10 Incredible Dog Abilities You Should Know About

You can’t teach an old dog new tricks right, well, yeah, but guess what you don’t have to as it turns out your dog already knows some pretty impressive tricks that you had no idea about. It won’t be an exaggeration to call some of these abilities superpowers. Can you imagine your dog learning new words or having a prophetic ability to predict thunderstorms? It’s as incredible as it sounds, and after you’re done reading this article, the amount of respect you have for your dog will have multiplied and if you’re not already a dog lover, you’ll seriously reconsider your choices in life. So without further ado, let’s get into

1.     They can detect cancer early on.

We all know of the remarkable sense of smell all dogs possess, but to what extent is that ability useful in real life you’d be amazed to find out that dogs can use their sniffer to detect cancer cells before most other medical procedures? It’s a life-saving ability that has the potential to change the lives of many people.

This ability is particularly helpful in certain types of cancers like breast or skin cancer. We have statistics to back this up too. According to a study published in 2019, dogs could use their sense of smell to sniff out cancer in blood samples, and the accuracy rate is a remarkable 97 percent. Although this ability is innate and needs special training before being fully developed, it’s no less than a hidden superpower every dog has.

2.     They know what the weather is going to be

Like, every dog owner can relate to the moment right before a huge thunderstorm touches down when your pooch starts acting unusual and weird at first. It might seem bizarre, but when you notice the weather dramatically changing a couple of minutes or hours later, the dog’s behavior makes complete sense. So why do dogs do that? The thing is, your dog can sense, storm clouds moving in way before you see them. Their amazing sense of smell and hearing is what helps them out they’re much more sensitive to changes in the atmosphere than us, so they can pretty efficiently detect when there’s going to be a thunderstorm later in the day.

3.     They can tell time noses seem to be their ultimate weapon.

Did you know? Dogs can use their nose to tell what time of the day it is that’s right as bizarre as it sounds. It’s true. The explanation behind this unusual ability is that smells in a room change as the day goes on. If we could visualize the movement of air throughout the day, what we’d essentially be visualizing would be the movement of odor in the surrounding. This is how your average dog can detect the subtle changes in the smell throughout the day and then guess the time accordingly, pretty cool, isn’t it?

4.     They can tell different colors apart,

There’s a huge possibility that until now, you probably assume dogs could only see in shades of grey, not sure where that myth comes from, but it’s completely false. They can see much more than black and white, which explains why most dog owners can attest to the fact that pups like yellow toys, weigh more than red ones. Although they can see many of the same colors as humans, their ability is somewhat limited. Dogs lack the red and green cones in the retina, which are color receptors in a typical eye. As a result, dogs tend to see shades of, yellow and blue. So the next time you want to get your pup a present. Keep that in mind

5.     They have more empathy than you think.

Everyone knows a dog is a man’s best friend and that stereotype usually comes from an average pup’s undying loyalty toward its owner. But, interestingly, that’s not where their emotions end. In recent years, it has been discovered that dogs have a lot more empathy than we previously give them credit for. If your dog sees you yawn chances are it’ll start yawning too. This is a basic form of empathy commonly also referred to as emotional contagion. Other primates have been shown to catch yawning, but the fact that this is a common phenomenon in domestic dogs as well is pretty cool.

6.     They know what gestures mean

You would expect monkeys or chimps to be the best at reading human gestures, but apparently, dogs are even better than primates at this job. Studies have reported that dogs and young children start around the same age when it comes to understanding gestures. If you point to a particular object, both dogs and toddlers would easily interpret the hand movement and find whatever you’re pointing at it’s pretty impressive. The way they can also pick on more subtle social cues dogs has been reported to follow the gaze of a human and use it to find hidden objects and even food. The fact that apes struggle with something like this too makes dogs all the more fascinating.

7.     They can learn new words.

Just like children do if you’ve ever witnessed a child growing up the way they learn new words and start understanding. Language is quite fascinating. They do this by inferring, the meaning of any new word they hear and associating it with a new object. Surprisingly, this is something dogs excel at as well.

Dogs, learn new words by a process called fast mapping. In one study, when scientists asked a dog to fetch a toy, he didn’t know the name of he looked at all the toys in the room and soon realized they were all familiar to him, except for one so like any intelligent being the dog knew. That must be the one to appreciate how big of a deal. This is considered the fact that no other species on the planet has come close to doing this. So yeah dogs are pretty special.

8.     They can swim.

Yes, not all dogs like water, but the ones that do can turn out to be pretty impressive swimmers' Newfoundlands are typically the fondest of water. In fact, for years these dogs have been used as water rescue dogs, saving the lives of hundreds of people around them. Every year, in 2016, a courageous Newfoundland dog called whiz earned the PDSA Order of Merit award for having saved nine people from the sea over his career as a rescue dog.

If that’s not enough to impress you you’re, probably not a real dog lover. Be careful, though, your dog might be one of those that don’t really like water, so it’s best to always keep an eye on him in case they find themselves in an unpleasant situation. But if your dog happens to do enjoy the water make sure you nurture its true abilities.

9.     Some of them are pretty fast,

Even more than a Cheetah, we’re used to associating cheetahs or horses with speed, and while those animals are some of The fastest in the kingdom, some species of dogs can easily outrun them with the right strategy, meet the greyhound, the fastest breed of dog known to man.

These are speedy sighthounds with an impressive top speed of 45 miles per hour, which they attain within a few seconds of starting to run. Although a cheetah has a top speed of 70 miles per hour, that ability comes with a huge catch, they can only maintain that speed for 30 seconds. On the other hand, greyhounds can last for at least seven more miles, and even though their speed would be initially lesser, their stamina will help them overtake in no time.

10.  Their sense of hearing is quite remarkable too.

We know all about their noteworthy sense of smell, but that’s nowhere near the end of their true abilities. Apparently, dogs have one of the best hearing senses out there, and not only can they hear much higher frequencies, but they can also hear way. Softer sounds than us mere mortals. That’s another reason why dogs are superb search and rescue animals combined with their noses. Their ability to detect subtle, sounds, provides unmatched help for detection purposes.

There’s a dog called the canine killer, a Belgian malinois who was awarded the PDSA gold medal for helping to track down rhino poachers. Dogs genuinely deserve all the appreciation in the world for this one.

Thank you for Reading.