Facts about puppies start here! Puppies are adorable. Their cute faces, soft fur, and large eyes have the power to melt hearts! In fact, gazing at a puppy can cause your brain to flood with serotonin, dopamine, and oxytocin, the same chemical cocktail of love hormones that new parents feel towards their babies! Here are […]
Facts about puppies start here! Puppies are adorable. Their cute faces, soft fur, and large eyes have the power to melt hearts! In fact, gazing at a puppy can cause your brain to flood with serotonin, dopamine, and oxytocin, the same chemical cocktail of love hormones that new parents feel towards their babies! Here are 10 paw-some facts about puppies we bet you never knew!
There’s no downside to adding a doggo to your home. Puppies elevate your mood, and dogs are wonderful long-term companions. Let’s dive in!
No matter what the breed, all puppies are born blind and deaf, and their sense of smell has not developed either. Isn’t that a fact about puppies you didn’t know! This undeveloped state means that the only sense of the 5 senses that puppies have at birth is their sense of “touch.” It takes about 2 weeks for a puppy to gain his sight, hearing, and sense of smell. This may seem odd considering that compared to humans, a dog’s hearing and sense of smell is far superior to humans. As a puppy grows during his first weeks and months of life, he’ll develop acute hearing and a keen sense of smell. But until he’s weaned, he’ll remain in his whelping box with his siblings, “feeling” his way around.
In the human world, there are 2 kinds of “twins.” These are “fraternal,” meaning there were two eggs, both fertilized; and “identical,” meaning there was only one egg, which was fertilized successfully by 2 sperms. In the canine world, a litter of puppies might seem like “twins” or rather “sextupletes” or “octuplets” because the mother had 5, 6, 7, or 8 eggs, each of which was fertilized and developed into a puppy. But those terms aren’t applied to canines. All the puppies of the same litter are simply “littermates.” That being said, when one egg is fertilized by 2 sperms, which are called “identical twins” in the human world, this is referred to as “twins” in the canine world. Puppy twins are rare within a litter, but it can happen. These pups will look identical, with the same physical features, including fur patterns and markings.
Of all the facts about puppies today, we love this one the most! Generally speaking, puppies are not fully weaned and ready to go to their forever homes until they are at least 8 weeks old. As young as this may seem, puppies that are 8 weeks old are actually smart enough to begin the training processes of housebreaking and learning basic commands. This might surprise new puppy parents who think they have to wait until their new furry friend is 4 months old before they start basic command training. There’s no need to wait! A very young puppy may take longer to fully catch on and understand the training, but if you start as soon as you bring your puppy home, you’ll have a fully trained puppy way faster than you would if you had waited.
The mystery of the blue-eyed puppy isn’t so much that the dog has blue eyes, it’s the fact that the puppy’s eyes turn brown or black as he ages. If that’s the case, then why did the puppy have blue eyes at birth? This is an interesting question, and even more fascinating is the fact that all puppies are born with blue eyes, even if their eyes later turn brown, black, or even green. The reason for this is because in utero and at birth, puppies have almost no melanin, the pigment that is responsible for “color.” In this instance, “blue” eyes aren’t really blue. This is actually a lack of color, a lack of melanin. Whereas “black” is technically the presence of all colors. The closer to black a dog’s eyes are, the more melanin he has. This is also the reason why Dalmatians are always born white. It takes at least 2 weeks for a Dalmatian to “get” his black spots!
Puppies share a lot in common with human babies. One commonality in particular is that puppies need a lot of sleep in order for their central nervous system and muscles to develop correctly. Puppies sleep between 15 – 20 hours a day! Of course, as a puppy grows and gets older, he’ll need less and less sleep. You can expect an 8 week old puppy to sleep pretty much all the time, a good 20 hours a day, and only wake up to eat. Up until 2 months, your puppy will sleep a good 15 hours a day, which will occur as long naps in-between high-energy play time. Play hard, nap hard, as they say! As you puppy reaches 6 months old, he’ll need far less sleep throughout the day.
