Dogs
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8correct to beat the crowd
Dogs have been our companions for more than 15,000 years, and this quiz covers the whole story in 181 free questions with answers: the breeds and what they were bred to do, puppies and how dogs grow, famous dogs from film, space and history, working dogs, and the science of how a dog smells, hears and sees the world. More than half of the questions are simple enough to serve as dog trivia for kids, so it works for a family game night or a classroom, and the rest climb to breed-standard and canine-biology detail that will test any vet or show judge. Every answer has been checked against a reliable source and each question shows its citation once you have answered.
30 of 181 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which Atlantic island group's Latin name means 'Islands of the Dogs'?
Canary Islands
Canary Islands: the Roman writer Pliny described an island called Canaria, home to huge dogs, and the songbird takes its name from the islands, not the other way round.
Q 02Which teeth does a dog use like scissors to shear meat?
Carnassials
Carnassials: on each side the last upper premolar and the first lower molar slide past each other as the jaw closes, so a dog slices meat with the side of its mouth, not its front teeth.
Q 03Which dog is famous for waiting at a Tokyo train station for nearly 10 years after its owner's death?
Hachiko
Hachiko met the evening train at Shibuya Station for more than nine years after his owner, Professor Hidesaburo Ueno, died in 1925; a bronze statue outside the station honours him.
Q 04What breed was Lassie, the famous TV and movie dog?
Rough Collie
Lassie is a Rough Collie: Eric Knight's 1938 story made the character famous, and Pal, the Rough Collie who played her in the 1943 film, founded the line used on screen for decades.
Q 05Dogs have around 1,700 taste buds; roughly how many do humans have?
9,000
Humans have roughly 9,000 taste buds, about five times a dog's 1,700, which is one reason dogs judge food far more by smell than by taste.
Q 06Which dog breed is known as the "firehouse dog" due to its historical association with fire departments?
Dalmatian
Dalmatians trotted beside horse-drawn fire engines as carriage dogs, a job they already did for coaches; when motor trucks replaced the horses, firehouses kept them on as mascots.
Q 07Zeus, the tallest dog ever recorded at 44 inches (111.8 cm) at the shoulder, belonged to which breed?
Great Dane
Great Dane: Zeus, from Otsego, Michigan, took the record from another Great Dane, Giant George, even though a different breed stands taller on average.
Q 08The first dog to orbit Earth was a stray picked up from the streets of which city?
Moscow
Laika was a stray found on the streets of Moscow; Sputnik 2 was readied in about four weeks and launched on 3 November 1957 with no plan to bring her back.
Q 09Which hunting breed's silver-gray coat earned it the nickname 'Gray Ghost'?
Weimaraner
The Weimaraner, named for the city of Weimar, was first used to hunt big game and later retrained as a bird dog and retriever.
Q 10What is the smallest dog breed in the world by height?
Chihuahua
The Chihuahua, the smallest recognised breed, is thought to descend from the Techichi, a small dog kept by the Toltecs of Mexico centuries before the Spanish arrived.
Q 11What breed of dog was Rin Tin Tin, the famous early Hollywood star?
German Shepherd
Rin Tin Tin was a German Shepherd whose silent films were such hits that he is credited with saving the struggling Warner Bros. studio from bankruptcy.
Q 12Unlike humans, dogs have taste buds at the tip of the tongue tuned specifically to what?
Water
Water: these taste buds sit on the part of the tongue a dog curls to lap, and they grow more sensitive after salty or sugary food, when the body needs more fluid.
Q 13What are the hairs along a dog's neck and back that bristle when it is frightened or angry called?
Hackles
Hackles are the hairs on a dog's neck and back, which bristle as part of the fight-or-flight response; that reflex gave English the phrase 'to get one's hackles up'.
Q 21Which dog breed was originally bred by monks in the Swiss Alps to rescue travelers lost in snow?
Saint Bernard
Saint Bernards take their name from the hospice that Bernard of Menthon founded on a high Alpine pass to shelter pilgrims bound for Rome; its monks later bred the dogs to find travellers buried by avalanches.
