50 Fun Facts About Hard Dogs

Which Central African breed yodels rather than barks because of its unusually shaped larynx?

The New Guinea singing dog shares the trait, and the breed is sometimes called the 'barkless dog'.

The Norwegian Lundehund normally has how many fully formed toes on each foot?

The extra toes helped it climb into cliff crevices to pull out puffins, which is what its name means: puffin dog.

Which breed's tongue is purple or blue-black, a colour that extends to its lips?

Chinese legend links the breed to black-tongued war dogs from Central Asia that resembled lions.

Dalmatian puppies are born with plain white coats; their first spots usually appear within how many days?

Spots are most often black or liver on white and range from 2 to 6 centimetres across.

How many toys could Chaser, the Border Collie trained by John Pilley, identify by name?

Pilley trained her from eight weeks old in 2004 as a formal research project in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

Which breed excels at water rescue thanks to webbed paws, a double coat and a muscular build?

'Newfs' have a dense soft undercoat beneath a water-resistant outer coat.

Zeus, the tallest dog ever recorded by Guinness, was a Great Dane standing how tall at the shoulder?

He beat the previous holder, George, by an inch and died in September 2014.

Aicama Zorba of La Susa, the heaviest dog ever recorded at 343 pounds, was what breed?

In 1989 he measured 8 feet 3 inches from nose to tail, about the size of a small donkey.

Bluey, the oldest verified dog ever, was an Australian Cattle Dog who died in 1939 at what age?

She lived on a farm in Rochester, Victoria, and still holds the Guinness World Record.

Barry, the famous St Bernard of the Great St Bernard Hospice, was credited with saving how many lives?

His byname Menschenretter means 'people rescuer', and his preserved body is in Bern's natural history museum.

Laika, the first animal to orbit Earth, flew aboard which spacecraft in November 1957?

A stray from the streets of Moscow, she died of overheating hours into the flight, on the fourth orbit.

Hachiko, the loyal Akita, waited for his dead owner at which Tokyo railway station for almost ten years?

Professor Hidesaburo Ueno died at work in May 1925; a statue of the dog now stands outside the station.

Which sled dog led the longest, most dangerous stretch of the 1925 serum run but was overshadowed by Balto?

Both dogs belonged to musher Leonhard Seppala; Balto ran only the final leg into Nome and got the Central Park statue.

Who was Balto's musher on the final leg into Nome?

The team ended up in squalor at a Los Angeles dime museum before Cleveland schoolchildren raised money to rescue them.

Greyfriars Bobby, said to have guarded his master's grave for 14 years, lived in which city?

He was a Skye or Dandie Dinmont Terrier, and his 1873 fountain statue is a much-rubbed landmark.

Rin Tin Tin was rescued as a puppy from a World War I battlefield in which country?

American soldier Lee Duncan found him in Flirey, nicknamed him Rinty and got him into silent films.

Sergeant Stubby, the decorated dog of World War I, was the mascot of which US infantry regiment?

He warned his men of mustard gas attacks and reportedly caught a German soldier by the seat of his trousers.

Morris Frank, the first American with a Seeing Eye dog, met his dog Kiss in 1928. What did he rename her?

He gave the same name to all six of his later guide dogs, and The Seeing Eye school opened in 1929.

Terry, the female dog who played Toto in The Wizard of Oz, was what breed?

Toto was her only credited role, and her daughter Rommy also became a movie Cairn.

Which male Rough Collie first played Lassie in the 1943 film Lassie Come Home?

Eric Knight's 1938 short story became a novel in 1940; Pal went on to six more MGM films.

Which continuously held US sporting events predate the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show (1877)?

The show was tied to Madison Square Garden almost without a break from 1877 to 2020.

Charles Cruft, founder of Crufts dog show, worked as general manager for what kind of company?

The first 'Cruft's Greatest Dog Show' was held at the Royal Agricultural Hall in Islington in 1891.

Karl Friedrich Louis Dobermann, who first bred the Dobermann in the 1880s, had what day job?

He also ran the dog pound in Apolda, Thuringia, which gave him plenty of breeding stock.

The Golden Retriever was developed in the 1860s at Guisachan, a Scottish estate belonging to whom?

Later Baron Tweedmouth, he crossed Flat-coated Retrievers with Tweed Water Spaniels.

