Have you ever gazed over at your canine companion’s whiskers wondering “what are those long toe ticklers really for?” Fun fact, those strange looking coarse hairs around your dog’s muzzle, chin and eyes are actually packed with nerves. These particular hairs are very different than the rest of the fur on your dog's body. They play an important role in sending sensory messages to your dog's brain, much like the way our sense of smell, touch, sight, sound and taste send feedback to our human brains.
A dog’s whiskers aid him or her in determining the shape, size and speed of nearby objects, helping your dog with overall spatial awareness. They are also able to feel vibrations and subtle changes in the air through the follicles at the base of the hairs. This can be especially helpful in sensing danger approaching, providing an extra keen awareness of the surrounding environment. This is part of why dogs seem to have excellent medical intuition.
It is important that we understand the role whiskers have in our dogs lives, since some people find it tempting to trim whiskers for cosmetic reasons, but please don't. It will cause severe confusion for our pups, like losing one of our own five senses would.
Source (Image): Psychology Today
There are many myths that float around about dogs, one of the biggest being about the way dog's age in comparison to humans. It has been noted that for every year a dog is alive, it equivalents to 7 human years. This is inaccurate! It is true that dogs age much faster than humans, but the rate in which they age is dependant on their size. Small dogs (<20 pounds) age the slowest and large dogs (>90 pounds) age the quickest.
Every dog is considered a senior by the age of 7-8 years old, but the difference in human years between a small and large or giant breed is significant. Therefore a giant breeds life-span is said to be much shorter than one of a small breed.
Below you can see the comparison between small, medium, large and giant breeds aging vs humans.
Source (Image): Science
Many people still believe that dogs are colourblind, only seeing black and white. This is a very popular misconception that even the most devoted dog lovers believe. Dogs are limited in their spectrum of colours if we compare it to human vision, but they do see some colour!
Dogs' eyes contain two kinds of cones, while humans have 3. Cones are photoreceptor cells in the retina of the eye - essentially, they enable pups to distinguish blue from yellow, but not red from green. This is also the most common variation of colour blindness found in humans - and this is simply because they lack the third kind of cone that is in the eyes of humans who can see normally.
The neurons inside a dogs' eye are very active in response to the colour yellow, or shades similar. That activity slows down when blue light hits the cones. Red and green light have a neutral effect on these neurons, so they don't perceive any colour in response to red and green light. In place of these colours, dogs see shades of grey.
Since red objects tend to be darker than green ones, dogs typically use this sense to determine the difference between these two colours.
This is just one of many reasons why our furry friends are so unique!
Source: Live Science
Source (Image): Improve eye sight
Source (Image): The League of Dogs
Fun Fact: A dog's sense of smell is about 1000 times keener than humans, but do you know why?
Dogs use their nose and mouth to smell. As a dog intakes a scent, that scent sits in their large nasal cavity. The nasal cavity is divided into 2 chambers and contains over 220 million olfactory receptors. The mucus in their nostril grabs onto the scent particles and the olfactory receptors process them.
Dogs also occupy an additional olfactory chamber called a Jacobson's organ. This organ sits at the bottom of the nasal cavity and contains 2 fluid filled sacs that let them taste and smell at the same time!
Dogs sense of smell is their primary source of communication. They use it to determine the sex of other dogs, locate a female dog in heat, track animals, pick up pheromones, determine the mood of another dog or human, and the list goes on.....
Of course one the most exercised uses of their nose is to locate their favorite food and treats! Check out our Liver Lover Treats that are known for their irresistible aroma and flavor!
Source: Animal Planet
Source (Image): Bark Post
Source (Image): Pet Net
