Top 30+ Facts About Dogs That Will Change the Way You See Your Pup

4. About 28,000 dogs compete at the world's largest dog show every year

That's a far cry from the first dog show in the world, held in Newcastle-on-Tyne in England in 1859. It attracted 60 entries, all pointers and setters. These days, the largest dog show in the world is Crufts, also in England, and it's been held since 1891. An estimated 28,000 dogs compete there each year, and it attracts more than 200,000 spectators. That's a lot of dogs and dog lovers!

5. Dogs can sniff which way you're walking in five steps

They can tell which way a human scent trail is headed, even if they come across it at right angles—and even if the person walks backward. And studies show their sense of smell is so sensitive that they can tell the difference in scent intensity within just five footsteps (but not three) of the track layer.

8. Dogs have fewer, and different, taste buds than we do

Several things taste different to them. For example, most artificial sweeteners taste bitter, not sweet, which is why your dog rejects them. But there's one artificial sweetener they may like—and it's a dangerous one for them. Xylitol (also called birch sugar) is used in many sugarless gums, candies and medicines, and it causes a sudden drastic drop in blood sugar in dogs, which can lead to liver damage and even death.

An added warning about this dog fact: Be on high alert when you have guests over. Xylitol ingestion often occurs when visitors leave candy or gum in their purse—and then leave the purse in a place where a dog can steal it. This is one case where it's not impolite to tell your guests to leave their candy in the car.

11. Dogs can smell fear—sort of

They can smell stress, so in a way, they can also smell fear. According to one study, dogs could tell the difference between cloths wiped on people under stress vs. cloths wiped on calm people. How, exactly? The researchers trained the dogs to react to a sample obtained from a stressed person (forced to do mental arithmetic!). Then they took samples from the same person when they weren't stressed, and tested to the dogs to see if they could still identify just the stress sample—and they did.

12. George Washington bred his own dogs

He's not just the father of our country—he's also considered the "father of the American foxhound." A devoted fox hunter, Washington created a faster version of the English foxhound by mating several other hunting breeds, including some hounds that the Marquis de Lafayette gave him. In fact, the American foxhound was one of the first breeds recognized by the American Kennel Club (AKC), in 1886.

And those aren't the only facts about dogs and our first president you should know: Washington also kept dogs of many other breeds, including Italian greyhounds, Briards, mastiffs, terriers, Dalmatians and Newfoundlands, at his Mount Vernon home.

17. The record for the most puppies in a single litter is an astounding 24

They were delivered by C-section to a Mastiff named Tia. (Sadly, one of the puppies was stillborn and three additional pups died in the first week, but the other 20 were healthy.) The record for a natural birth is 21, from a Great Dane mix named Mary Jane. Ouch x 21.

21. DNA tests exist for more than 200 hereditary diseases in dogs

Don't worry—a particular breed generally carries only one or two of these diseases. Responsible breeders can now test their dogs, and if they are carriers, they'll make sure those dogs are bred only to non-carriers so that no affected dogs can be born. Many diseases, especially those caused by the combination of many different genes, don't have DNA tests yet, but researchers are working hard to develop them. The Orthopedic Foundation for Animals lists desired tests for each breed.

23. The world's richest dogs are very, very rich

But it turns out that stories of two of them—a German shepherd named Gunther, who allegedly inherited $400 million, and a poodle named Toby Rimes, who was said to be worth $92 million—were probably hoaxes. On the other hand, Leona Helmsley's dog Trouble inherited $12 million (after Helmsley disinherited two of her human children), although a judge reduced it to $2 million. Oprah Winfrey's dogs will reportedly inherit $30 million upon her passing. And internet star Jiffpom may be the current richest dog to earn his own money. Some sources put it at $56 million!

27. You can't escape a tracking dog, but you can slow it down

When dogs track, they follow both the scent of crushed vegetation and the odors that fall from the person's body. You can't escape a tracking dog by backtracking (they can tell which direction you're going), climbing from tree to tree (your scent particles still fall to the ground), masking it with other heavy scents (they can still detect yours, even when overwhelmed by other smells), going through water (your scent floats in the water and sticks to the shoreline), or walking on hard surfaces. That said, each of these maneuvers will probably slow down the tracking dog (and its handler), so that may help you make an escape if you can do them fast enough. That said, maybe stay out of trouble so you won't need to use this fact about dogs in quite this way!

28. A dog's nose print is as unique as a person's fingerprint

Or at least that's what's assumed, based on a small study done many years ago, as well as extrapolating from data on cattle nose prints. Regardless, the Canadian Kennel Club has used nose prints for identification starting in 1938 (though more recently, it has started relying on microchips). And a recent study of 70 dogs indicated that nose prints are unique and established in early puppyhood.