them retrieve in the freezing North Atlantic.
Labrador Retrievers have webbing between their toes, which basically gives them built-in swim paddles and makes them strong swimmers.
Labrador Retrievers are the breed used most often as guide dogs for people who are blind or visually impaired. Guide dog schools love them for their intelligence, steady temperament, and eagerness to work, and Lab and Golden Retriever crosses are also common.
President Bill Clinton owned a chocolate Labrador Retriever named Buddy, who lived in the White House alongside the family's famously independent cat, Socks.
The Golden Retriever was developed in the Scottish Highlands in the mid-1800s by Lord Tweedmouth (Dudley Marjoribanks). He wanted a gundog that could retrieve game across both rugged land and water.
The Golden Retriever traces back to an 1868 pairing of a yellow wavy-coated retriever named Nous and a Tweed Water Spaniel named Belle. Their puppies became the foundation of the breed.
Golden Retrievers are known for a "soft mouth," meaning they can carry things gently without damaging them. That trait was bred in so they could retrieve birds for hunters without crushing them, and some Goldens can even carry a raw egg without cracking it.
A Golden Retriever named Finley set a Guinness World Record in 2020 by holding six tennis balls in his mouth at once.
The Golden Retriever Lifetime Study, run by the Morris Animal Foundation, has followed more than 3,000 Golden Retrievers over their whole lives to understand why the breed has such high cancer rates. Cancer is the leading cause of death in Goldens.
President Gerald Ford had a Golden Retriever named Liberty, who even had a litter of puppies while living in the White House.
When the AKC created the Obedience Champion title in 1977, the first three dogs to earn it were all Golden Retrievers, which proves they're not just pretty faces.
The American Kennel Club officially recognized the Golden Retriever in 1925.
Golden Retrievers have a thick, water-repellent double coat that sheds moderately all year and heavily once or twice a year. Owners joke that dog hair becomes a permanent part of their wardrobe.
A Golden Retriever named Buddy starred in the 1997 movie "Air Bud" as a dog who plays basketball. Before that he appeared as Comet on the TV sitcom "Full House."
The German Shepherd Dog was created by German cavalry officer Captain Max von Stephanitz. In 1899 he registered a dog named Horand von Grafrath as the first official German Shepherd.
Rin Tin Tin was a German Shepherd puppy rescued from a bombed-out kennel in France during WWI by American soldier Lee Duncan. He became one of Hollywood's biggest stars in the 1920s, and his movies helped make the breed hugely popular in the US.
Anti-German feelings after WWI led the AKC to drop "German" and call the breed simply the "Shepherd Dog," and in Britain it became the "Alsatian." The AKC restored the original name in 1931, while the UK Kennel Club didn't fully return to "German Shepherd Dog" until 1977.
The first guide dog in the US was a female German Shepherd named Buddy. She was trained for Morris Frank, who co-founded The Seeing Eye in 1929, the first guide dog school in America.
German Shepherds are among the most common police and military dogs because they combine intelligence, trainability, a strong nose, and protective courage. That makes them useful for everything from patrol to bomb and drug detection.
A German Shepherd's nose has about 225 million scent receptors, compared with roughly 5 million in a human. That huge difference is why they excel at tracking and detection work.
German Shepherd puppies are born with floppy ears, which usually stand up on their own sometime between about 5 and 8 months old, often going through a hilarious one-up, one-down phase first.
German Shepherds are especially prone to hip and elbow dysplasia, an inherited joint problem. Responsible breeders screen parent dogs through organizations like the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals before breeding.
The breed's official AKC name is the "German Shepherd Dog," with "Dog" included as part of the name, even though almost everyone just says "German Shepherd."
A German Shepherd police dog named Trakr, brought from Canada to help at Ground Zero after the 9/11 attacks, is credited with locating Genelle Guzman-McMillan, the last survivor pulled from the rubble.
"Dachshund" means "badger dog" in German, which tells you exactly what the breed was built for.
Dachshunds were bred with long bodies and short legs so they could dig into badger burrows and chase the animals underground. Their shape is basically a piece of hunting equipment, not just a cute design.
Dachshunds come in three coat types (smooth, wirehaired, and longhaired) and two sizes, standard and miniature.
The first official Olympic mascot was Waldi, a colorful striped Dachshund created for the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics. The marathon route was even designed in the shape of a Dachshund.
About one in four Dachshunds develops intervertebral disc disease (IVDD), a painful spinal condition linked to their long backs. Owners are often told to limit jumping off furniture and to use ramps.
