Can Your Dog Really Understand You?

Dogs are about as smart as a two- or three-year-old child. This means they can understand about 150-200 words, including signals and hand movements with the same meaning as words.

Dogs Tempature

Canine "normal" body temperature range is 100.5 - 102.5 Fahrenheit (38 - 39.2 Celsius).

A body temperature below 100 or above 103F warrants a call to your veterinarian. Body temperature in dogs is most often measured rectally, ear thermometers can also be used, but it can be difficult to get an accurate reading. Gauging body temperature by the moistness of the nose or how warm the ears feel is not reliable.

Dogs And Their Eye Sight

It is a myth that dogs are color blind. They can actually see in color, just not as vividly as humans. It is akin to our vision at dusk.

Simple Facts About Dogs

A dog has 42 to teeth in its mouth

A dog’s heart rate beats 70 to 120 times per minute. A humans heart rate will beat 70 to 80 times per minute.


Chocolate affects a dog’s heart and nervous system; a few ounces is enough to kill a small dog.


A dog’s sense of smell is about 1000 times stronger than a human.


All breeds of dogs are pregnant for approximately 60 days (2 months).


Female dogs that are spayed eliminate the chance of uterine infection, uterine cancer, and ovarian cancer.


Male dogs that are neutered nearly eliminate the risk of perineal hernias and penile tumors.


Dogs sweat through their pads and feet.


The average dog lives about 15 years.

One Dog Fact

Dogs were first domesticated from wolves at least 17,000 years ago, but perhaps as early as 150,000 years ago based upon recent genetic fossil and DNA evidence. In this time, the dog has developed into hundreds of breeds with a great degree of variation. For example, heights at the withers range from just a few inches (such as the Chihuahua) to roughly three feet (such as the Irish Wolfhound), and colors range from white to black, with reds, grays, and browns occurring in a tremendous variation of patterns.

Dogs are highly social animals and this similarity in their overall behavioral pattern accounts for their trainability, playfulness, and ability to fit into human households and social situations. This similarity has earned dogs a unique position in the realm of interspecies relationships. The loyalty and devotion that dogs demonstrate as part of their natural instincts as pack animals closely mimics the human idea of love and friendship, leading many dog owners to view their pets as full fledged family members. Dogs seem to view their human companions as members of their pack, and make few, if any, distinctions between their owners and fellow canines. Dogs fill a variety of roles in society and are often trained as working dogs. Dogs that do not have traditional jobs, a wide range of dog sports provide the opportunity to exhibit their natural dog skills. In many countries, the most common and perhaps most important role of dogs is as companions. Dogs have lived with and worked with humans in so many roles that their loyalty has earned them the unique sobriquet "man's best friend."

The Dog

Over the 15,000-year span in which the dog has been domesticated, it has diverged into only a handful of landraces, groups of similar animals whose morphology behavior have been shaped by environmental factors and functional roles.

Grooming your dog

Fifi comes prancing out of the groomer’s, one delicate paw in front of the next. Blue ribbons tied to his ears, his tail cut into a tidy little pompom. He’s perfectly pretty-maybe too perfect to be playing fetch in the backyard, you worry.

Grooming your pets doesn’t mean that they have to be made-up and untouchable; it simply means that you’re taking good care of their health by keeping a watchful eye on their hygiene. Pets, like humans, are more likely to remain healthy when they are clean and well groomed. Contrary to popular belief, dogs and cats are not wild animals; they require regular grooming attention to keep them healthy in their domestic environments. One of the major benefits of a regular grooming regimen is that you will become familiar with your pet’s body. This allows you to quickly recognize problems with his health, so you can bring them to your veterinarian’s attention sooner. Remember that you should seek help from your veterinarian if you think that your pet will be difficult to groom alone.