Q 22A survey of over 3,000 British dogs found which disease caused about twice as many deaths as heart disease?
Cancer
Cancer was blamed for nearly 16 percent of deaths in the 1999 survey, about twice the share of heart disease; later research found large breeds die of it more often than small ones.
Q 23Which compound in chocolate makes it poisonous to dogs?
Theobromine
Q 14Which German breed was developed to follow badgers into their burrows?
Dachshund
Dachshund translates to "badger dog" in German (Dachs = badger, Hund = dog). Their long, low body was specifically bred to follow badgers into their burrows.
Q 15Which sled dog led the final leg of the 1925 diphtheria serum run across Alaska?
Balto
Balto led Gunnar Kaasen's team on the final leg of the relay, arriving on 2 February 1925; his bronze statue was unveiled in New York's Central Park that December.
Q 16Which dog show, first held in 1877, ranks among America's longest-running sporting events?
Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show
The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show has been held every year since 1877, through the Depression, both world wars and the pandemic, making it one of the oldest continuously held sporting events in the United States.
Q 17Researchers found that a dog greeting its owner wags its tail with a bias toward which side?
Right
Right: in a 2007 Italian study, dogs wagged more to the right on seeing their owner and more to the left when facing an unfamiliar, dominant dog.
Q 18Which dog breed is known as the "King of Terriers" due to being the largest terrier breed?
Airedale Terrier
The Airedale Terrier, largest of the terriers, comes from the valley of the River Aire in Yorkshire; bred as an all-round farm and hunting dog, it went on to serve as a war dog and police dog in Britain.
Q 19How do dogs primarily sweat to regulate their body temperature?
Through their paw pads
Dogs sweat through their paw pads, where their merocrine sweat glands sit; the glands elsewhere in their skin give off scent rather than cooling sweat, so sweating does little to cool them.
Q 20The AKC's ten-step CGC test certifies a dog as what?
Canine Good Citizen
Canine Good Citizen: the ten-step test of basic manners is open to mixed breeds as well as purebreds, and passing it is a prerequisite for many therapy-dog programmes.
Theobromine: dogs break it down far more slowly than people do, and the darker and more bitter the chocolate, the more of it there is.
Q 24Mexico's hairless dog, the Xoloitzcuintli, is named after a god of which civilisation?
Aztec
Aztec: the name joins Xolotl, their dog-headed god, to the Nahuatl word for dog; the hairless dogs were often buried with their owners to lead their souls to the next world.
Q 25The Welsh breed name Corgi is a compound of two words meaning 'dog' and what?
Dwarf
Corgi joins the Welsh cor, 'dwarf', with ci, 'dog'; the low-slung Pembroke was bred to herd cattle, nipping at heels below the reach of a kick.
Q 26What is the popular term for a deliberate cross of two purebreds, such as the Labradoodle?
Designer dog
Designer dog: Wally Conron bred the first Labradoodle in Australia in the 1980s, hoping to pair a Poodle's low-shedding coat with a Labrador's steadiness, and has since said he regrets starting the trend.
Q 27Which AKC group, the newest of the seven, was carved out of the Working Group in 1983?
Herding
The Herding Group was part of the Working Group until 1983; the instinct runs so deep that these dogs have been known to gently herd their owners, especially the children.
Q 28Which basic command is usually taught by lifting a treat from a dog's nose up over its head?
Sit
Sit: as the dog lifts its head to follow the treat, its back end drops to the ground, and a sitting dog cannot jump up on visitors at the same time.
Q 29Who first domesticated dogs from wolves?
Prehistoric hunter-gatherers
Prehistoric hunter-gatherers domesticated dogs from wolves long before farming began; the Bonn-Oberkassel dog was buried beside two humans about 14,000 years ago.
Q 30What is the technical term for the fertile phase of a female dog's cycle, commonly called being 'in heat'?
Estrus
Estrus follows proestrus, when the eggs mature and oestrogen rises; most dogs come into heat about twice a year, though giant breeds may cycle only once.