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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What to Do When Your Child Wants a Dog

A lot of people and children in particular are influenced by what they see or hear about dogs in the media and then decide that they want to have a dog of their own. In particular watching a film with a dog as a key character can be very compelling!

Unfortunately watching a film you don't really get a sense of what the needs of the dog are and how much time, cost and energy it takes to properly look after one. A great deal of commitment is needed to understand and fulfil the responsibilities of dog ownership.

On the upside, of course a dog can be a wonderful companion for a child and owning a dog can teach them important lessons like responsibility, self-control, caring, compassion and loyalty.

Generally dogs are very loving pets and provide the family with a joint sense of purpose: for example, everyone can have a share in fulfilling the needs of your dog, taking turns to feed it, train it and you can go out for a walk together to exercise the dog as well as taking pleasure in finding different places to visit or new things you can do together with the dog.

For adults having a dog can also help counter the stress of a high-powered job enhance our self-esteem, and alleviate life stresses - so long as the dog is well-trained and balanced.

If you are faced with a child who wants a puppy of their own, apart from reminding them that puppies quickly grow into adults that may not be quite so cute, they need to know that puppies don't arrive understanding how to behave in our home environment; they need training and socialisation which means almost constant attention in the early months. Even once they have had initial training, it is unfair (and potentially unsafe) for dogs to be left on their own for very long otherwise accidents and 'unacceptable' behaviour can be the result.

It is never fair to bring a dog into a home where they would be regularly left on their own for long periods each day while everyone is out at school or work.

Add to this the fact that some people who get a dog find that once the initial excitement has worn off, the dog's routine can become a tedious duty and the other responsibilities and costs are too much to tolerate! Many dogs end up being abandoned and need re-homing, which is not at all fair on the animals.

Sadly too, it can be the case that children all too often promise to help look after a dog and then get distracted with the next fashion fad, leaving their parents to do much or all of the work! So parents need to be sure it is what they want to commit to too.

As a first step, perhaps you might suggest that they experiment with a technology pet like a Nintendog (or a Furby or Tamagotchi) first, so that they can learn more about what is really involved in looking after a living pet?

These technology pets simulate what it is like to look after a pet; children can feed, talk to, pet, groom, train, walk and play games with their virtual dog and so gain an understanding of the demands of owning a real pet.

Then if it seems that your child still really wants to have a pet, it may be better to look at all options so that you consider pets that suit your home and lifestyle...

We are passionate about preventing vicious dog attacks!

We want people to have safer, more relaxed, happier and more balanced relationships with dogs - wherever they come in contact.

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