🐕 Stuff Every Dog Care Scout Should Know: the Study Guide

The cheat sheet

The whole guide on one screen. Screenshot it, print it, stick it on the fridge.

• A dog's powerful jaw holds around 42 teeth, evolved for eating flesh.
• Dogs have roughly forty times more smell-sensitive receptors than humans, making smell their most prominent sense.
• Dogs have an acute sense of hearing up to four times greater than humans and can pick up faint sounds farther away.
• Dog vision is dichromatic, so their world consists of yellows, blues, and grays, and red and green are hard to tell apart.
• A primary function of the tail is to communicate the dog's emotional state, and it also helps with balance.
• Whiskers are stiff, deeply embedded hairs that sense vibrations and nearby objects, helping protect the dog's face.
• The dewclaw is the fifth digit on the forelimb and hind legs; front dewclaws attach by bone and ligament.
• A double coat has a coarse guard hair plus a soft down hair, common in dogs from colder climates.
• Dogs bear litters roughly 58 to 68 days after fertilization, averaging about 63 days.
• An average litter consists of about six puppies, though this can vary.
• Sexual maturity usually happens around six months to one year for both males and females, sometimes later in large breeds.
• The median longevity of dogs is about 12.7 years, though it varies widely among breeds.