We love this next quirky detail on our list of facts about puppies. Even though puppies are born with basically no sense of smell, this keen sense quickly develops. Once your puppy gains his full sense of smell, this ability will far surpass your own, as well as any other animal. To give you an idea of how amazing this superpower is, here’s a comparison. Humans have about 6 million olfactory receptors in the olfactory center of the brain. The olfactory center is the “center of smell” in the brain where you process scents. By contrast, your puppy has about 300 million olfactory receptors. This makes your puppy’s sense of smell at least 10,000 – 100,000 times more sensitive than yours!
It takes about 16 weeks for a puppy’s vision to fully form. In general, dogs can’t see too clearly up close and can see very clearly at a distance. This is common among predators who need to see prey from very far away. Typically, humans with 20 / 20 eyesight are said to have great eyesight and do not need glasses. But what does 20 / 20 vision mean? If you’re standing 20 feet away from a Snellen chart (a unique chart with letters in rows of varying sizes) and you can read the letters, you have 20 / 20 vision. Dogs have 20 / 75 vision. What this means is that whatever you can see and read at 75 feet away, they can see and read at 20 feet away. Yes, that means they are less able to see at a distance than humans.
Plus, humans have “binocular vision,” which means that because our eyes are in the absolute front of our faces, and do not angle away from one another, we see straight ahead with the clearest objects in the middle of our vision. Even though it may look like dogs’ eyes are in front of their face, their eyes are actually angled out at a 20 degree angle from one another. With some breeds, like the Pug, this can be exaggerated, and the angle of the eyeballs can be closer to 60 degrees! Thanks to this, dogs have a wider peripheral vision than humans.
The next gem on our facts about puppies is all about dental hygiene. Did you know that puppies go through a teething process just like human children? Similar to babies, puppies are born without any teeth. But soon after birth, their “milk teeth” start to come in. These are temporary teeth that are flat and soft, and won’t hurt their moms when they’re weaning. These temporary milk teeth only last until the puppy is about 12 weeks old, after which their permanent, sharp, canine teeth begin to come in. For the average new puppy parent who takes their fur baby home at 8 – 10 weeks, you can expect your puppy will go through the teething process while in your care. And it won’t be until your puppy is a full 6 months old that all of his adult teeth will come in. There are many things you can do to alleviate the pain and discomfort that your puppy feels during teething. There are “frozen” teething chew toys that numb the teeth and gums, as well as other toys, chews, and treats that help reduce pain while getting those milk teeth to fall out.
Only in the animal kingdom are creatures considered “adults” when they are only months old. For dogs, the transition from adolescent to adult occurs at 1 year old. This may seem bizarre, and it is, but it can give you a lot of information and guidance in terms of the time frame you need to fully train your puppy. It’s so important to begin the housebreaking and basic command training process as soon as you bring your puppy home. By 1 year old, your young adult pup should know all of the commands. This is also when your puppy will be full grown. Of course, your dog will retain the “puppy spirit” for years. Many 2 year old dogs are still “puppies at heart,” but they should by that point behave like a well-mannered and obedient adult dog.
Dogs make great companions because they’re highly intuitive to their owners moods and wishes. This is one of our favorite facts about puppies! If you’ve ever owned a dog, then you know that your dog will mope if you’re mopey and console you. Likewise, if you’re in an upbeat, energetic mood, your dog will barely be able to contain his joy, too. In the same way that dogs are expert sympathizers, they are also good at influencing your mood. Your dog can lift you up when you’re feeling down, and actually change your mood! They catch on to this special ability rather quickly, and with great power comes great responsibility. Don’t be surprised if your puppy soon knows how to use his cute, expressive eyes to get you to not be so upset with him when he does something he shouldn’t! Puppies know how to manipulate you with their adorable, expression eyes and facial expressions. We guarantee that this will only cause you to love your puppy even more!
Those were our 10 amazing facts about puppies! Are you ready to take home your very own fur baby? Stop by one of our Petland Texas locations and meet our available puppies! At our Houston locations and our pet store in Tyler, TX, we have Golden Retriever puppies for sale, Australian Shepherd puppies for sale, and hypoallergenic puppies for sale in Texas.
