15 Incredible Things Dogs Can Do

Dogs are excellent because they provide love and friendship and are always there for us.

But did you realize that canines are much more complex than they first appear?

Here are 15 incredible things dogs can do, which will impress you!

They Smell At Least 40 Times Better Than We Do

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Unlike humans, dogs have a 40 times greater area of smell-detecting brain cells.

That implies that your dog is far more sensitive to odors than we are.

Dogs are frequently utilized to sniff out persons, drugs, and even money because of this!

A Diabetic Person’s Metabolic Changes Are Detectable By Them

Dogs have an almost magical ability to detect specific biochemical changes in a person’s body, and they may be trained to monitor their owners’ insulin levels in addition to certain cancers and other diseases.

Dogs can be trained to recognize people who are likely to have a seizure due to low blood sugar.

They can also smell biochemical changes that suggest a diabetic person has low blood sugar, therefore therapy dogs and service dogs can be trained.

Sense Pregnancy

The American Kennel Club (AKC) asserts that dogs are relatively quick to pick up on significant changes in your body and emotions because of their keen senses, even though scientists are still unsure of the precise moment at which a dog may sense pregnancy.

That’s one of the most amazing things!

And if they detect your pregnancy, they’ll probably become even more protective and prone to growl at any potential threat (read: fellow strangers in the park). 

Cancer Is Detectable By Dogs

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Yes, you read that correctly: dogs can detect cancer cells in people.

One of the most prevalent cancers in the world is lung cancer.

Finding the best treatments requires spotting it in its earliest stages.

However, most lung cancer diagnosis techniques require expensive procedures like CT or PET scans.

They both have the potential to be untrustworthy.

The suggested remedy was to teach dogs to spot lung cancer.

Three Beagles were recently trained to identify cancer cells from only blood samples in research that lasted eight weeks.

The outcome was incredible.

It turned out that the Beagles had a 96.7% accuracy rate in distinguishing between blood samples that contained cancer and healthy cells.

However, research into using canines to detect cancer didn’t end here.

Currently, these canines are being trained to detect breast and colon cancer and all other forms of the disease.

What’s more impressive, though, is that dogs can now identify these malignancies by smelling the patients’ breath.

Early research indicates that canines can detect biochemical variations in individuals with and without cancer in their breath!

Though research is still being conducted, dogs have a promising future in the medical field.

Read this article to learn more about how well dogs can detect other diseases and unwell medical conditions.

Can Run Over 100 Km Per Day

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Although the Siberian Huskies can, not all dogs can run 100 kilometers per day.

Even in less than nine days, some Huskies had traveled 1,100 miles!

The most absurd aspect is that no one is entirely sure how.

The muscles of the majority of mammals contain glycogen, which may be drawn out and used to generate energy.

We make energy in the same way that almost all other mammals do.

However, Huskies have demonstrated the ability to activate a metabolic switch that begins the direct extraction of energy from fat in their bloodstream.

Scientists still don’t know how it’s possible at this point.

In terms of long-distance running, their muscles won’t deteriorate as soon, giving them an incredible advantage!

However, don’t overdo it when handling your pets.

This metabolic switch is thought to only be developed through many generations of breeding sled-pulling dogs.

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Dogs Can Predict Lightning And Earthquakes

The first accounts of dogs’ ability to sense earthquakes date back to ancient Greece.

It’s not by chance that dogs and other wild creatures look for shelter a few days before an earthquake strikes the area.

 In fact, dogs have become an essential component of modern earthquake detection systems in some developed nations like China and Japan.

But how exactly do dogs foresee them? Well, the answer is still unclear.

The dog’s incredible hearing ability offers one reason, though.

According to scientists, dogs can hear the crackling, scraping, and collapsing of giant boulders beneath us due to their highly acute ears.

Even if they are unsure of what these noises technically represent, they may be sufficiently terrified to act ambiguously as a result.

These habits can include unneeded barking, wailing, neediness, or anxiety in the home.

Additionally, in the wild, they can just flee and hide.

Your dog uses both its hearing and sense of smell to anticipate storms.

They can detect the scent of rain several miles in advance thanks to their keen sense of smell.

Additionally, their hearing may be able to see thunderclaps before we do.

Their capacity to detect a drop in air pressure, which is typically an indication of a storm, is another astonishing feat.

And if that weren’t enough, dogs are susceptible to the static electricity a lightning storm may produce. 

Both Cats And Dogs Suck Water In The Same Manner

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If your dog is a messy drinker, you’re probably astonished right now, even if it may not seem strange.

Our canine friends raise fluids in a column to their mouths by bending the tip of their tongues, just like cats do.

Canines Have A Unique Sense Of Time

Our internal biological clock, known as the circadian rhythm, signals when it is time to wake up, eat, and go to bed.

According to several researchers, dogs, like other animals, have their own distinct rhythm.

Of course, it differs significantly from the way we experience time.

When we leave the house, the dogs can tell how long we will be gone.

They react differently to a 30-minute absence than you do to a two-hour lack.

Dogs Have Night Vision

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If dogs’ night vision wasn’t impressive enough, it is. It should be no surprise that dogs’ eyes are built significantly differently from ours.

In addition to having a larger pupil, they also have rods, which are light-sensitive cells, in their retina, improving their vision in dim or dark light.

