Dogs fact for kids

Dog facts kids Hello ! This section is specifically for dog facts for kids. There is so much that we can learn about canines and they are very interesting animals.  When it comes to dog facts, kids love to read about information that they can pass on to family and friends.  So, enjoy yourself as you have a look through our dog facts that kids will be interested in.

The oldest living dog lived until he was 29 years old, this was recorded in 1939.  His name was Bluey and he lived in Austrailia. If you are wondering about what type of breed he was, he was a Queensland 'heeler' – this breed was used for herding other animals.

Dogs can smell things that humans cannot.  The nose has sensory cells, they work to allow a person or animal to smell things.  A dog has about 5 million more than you do ! 

Dogs are omnivorous.  This means that they must eat both meat and plants (which would be vegetables and/or fruits).

They cannot eat the cores of apples, but they can eat apple slices.

They also should not eat raisins, grapes, onions, chocolate or garlic because it can make them sick.

They are the most popular pet to own. Out of all of the families living in the United States, 1 out of 3 has a puppy or dog.

Funny DogThey know what time it is by relying on their “internal clock”. They know exactly when it is time to eat, when to expect their owner to come home, when to expect walks and more. They can become very restless if something does not happen when they expect for it to.

“Sit” should be the very first command that an owner teaches to a dog.

You have some muscles to move your ears, but dogs have 2 times more than you do to move their ears!

Did you know that a dog uses his nose for smelling, but also uses it to cool himself off if he is hot?  A dog sweats their his nose! They also sweat through their paws.

Have you ever seen a dog turn around 3 times before they go to sleep? This is because long ago, wild dogs (which were their ancestors) did this to cause grasses to be patted down to the ground before they slept on them.  Today’s dog still have this instinct inside of them.

Puppies do not know how to walk when they are born – They must learn just like toddlers do. This happens between the ages of 2 and 5 weeks old.

Newborn pups are born with their eyes closed and they do not open until they are about 3 weeks old.

Puppies are born without having any teeth. They grown slowly from 6 weeks to 2 months….and then fall out again so that adult teeth can take their place.

There are 5 scenes that a person or animal can have: Touch, taste, smell, hearing and seeing. A puppy first has the sense of touch before any of the other ones.

Puppies need to stay with their mother until they are about 7 weeks old.  They need her for warmth, help with eating and she cleans them.  When they are 8 weeks old, they are much more independent and ready to go to a loving new home.

Dogs should be walked every day because they can have a lot of energy stored up in their bodies and going for a walk helps to release that energy.

The normal body temperature for a dog is 101.2 ° Fahrenheit.

If your puppy takes something that you do not want them to have, do not chase after them.  Make a game out of it, where YOU run away and make them chase you….It is a lot easier to get the item back.

It is perfectly normal for a puppy to sleep up to 19 hours per day. The average is just around 14 hours, but since each dog is an individual, that number can indeed go up to the 19 hours…and this includes sleeping at night as well as naps throughout the day. 

Dogs can see much better at night than we can. This is because they have a layer behind their eyes, called the tapetum lucidum. It works to reflect any light source and this is why you may see a dog’s eyes shining in the dark.

The first dog that was sent into outer space was named Laika.  He was sent by Russian scientists out in a satellite in the year 1957.

We bet that with this dog fact, kids may be very surprised….There is one type of dog that cannot bark at all.  It is called a Basenji and is a wolf type dog that lives on the continent of Africa.

Dogs can hear things that we cannot.  Most of us can hear a sound that is about 25 yards from us…But dogs can hear sounds that are 10 times as far, 250 yards away!

A dog’s heartbeat is a lot faster than ours.  Theirs is between 70 and 120 beat per minute, humans are just between 70 and 80.

French Poodles actually originated in Germany.   The German word for puddle is pudel…These dogs were used as water dogs… catching birds that hunters would shoot that would then fall into ponds.

In 1989, a dog set the world’s record for being the largest one ever recorded.  He was an Old English Mastiff and he weighed 343 pounds!  He was also very long at 8 feet and 3 inches.

Even though the Chihuahua is the smallest breed, a Yorkshire Terrier was the smallest individual dog ever recorded.  He was only 4 ounces as an adult and was only 2 and ½ inches tall.  He lived in England.

A lot of people know that the ancient Egyptian civilization loved cats, but they also loved dogs too.

boxer puppyThe most popular names for male puppies are Max and Jake. The most popular names for female pups are Maggie and Molly.   People must like the letter M!

Many believe that the Taco Bell dog is a boy dog, because of the voice given to it. However, it is a girl named Gidget.

Bingo, a male, is who you see on a box of Cracker Jacks snacks.