During WWI, the Dachshund's German roots made it unpopular in the US, and some people even rebranded the breed as "liberty pups" to dodge anti-German feelings.
Dachshunds have surprisingly deep, loud barks for their size because hunters needed to hear them while they were underground in a burrow.
Dachshunds have broad, paddle-shaped front paws that are perfect for digging, which is why many still love to excavate yards and blankets.
Wiener dog races are lighthearted sprint competitions for Dachshunds held across the US. The most famous is the Wienerschnitzel Wiener Nationals, where Dachshunds race in hot dog costumes.
Pablo Picasso lived with a Dachshund named Lump, who originally belonged to photographer David Douglas Duncan. Lump even appeared in some of Picasso's artwork.
Even though the Poodle is the national dog of France, it actually originated in Germany. Its name comes from the German word "Pudel," related to splashing in water, because it was originally a duck-retrieving water dog.
The Poodle is the national dog of France, even though the breed actually comes from Germany.
The classic Poodle show cut started as a practical hunting clip. Hunters shaved parts of the coat so the dogs could swim easily and left puffs of hair over the joints and chest to keep them warm in cold water.
Standard, Miniature, and Toy Poodles are all the same breed. They share one breed standard and are separated only by height.
In psychologist Stanley Coren's 1994 book "The Intelligence of Dogs," the Poodle ranked as the second-smartest breed, behind only the Border Collie.
Poodles have a curly, low-shedding coat that many people with allergies tolerate better, but no dog breed is 100% hypoallergenic, because allergens also come from saliva and dander.
In the late 1980s, musher John Suter raced teams of Standard Poodles in Alaska's Iditarod sled dog race. Their coats iced up badly in the cold, and the race later added rules limiting teams to northern breeds suited for Arctic conditions.
A black Standard Poodle named Siba won Best in Show at the 2020 Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, one of the most prestigious titles in the dog world.
The Labradoodle was first bred in 1989 by Wally Conron at Royal Guide Dogs Australia, to create a low-shedding guide dog. Conron later said he regretted it because of the unregulated "designer dog" craze that followed.
The poodle skirt was a huge 1950s American fashion trend. It was a wide felt skirt often decorated with an appliqué of a Poodle, and it became a symbol of 1950s teen culture.
Snoopy, the famous dog from Charles Schulz's "Peanuts" comic strip, is a Beagle, which makes him probably the most famous Beagle in history.
The USDA's "Beagle Brigade" uses Beagles at US airports to sniff out illegal fruits, meats, and plants in travelers' luggage that could carry pests and diseases.
Beagles have about 220 million scent receptors in their noses, which makes them among the best sniffers in the dog world and explains why they're always following their noses.
Beagles are famous for baying, a long, musical howl they use when they pick up a scent, so hunters could follow the pack even when they couldn't see it.
Beagles are the breed most commonly used in laboratory research because of their manageable size and gentle, easygoing temperament. This has led to many Beagle rescue and adoption efforts.
Queen Elizabeth I of England kept tiny "pocket beagles" or "glove beagles," hunting dogs so small they could supposedly fit inside a saddlebag or a gloved hand.
Many Beagles have a white-tipped tail, which breeders encouraged so hunters could spot the dogs in tall grass while they were tracking.
In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson caused a public uproar when he was photographed lifting one of his Beagles, named Him, by the ears. Johnson also owned a second Beagle named Her.
The AKC divides Beagles into two size varieties: those under 13 inches tall at the shoulder and those between 13 and 15 inches.
HMS Beagle, the ship that carried Charles Darwin on the voyage that inspired his theory of evolution, was named after the Beagle dog breed.
The Rottweiler is named after the town of Rottweil in southern Germany, where the breed's ancestors worked herding and guarding cattle.
Rottweilers are believed to descend from mastiff-type drover dogs that Roman armies brought across the Alps to herd the cattle that fed their troops.
Rottweilers were once called "Rottweil butcher's dogs" because they drove cattle to market and pulled carts loaded with meat for butchers.
German cattle merchants reportedly tied their money purses around their Rottweilers' necks, figuring no thief would be brave enough to try stealing from such an intimidating dog.
The Rottweiler nearly died out in the late 1800s when railroads replaced cattle drives and the dogs lost their main job. Their new careers as police and guard dogs helped save the breed.
In the early 1900s, Rottweilers were among the first breeds used as police dogs in Germany, thanks to their strength, intelligence, and protective instincts.
The American Kennel Club officially recognized the Rottweiler in 1931.
