15 Wonderful Facts About Puppies

1. Puppies Like Baby Talk
Just like our own babies, puppies also do like when we ‘baby talk’ to them. A 2017 research project played a recording of women engaging in baby talk to a separate group of adult dogs and puppies. Virtually all of the puppies started barking and running toward the source of the sound after they heard the recordings. In contrast, adult dogs just largely ignored the sound altogether.

2. Puppies Have Baby Teeth Too
Just like most other newborn mammals, puppies also have baby teeth. Puppies are born toothless but by 2 to 4 weeks of age, will start to develop their baby teeth. At 12 to 16 weeks of age, their 28 baby teeth begin to fall off, and by the time they are six months, they have been completely replaced by a full set of 42 adult teeth.

3. The Word ‘Puppy’ is French in Origin
Like many other words in the English language, the word ‘puppy’ has French roots, stemming from the Old French poupee, which originally meant ‘doll or plaything’. Shakespeare’s play, King John, which was written in the 1590s, is believed to be one of the earliest known works to use the term puppy-dog. Before that, the common word in English used to describe a baby dog was whelp.

4. Puppies Are Born Blind and Deaf
Neither a puppy’s eyes nor ears are fully developed when they are born. Only after two weeks of age are they able to use these senses. Until then, they primarily rely on their sense of smell to find their mothers.

5. Puppies Can Be Born Green
Yes, you heard that right, sometimes puppies can be born green. A puppy named FiFi was born with a very green-tinted fur and a Golden Retriever was born with a green hue. What’s the reason behind this? This has to do with a natural pigment called Biliverdin found in both humans and animals, an overabundance of which can lead to a greenish skin or hair color. The green color of a puppy’s fur will gradually start to disappear after a few weeks as it grows. That’s why we never see a green adult dog anywhere.

6. Puppies Need A Lot of Sleep
Just like our own children, puppies too require a lot of sleep – up to 16 to 20 full hours of it in fact. Sleep is essential to aid in their rapid growth, helpful for the healthy development of their brain, muscles, and body size. It is exactly for this reason why it is strongly advised not to disturb your puppy while they are taking a nap. If it is possible, a quiet undisturbed part of your house should be designated as a puppy sleeping place so that they can snooze peacefully without any interruption.

7. Puppies Don’t Find Yawns Infectious
Ever yawned and saw others around you do the same afterward? To us yawns may be infectious but not to puppies, even though adult dogs are definitely not immune to it. Back in 2012, a study was carried out on a group of 35 dogs between 4 and 14 months by a team of Swedish researchers. They found that dogs less than seven months of age didn’t react to the yawning while many of the older dogs did. This behavior seems to mirror our own development. Human children don’t pick up the habit of contagious yawning until around age 4, when they began developing rudimentary social skills.

8. Puppies Fully Mature Within a Year
Puppies grow really fast and almost reach their full adult size and maturity by the time they are one year of age. In human years, that’s an equivalent of 15 years of age.

9. Dalmatians Are Born Without Their Spots
The most distinct characteristic of a Dalmatian is its spots but did you know that when they are young, they are pretty much spotless and completely white. Their recognizable markings only began to show once they reach fours of weeks of age.

10. A Puppy Once Destroyed Half the Manuscript of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men
Of Mice and Men is a famous classic American novella that has been widely read in many schools. However, the story was almost completely lost when the Author’s little puppy named Toby (who was teething) thought that the story’s manuscript would make a good chew toy. When Steinbeck arrived at the scene, his puppy has eaten through nearly two months of his work. However, rather than get angry at his pupper, he simply sat at his desk and started rewriting the destroyed chapters, proving that he was not just a great writer but also a genuinely great person.

11. A Puppy With His Own Baseball Card
Back in 2009, the former President of the United States, Barack Obama, adopted a puppy named Bo and the White House decided that it would be a great idea to put together an official baseball card for the canine friend. It’s loaded with fun information about the dog such as the fact that he can’t swim, even though his breed is known to be proficient in the skill.

12. Looking at Puppies Can Make You More Productive
Looking at your beloved pooch from time to time while you work can make you more productive. Even looking at a picture of the pupper can boost your performance. A 2012 study from Hiroshima University found that participants who had recently just seen pictures of puppies and kittens had an easier time concentrating on their tasks compared to those who saw other types of images.

13. Puppies Are Aware They Can Manipulate You With Their Adorableness
Those cute ‘puppy eyes’ they show to gain our attention is a learned behavior. By raising their eyes brows and thus, making their eyes appear bigger and sadder, they know that they will more likely get what they want out of us. A study conducted back in 2017 found that puppies were more likely to make cute facial expressions like puppy-dog eyes when they knew humans were watching. So, if you are on a low ebb while at work, start googling some images of cute puppies.

14. Puppies Can Be Twins
While puppies may look alike to many of us, they are not in fact identical and people who have spent a great deal of time with dogs can learn to pick up subtle differences. Regardless, identical twins can happen as one scientist in South Africa found out when he tested DNA on a set of puppies and found them to be identical.

15. The Soviets Gave JFK a Special Puppy
In their meeting with their Soviet counterparts, the Kennedys were given a very special puppy by Premier Nikita Khrushchev. Named Pushinka (fluffy in Russian), the puppy was one of the babies of Strelka, a dog recently sent into low-Earth orbit by the Soviet space program. The canine cosmonaut did safely return to Earth after its mission.