The Chihuahua can be 1 or more of 29 different colors.

Each nose print is as unique as a person’s fingerprints or snowflakes…No two are alike.

Humans have 9,000 taste buds on their tongue, dogs have 1,700….And cats have only 473.

Newborn puppies need to receive vaccinations similar to how human babies do. 

President Lyndon Johnson had two Beagles, their names were not very original, they were named “Him” and “Her”.

Former President George Washington had 36 dogs; they were all the same breed: Foxhounds.

There have been more than 50 dogs who have lived in the White House.

The famous Davy Crockett had a dog that he named Sport.

The Labrador Retriever is the most popular dog, and the Azawakh is one of the most rare (there are only about 150 living in the United States).

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10 amazing facts about dogs for kids

If you have both children and a dog, you will probably be keen to get your children involved in caring for your dog when they are old enough to start learning about responsibility, and begin to build the foundations of a lifelong love of dogs and respect for both animals in general, and man’s best friend in particular.

Keeping things interesting and making learning fun is half the battle when trying to engage children’s minds and get them enthused about a subject, and appealing to children’s appetite for the unusual or intriguing can go a long way towards achieving your goals! With this in mind, here is a list of ten fun facts about dogs and a little additional background information on them to get you started, written with children in mind.

1.  Puppies are born blind, deaf and without teeth

 Puppies’ eyes are sealed shut at birth, and only open when they are around ten to fourteen days old. Their hearing will develop at around eighteen days old, while their first set of teeth will not begin to develop until they are at least six weeks old! Human babies are able to see and hear from birth, although they too do not develop their teeth until they are older!

2.  Dogs are descended from wolves

The domestic dog descended from the grey wolf, which is native to Europe, North America and Asia. The gradual domestication of wolves into the dogs that we share our homes with today started many years ago; around 100,000 years ago, to be precise! Dogs are a sub-species of the grey wolf; meaning that the grey wolf still exists in its natural form in the wild today as well.

3.  Man’s best friend

Dogs are often referred to as “man’s best friend,” which is a reference to the popularity of dogs as pets and companion animals. It is believed that the phrase originated as part of a courtroom speech in Missouri, America, in 1870, in a case where a farmer sued his neighbour over the shooting of his dog.

4.  Dogs in space

The very first live animal to go into space was not an astronaut, but actually a dog! Laika, a Russian dog, orbited the earth in the Russian spacecraft Sputnik in 1957. One of Laika’s puppies, Pushnika, later had a litter of her own with a terrier named Charlie, which belonged to the American president John F. Kennedy!

5.  Dogs and coat colour development

Some dogs, such as the Dalmatian and the Airedale terrier, are born all one colour at birth; white in the case of Dalmatians, and black in the case of the Airedale. Only as they start to grow and develop after birth does their adult coat colour develop; black spotted in the case of the Dalmatian and a mixture of grey, black and tan for the Airedale!

6.  Dogs and smiling

You might think that smiling at your dog with your teeth showing is a friendly, welcoming sign, but to many dogs, this is seen as an act of aggression! Dogs do not smile with their mouths in the same way that people do; dogs indicate happiness and excitement by wagging their tails. When a dog shows their teeth, this is usually defensive or aggressive; and so smiling at your dog with your mouth open may be read by your dog as an angry face!

7.  Dogs and vision

The vision of the average dog is not as keen as that of people; dogs find it much easier to see movement than a stationary object. If you are standing still more than 300 yards away from a dog, they are unlikely to be able to see you; but if you move or wave your arms, you will become visible! Try it out!

8.  Tiny dogs

Small dogs are often referred to as toy dogs, lap dogs or handbag dogs. This is because they appear so small that they might be mistaken to be a toy, can fit comfortably into your lap, and could even fit into a specially designed dog handbag to be carried around in! However, even the smallest dog is still a dog, and should be treated as such!

9.  Spaying and neutering

Spaying and neutering dogs is a surgical procedure to remove the ability to have puppies. This is important, as there are already more dogs and puppies within the UK than there are loving homes to care for them. Spaying is the name for the operation performed on a female dog, and neutering or castration is the name for the operation performed on a male. The name used to describe both procedures as a whole is also called ‘neutering,’ however! Left un-neutered, just one pair of dogs and their subsequent offspring could produce as many as 66,000 dogs over the course of six years!

10.  Dogs and smell

The sense of smell is the dogs most highly developed sense, and dogs have a sense of smell that is over 1,000 times more sensitive than that of people! The area of the brain that processes smell is over four times larger in dogs than it is in people too. Dogs can follow a scent or the smell of a person or object and track it for many miles, which is why dogs are often trained to help to search for missing persons by the police and search and rescue organisations.