Male Rottweilers typically weigh between about 95 and 135 pounds, making them powerful, heavily muscled dogs that need early training and socialization.
The "Good Dog, Carl" picture book series by Alexandra Day stars a gentle Rottweiler named Carl who secretly babysits a baby, showing a softer side of a breed often seen as intimidating.
The AKC breed standard calls for Rottweilers to have docked (shortened) tails, a holdover from their working past. Many European countries now ban docking, so Rottweilers there usually keep their natural tails.
The German Shorthaired Pointer was developed in 19th-century Germany as an all-purpose hunting dog that could point, retrieve on land and in water, and track wounded game, basically a hunting Swiss Army knife.
Pointing is when a hunting dog like the German Shorthaired Pointer freezes, often with one front paw lifted, and aims its nose at hidden game so the hunter knows exactly where the bird is.
German Shorthaired Pointers have webbed feet, which makes them strong swimmers and great at retrieving ducks from the water.
German Shorthaired Pointers have won Best in Show at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show twice: Carlee in 2005 and CJ in 2016.
German Shorthaired Pointers come in solid liver (a deep brown) or liver and white, often with ticking or roan patterns that look like tiny speckles.
German Shorthaired Pointers are high-energy athletes that need a lot of daily exercise, like running, swimming, or hunting. Without it, they can get bored and destructive.
The American Kennel Club officially recognized the German Shorthaired Pointer in 1930.
In Germany, the German Shorthaired Pointer is called the "Deutsch Kurzhaar," which literally translates to "German Shorthair."
The German Shorthaired Pointer was developed by mixing older German bird dogs and tracking hounds with the English Pointer, which added speed, elegance, and a sharper pointing instinct.
Prince Albrecht zu Solms-Braunfels of Germany is credited with helping develop the German Shorthaired Pointer in the 1800s by encouraging breeders to focus on versatility and hunting ability.
The Bulldog was originally bred in England for bull-baiting, a brutal blood sport. After England banned it with the Cruelty to Animals Act of 1835, breeders reshaped the Bulldog into the gentle companion it is today.
Yale University's Bulldog mascot, Handsome Dan, became the first live college mascot in the US in 1889, and Yale still keeps a live Bulldog in the role today.
The Bulldog is the unofficial mascot of the US Marine Corps, connected to the legend that German soldiers called Marines "Devil Dogs" during WWI. A Bulldog named Chesty serves as the mascot at Marine Barracks Washington.
Most Bulldog puppies are born by C-section. A veterinary study found that over 80% of Bulldog litters needed a cesarean because the puppies' large heads make natural birth risky.
The Bulldog became a national symbol of Britain, representing toughness and determination. During WWII, Prime Minister Winston Churchill was often compared to a "British Bulldog."
A Bulldog named Otto set a Guinness World Record in 2015 in Lima, Peru, by skateboarding through the legs of 30 people lined up in a human tunnel.
Bulldogs have flat faces and narrow airways that make it hard to cool down by panting, so they can overheat quickly in hot weather. Owners need to limit exercise on warm days.
According to the AKC breed standard, an adult male Bulldog weighs about 50 pounds and a female about 40 pounds, which is a lot of weight packed into a short, stocky frame.
Most Bulldogs can't swim well because their heavy, front-loaded bodies, short legs, and flat faces make it hard to stay afloat. Pools are a real drowning risk for them without supervision or a life jacket.
Studies of UK veterinary records have found Bulldogs among the shortest-lived dog breeds, largely because of breathing, skin, and joint problems tied to their extreme body shape.
Domestic dogs descend from an ancient population of wolves that were domesticated by humans tens of thousands of years ago.
Chocolate is toxic to dogs because it contains theobromine, a compound dogs can't process well.
When the original World Cup trophy was stolen in England in 1966, a dog named Pickles found it wrapped in newspaper under a hedge in London.
Hachikō was a loyal dog who waited at Tokyo's Shibuya Station for his owner every day for nearly 10 years after the owner died, and his statue there is now a famous meeting spot.
Eddie the dog on "Frasier" was played by a Jack Russell terrier named Moose.
Grapes and raisins are toxic to dogs and can cause kidney failure.
A hurdy-gurdy has a buzzing bridge called the "dog."
A 2007 UC Berkeley study found that people can follow a scent trail like dogs.
Onions are toxic to dogs and cats.
Garlic is toxic to dogs and cats.
A dog that served as the mascot for Hoover Dam workers is buried at the dam.
Bobbie the Wonder Dog traveled about 2,500 miles to return home to Silverton in 1924.