Which former cavalry captain founded the German Shepherd breed in 1899 after seeing Hektor Linksrhein at a show?

He renamed the dog Horand von Grafrath and registered him as the first German Shepherd.

The name Dachshund means what in German?

They were bred to scent, chase and flush out badgers and other burrowing animals.

Most cynologists believe the Poodle originated in which country?

It is called the Pudel in German; larger Poodles retrieved wildfowl from water and smaller ones worked in circuses.

Which Hungarian livestock guardian is nicknamed the 'mop dog' for its long corded white coat?

It was brought to Europe by the Cumans and first appears in a Hungarian codex of 1544.

In 1978 Guinness named which Chinese breed the world's rarest, with only about 60 left?

Hong Kong businessman Matgo Law had appealed to the American Kennel Club in 1973 to help save it.

Chinese emperors carried the smallest of which breed in their robes, hence 'sleeve dog'?

The breed's name refers to Peking, home of the Forbidden City where it was a favourite of the court.

James Hinks created the modern egg-headed Bull breed by crossing bull-and-terriers with which extinct breed?

The result is the breed's distinctive egg-shaped head, almost flat from skull to nose.

Which two ear types distinguish the Papillon from its otherwise identical sibling variety, the Phalene?

Papillon means butterfly and Phalene means moth in French; the AKC recognised the breed in 1935.

Which sighthound, bred in Afghanistan's mountains, has a silky coat and a ring-curl tail?

Related types include the Taigan of the Tian Shan and the Kurram Valley Hound.

Which is the smallest recognized dog breed in the world?

The Mexican toy breed is named after the state of Chihuahua.

Roughly how many teeth does an adult dog have?

Puppies have 28 baby teeth; the adult jaw is built for consuming flesh.

A dog's colour vision is dichromatic; which colours make up its visual world?

Compared to humans, dogs have far better smell and hearing but poorer visual acuity.

Besides panting, dogs regulate body temperature by sweating through which body part?

They have very few sweat glands in the skin, so the respiratory system does most of the cooling.

Dogs were the first species domesticated, at least how many years ago according to the fossil record?

Genetic studies suggest the process may have begun over 25,000 years ago, before agriculture.

The Bonn-Oberkassel dog, the oldest known human-dog co-burial, dates to roughly how many years ago?

It was found in western Europe, where the oldest dog remains from the Magdalenian and Azilian cultures cluster.

The Iditarod starts ceremonially in Anchorage. Which town hosts its official restart?

The restart moved from Wasilla in 2004 because of a lack of snow, and the trail ends in Nome.

Ivan Pavlov, whose dogs made classical conditioning famous, was what kind of scientist?

Most of his work concerned temperament, conditioning and involuntary reflexes; he won the Nobel Prize in 1904 for work on digestion.

Snoopy's original drawings were inspired by which of Charles Schulz's childhood dogs?

Snoopy debuted in Peanuts on October 4, 1950, and later got a brother named Spike in the strip.

Disney's Pluto made his debut in the 1930 Mickey Mouse cartoon The Chain Gang as what breed?

Officially a mixed breed, he appeared in 89 short films between 1930 and 1953.

Before he was Scooby-Doo, the character was a bongo-playing sidekick with what name?

The show was originally titled Mysteries Five and the dog wavered between Great Dane and sheepdog.

Which novelist wrote the 1956 book The Hundred and One Dalmatians that Disney adapted in 1961?

Pongo and Perdita's litter of fifteen puppies is kidnapped by Cruella de Vil.

Stephen King's rabid Cujo is what breed?

King was inspired partly by a menacing dog he met at a motorcycle shop and by a Maine newspaper story.

Bo, the Obama family's Portuguese Water Dog, was named partly in tribute to which musician?

Malia and Sasha also chose the name after their cousins' cat and Michelle Obama's father.

Fala, the famous Scottish Terrier of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, lived from 1940 until what year?

He is buried beside the president at Hyde Park and appears in the FDR Memorial in Washington.

Queen Elizabeth II owned more than how many corgis during her reign?

The Pembroke Welsh Corgi's name means 'dwarf dog' in Welsh, and it was bred to herd cattle.

Which African breed has a strip of hair along its back growing opposite to the rest of the coat?

It was originally bred in Southern Africa to hunt and hold lions at bay.