If your children already enjoy playing with and spending time with your dog, or are interested in science, then you are already off to a head start! Having an animal around the home can act as an important learning tool for children, and teach them a wide variety of life lessons, from biology to empathy to responsibility and much more.

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Interesting Fact about dogs and puppies

If you love dogs and puppies you probably spend as much time around them as possible, and no doubt enjoy learning more about all things canine related. Whatever your level of knowledge, here are a few common dog myths de-bunked, and a few interesting facts which you may not know about man's best friend. Read on to find out more!

All about puppies

• Out of their five senses, the first sense that develops and becomes utilised in the baby dog is that of touch.

• You can get a good idea of the eventual size that your new puppy will become by looking at their feet- Large paws may take some growing into, but they're one of the first indications of the ultimate size the dog will reach.

• If your puppy bites or nips in play, you can often effectively train them out of this by saying 'ouch!' in a loud voice. This is a similar response to the yelps their littermates make when the same thing happens to them!

• Puppies only listen to the initial syllable of a word- So if your pup is named 'Princess Pretty Paws' then the only part of the name that your pup will come to recognise is 'Prin!'

• Puppies are born without their teeth- their first set of baby teeth start to develop from around four weeks old onwards. But they don't keep them for long- at four months old, your puppy will begin to lose his baby teeth and grow his adult set.

• Puppies are not born with a sense of smell either- Surprising when you consider that the sense of smell is the most utilised sense of the adult dog. Scent glands begin to develop in your puppy at around three weeks of age.

• During their first week of life, a newborn puppy will spend up to 90% of it's time asleep.

• Puppies may potentially be rejected by their mother if they are born by caesarean section and cleaned before being given back to them, as the dam may be unable to recognise the puppy as their own.

• Puppies are most likely to interpret a person smiling at them as a sign of aggression if the person is showing their teeth!

All about dogs

• Your dog's heart rate is between 70 and 120 beats per minute. The average human heart rate is 70 to 80 beats.

• A fully grown adult dog has 42 teeth. A fully grown person has 32.

• Dogs don't sweat like people do- the only sweat glands on the dog are on the pads of their paws. Dogs regulate their body temperature by panting and drinking water.

• It's not entirely sure where the (now banned) process of docking or amputating some dog's tails originates from- although it possibly began in ancient Rome with the rumour that docking a dog's tail curtailed the spread of rabies.

• A dog's sense of smell is around a thousand times more sensitive than that of people. We have about five million scent glands- Dogs have over two hundred and twenty million!

• Similarly, the dog's sense of hearing is around ten times more sensitive than that of people.

• The average dog is thought to be about as intelligent as the average two year old child, according to research by leading animal psychologists in America.

• The dog's shoulder blades are not attached by bone to the rest of their skeleton, instead being held in place by muscle and ligament. This enables them greater flexibility and extension of the leg when running.

• There are estimated to be around 500- 600 separate dog breeds in the world- although not all of them are recognised in the UK by The Kennel Club.

• Male dogs urinate by cocking their legs in order to increase the amount of area they cover with their urine, and ergo scent mark a particular area more thoroughly. Male puppies do not cock their legs to urinate until they become older, and as young pups, both male and female dogs urinate in the same way by squatting.

• Around 25% of dogs have a tendency to snore when they are asleep.

• While most dogs like to swim, some dogs cannot swim at all- most notably dogs with heads which are proportionally large for their body size (which causes them to tip forwards and not be able to keep their heads above the water) and brachycephalic dogs (dogs with squashed up looking faces, like boxers and pugs) as they cannot both regulate their breathing and swim simultaneously. Take care around water if you own any of these breeds.

• When frightened or to indicate submission, dogs will tuck their tails between their legs- this is in order to cut off access to the scent glands around the anus, which carry identifying information about the dog which can easily be 'decoded' by other canines.

• The three breeds of dog which are thought to be at the top of the canine intelligence scale are the Border collie, the poodle, and the golden retriever. The least intelligent dogs are considered to be the Afghan hound, the Basenji and the Bulldog.

• The nose prints of a dog are as unique as a person's fingerprints, and can be used to definitively identify an individual dog.

• Contrary to popular belief, dogs can see in colour, although their colour spectrum vision is not as sensitive as that of humans, and they often have many of the same visual traits as colour blind people. The dog's range of colour vision is at it's highest in low lights.

• Dogs have no sense of time in the same way that we do, although their body clocks dictate their need for food and going to the toilet, which is why owners often think their dogs are responding to specific times of the day with a conscious awareness of time passed.

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