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| Lundehund |
By Linda Cole
Dogs are such interesting creatures. We’ve had an association with them for centuries, but scientists have only recently begun to understand how unique and special they are. Because of selective breeding over the years, we've been able to tame the wild beast, so to speak, but there are still mysteries we need to unravel. Most of our modern day breeds were created just a short time ago in relation to how long man and dogs have been working together as a team. We are still discovering interesting dog facts about our canine friends dog lovers may not know.
Research has shown that children who grow up with pets in the home have 31% fewer respiratory tract infections and 44% fewer ear infections, and are 29% less likely to need antibiotics. A dog in the home can even help protect kids from the common cold and reduce the chance of your child developing asthma.
The Norwegian Lundehund, native to Norway, has some rather unique characteristics not found in any other dog breed. The dog has six toes on each foot, erect ears that can be folded closed at will – forwards or backwards – and they can bend their head backwards so far it touches their backbone. The breed is also called the Norwegian Puffin Dog; Lunde means puffin, and hund means dog.
Greyhounds can reach a top speed of 45 mph, making them the fastest dog on earth, but the Siberian Husky has endurance to outlast most other breeds. A team of Huskies can travel 100 or more miles per day at an average speed of 11 mph.
We know dogs were the first animals domesticated by us, but it's still not known exactly when that took place. The belief by researchers is that domestication took place around 15,000 years ago, but a 50,000 year old cave painting in Spain shows what experts believe is a dog-like figure in the painting.
