dog
- The dog was one of the first animals domesticated by humans
- The Basenji is also known as the African Barkless dog because it yodels instead of barking.
- Rin Tin Tin was the first American dog movie star and signed his own contracts for 22 movies with a pawprint
- Chihuahuas are born with a 'molera', or 'soft spot' like a human baby, which usually closes as they mature.
- Davy Crockett's dog was named Sport.
- Zorba, an English Mastiff, is the heaviest dog on record, weighing 343 lbs at the age of 8 in 1989.
- According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the smallest dog on record was a Yorkshire Terrier in Great Britain who, at the age of 2, weighed just 4 ounces.
- The longest lived dog, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, was an Australian Cattle Dog, named Bluey, who lived to be 29.
- The first living being to travel in space was a small mixed breed dog named Laika, who gave her life orbiting the earth in the Russian Sputnik in 1957.
- John F. Kennedy's terrier, Charlie, sired 4 puppies with Laika's daughter, Pushinka.
- The Lundehund breed has 6 toes and can close its ears.
- Dalmation puppies are pure white at birth.
- Chihuahuas are born with a 'molera', or 'soft spot' like a human baby, which usually closes as they mature.
- Dogs do not have an appendix.
- An adult dog has 42 teeth.
- The only sweat glands a dog has are between the paw pads.
- A dog's normal body temperature is 100.5 to 102.5 degrees Fahrenheit.
- If none are spayed or neutered, a female dog, her mate, and their offspring can produce 67,000 dogs in 6 years.
- The most successful mountain rescue dog ever was a St Bernard, named Barry, who lived during the early 1800's and saved 40 lives.
- A 12 lb Yorkshire Terrier named Oliver once defended an elderly woman from an 80 lb Akita. The woman escaped to safety and the Yorkie survived with only nine stitches.
- A German Shepherd guide dog, named Orient, led her blind hiker the entire 2100 mile Appalachian Trail.