Dogs’ tapetum lucidum, which functions as a mirror and reflects the light out, is the key to their night vision since it gives them a second chance to detect the light.

Dogs often have bright cybernetic eyes in photographs taken with flash because of this.

Dogs are four times more likely to steal food at night when they believe people can’t see them when humans prevent them from eating yummy foods.

Who said canines never put their superhuman abilities to good use?

Dogs Are Just As Intelligent As A 2-Years-Old

Some breeds of dogs are as intelligent as two-year-old toddlers regarding arithmetic testing, fundamental emotions, and spatial problem-solving abilities.

Dogs can pick up gestures and 165 words like children, but some bright breeds can learn up to 250.

Border Collies, Poodles, German Shepherds, and Golden Retrievers are a few breeds of dogs with high IQs.

They Have A Great Sense Of Smell

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Dogs can detect the emotions and moods of their owners by using their sense of scent.

Researchers found that dogs are happier and more interested when their owners smell joyful.

On the other hand, dogs exhibit the same tendency and avoid strangers when they detect anxiety.

Dogs Have An 11-Mile Detection Range For Human Odor

Have you ever heard of a “lost” dog that turned up at its home within a short period?

Certain dogs always find their way back home no matter how far they go.

That’s because your dog can detect your scent at a distance of 20 kilometers or almost 11 miles!

Naturally, they are the best possible circumstances.

For instance, a humid environment makes it easier for your dog’s nose to capture scent molecules.

Also, dogs often have a more acute sense of smell in colder climates.

On the other hand, places with dense vegetation, a lot of rain, snow, or a dry climate might also make it harder for your dog to detect a scent.

It is still really incredible that they can track that far out with it, even though it is likely that they will need the ideal weather and environmental parameters.

At Least 200 Words Are Understandable To Dogs

Dogs are more intelligent than you would imagine. Scientists think that these animals have intelligence that is comparable to that of a tiny human child that is two years old.

The typical dog can comprehend 200 spoken human words, and many may pick up to 350 words.

What about the breed of dog that is the smartest in the world?

Regarding obedience and working intelligence, Border Collies are widely regarded as the canine species with the highest level of intellect.

They excel at obedience training and can easily pick up any kind of vocal order.

The fact that a Border Collie named Chaser could memorize the names of 1,022 actual items is even more astonishing.

It’s the most any dog has ever displayed.

As a result, Chaser has a vocabulary that is comparable to a human toddler of three years old. 

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Dogs Are Sensitive To Your Emotions

This is as superhuman, or more accurately, super-canine, as it gets.

It used to be widely accepted that dogs could only interpret emotional cues from their humans through visual or auditory cues.

However, a study by the University of Naples in Italy found that canines are able to detect minute alterations in your scent, which can help them determine how you’re feeling.

In other words, your smell alters when you transition from a happy to a sad mood.

And because the dog has a keen sense of smell, they will be aware!

Your dog is able to detect human emotion, and they often take on the mood as their own.

Because of this, if you’re depressed, your dog might act similarly.

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Dogs Can Feel The Magnetic Field Of The Earth

Dogs are sensitive to our planet’s magnetic field, and it even affects some of their habits.

When doing their business, for instance, most dogs position themselves along the north and south axes.

Observations were made off-leash on an open field in research with thousands of urinations and defecations, ensuring that they were unaffected by fences or fire hydrants.

When traversing new territory, their significant magnetic compass also aids them in calculations and allows them to take detours.

And if you stop to think about it, hunting dogs may employ this superpower.

These dogs can locate wild prey in densely forested areas and then navigate back to their owner’s long distances, frequently taking unusual or uncharted paths.

This inborn magnetic compass might help to explain how they manage to do this.

Dogs Have Four Times The Hearing Range Of Humans

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Dogs can detect higher-frequency noises and even identify the exact source of the audio because their hearing is far more sensitive than humans.

Humans can only hear sounds with vibration rates of no more than 20,000 per second, whereas dogs can hear up to 50,000 per second.

Dogs can tilt and rotate their ears to better direct sound into them because they have around 18 muscles controlling each ear.

Dogs Can Ease Depression And Anxiety

I believe we can all agree that dogs automatically improve our attitudes!

However, there is more to it than that.

In reality, dogs can play a crucial role in enhancing our general well-being.

Around the world, millions of children and adults suffer from depression and anxiety problems.

According to studies, dogs can lessen stress, anxiety, and depression by alleviating loneliness and promoting healthy exercise.

For example, strolling across the park with them can lower blood pressure and fend off cardiac conditions.

Additionally, it increases dopamine and oxytocin, making you feel good.

They Are Numerate

Devine claims that in addition to measuring durations of time, canines can also differentiate between quantities of various objects.

Your dog can distinguish between different amounts and be trained to choose the thing in the larger quantity.

Studies have been done on dogs telling the difference between the length of two identical sounds, and the dogs were able to be trained to trigger each of the noises, according to Devine.

One such study was published in Learning and Motivation in 2013.

Before You Go…

Now you know the incredible things dogs can do.

If you want to learn more, read the following articles too!

Mena Emad, DVM
Mena has a Bachelor’s degree in veterinary medicine. His expertise, passion for animal welfare, extensive knowledge, and experience in the field of veterinary medicine make him an excellent resource for our readers.