Five things your dog can do, but you can’t!

We know we are biased, but here at Dog Chef we continue to be amazed at what our four-legged friends know and can do. So you can amuse yourself too, we highlight five fun dog facts: all things you can’t do, but your dog can. Ready?

1. Your dog can predict epileptic seizures

Dogs are known for their good sense of smell. With over 220 million scent receptors, they can smell things that we cannot even imagine. For comparison:  humans have only five to ten million scent receptors. So your dog’s nose is about 40 times more sensitive than yours.

Dogs can smell the body odour of a diabetic when their blood sugar is too low and of an epileptic when a seizure is imminent. Dogs trained to do this can alert their owners so that they can take the necessary precautions. Think of eating sugar to raise the sugar level in their blood or lying down on the ground to prevent injuries.

2. Your dog can hunt blind (successfully)

Not only is your dog’s nose 40 times more sensitive than yours; a new study shows that its cold nose can also detect the body heat of distant mammalian prey. This explains why dogs with impaired vision, hearing or smell can still hunt successfully.

3. Your dog can make its own vitamin C

Just as for humans, vitamin C plays a major role in your dog’s immune system. Humans can only get this vitamin from food. Are you not getting enough vitamin C? Then you can develop a deficiency and become ill.

This is not the case with dogs: they can produce their own vitamin C. On average, a dog makes 36 mg per day per kg of body weight. So under normal circumstances, there is no need to give your dog additional vitamin C. Has your dog been ill or under a lot of stress? Then you can give it vitamin C by feeding it brussels sprouts, strawberries or or oranges.

4. Your dog won’t bump into anything in the dark

Imagine being stuck in the dark in the indoor playground of McDonalds after closing time. Who will get out first? You or your dog?

Your dog, of course! This is because it does not bump into everything. Its whiskers tell it exactly what a room looks like, even if it cannot see them.

5. Your dog is faster (unless you are Usain Bolt and compete against a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel)

The fastest dog in the world is the greyhound. It can run at almost 70 kilometres per hour. That is faster than Usain Bolt, the fastest man in the world, who very briefly ran 44.7 kilometres per hour.

The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, on the other hand, with a top speed of 16 kilometres per hour, is one of the slowest dog breeds. It runs at about the same speed as a trained human runner (10 to 14 kilometres per hour).

So you see: your dog can do much more than you think. Even things that we humans cannot do. We don’t want you to get jealous, so let’s finish with one thing that you are better at:

You can see better than your dog
A red ball on a green lawn? Your dog will not see it. Although dogs are not completely colour blind, they cannot tell the difference between green and red. So your dog will thank you for a white or yellow ball to play with.

Do you know any dog skills that we have forgotten? Or does your dog have a special talent? Let us know in the comments ? We would love to find out!