Posts Tagged ‘dog science’
What Does The Direction Your Dog Wags Their Tail Mean?
While humans can’t exactly speak dog, there are a few body language cues we are able to translate with confidence. For one, a dog wagging it’s tail means it’s a happy dog, right? Turns out, this may not always be the case. Research shows that the direction that a dog wags its tail may speak…
Read MoreHow Many Human Years are in a Dog Year?
It is a well-accepted fact that a single dog year is equal to 7 human years. If your dog is 3 years old, that would mean that they are 21 in human years. Sounds about right! However, if you start translating the the age of a very young or older dog, this 1:7 ratio starts…
Read MoreDog Dreams
Anyone who has been around a dog has probably noticed that they sleep very frequently. Dogs, on average, snooze approximately 12-14 hours per day, often off and on as opposed to humans’ all-at-once sleep schedule. Many dog caretakers have observed their dogs dreaming, sometimes even acting out their dreams by whining or “running” in their…
Read MoreCan Dogs Detect Cancer?
We’ve likely all heard about the possibility of dogs being able to detect cancer. With about 300 million olfactory receptors in their noses, dogs may be able to smell anywhere from 40-100,000 times better than humans. This allows them to be able to detect compounds at the low parts-per-billion range, according to Nancy Dreschel, a…
Read MoreThe Amazing Adaptations of Sled Dogs
A Brief History The use of dogs to pull sleds has been traced back to around 9,000 years ago through remains on Zhokhov Island in the East Siberian Sea. Archaeological analysis of dog remains showed that, by this time, the inhabitants of the island had domesticated two varieties of dogs: hunters and draft animals. Since…
Read MoreHow Smart Are Dogs?
Research on animal intelligence is slowly revealing that many species are actually more smart than we have previously believed. Dogs are certainly no exception. Even if you’re not one to keep up with canine scientific research, it’s likely you’ve recently seen a dog make headlines for exhibiting high intelligence, such as assisting in the recent…
Read MoreFamous Dogs In History: Snuppy, The First Cloned Dog
Since the successful cloning of Dolly the sheep in 1996, many other mammals have been cloned, including cows, cats, mice, pigs, rabbits, and more. One species that researchers were having trouble with was the dog. The challenge of cloning dogs was due to the difficulty of extracting their eggs and dogs’ short breeding window. It…
Read MoreResearchers Discover The Mutation That Causes Canine Night Blindness
The mutation that causes congenital stationary night blindness (CSNB) in dogs has been discovered after years of research by an international team including a team of researchers from the University of Pennsylvania. CSNB is an autosomal recessive disease, meaning that it occurs on one of 38 pairs of non-sex chromosomes, and that symptoms will only occur…
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