 |
A black-and-tan Coonhound from Boulder,Colorado has the 2012 Guinness World Record for the "longest ears on a living dog." |
A quick explanation: I research, compile and post "factoids" and trivia about dogs as part of the social media work I do for kennel clubs and for my own small business. When I first started, I was concerned that I would run out of interesting information all too quickly. Little did I know. When I did some digging in my records, I found that I've compiled an astonishing 412 pages of trivia thus far (equal to about 19,000 "factoids") and have 756 pages in reserve. I doubt I'll ever truly exhaust all the information that's out there.
Now I realize why the question asked of me on Twitter was so provocative: I couldn't come up with a quick answer. I still can't, and I've been thinking about it since yesterday.
At best, I can break it down into categories: What's the weirdest record held by a dog (among some pretty strange records); What's the strangest dog law (and there are a bunch out there); The weirdest dog? Define weird. Some might think my own breed is pretty strange. The trivia hardly stops at "weird," however. Virtually everything about dogs is fascinating (to me, anyway), from the role of canines in art to their impact on pop culture. Throw in some facts about the breeds we know well to breeds we didn't know existed at all and one can see how easy it is to generate all pages and pages of trivia.
Those who have followed me on Twitter for any length of time have come to know that there are some things I don't do. I won't write ill of any purebred dog, and I don't denigrate mutts. Breeders of "designer dogs" know where I stand on their "breeding program," however, and it's not in their corner; Since my own background is in the fancy, I like to include information that demystifies the dog show world to pet people, but I also like to show the positive impact dog ownership has on the average person. I seek to educate, amuse, enlighten and surprise. And I like to bash PETA and HSUS every chance I get. I make no apologies for trivia that contradicts an earlier bit of information: I present data as I find it - and different sources sometimes have different views on the same subject. Since Twitter limits posts to 140 characters, I don't include sources, either. I'm not writing a doctoral thesis, I'm sharing trivia.
 |
| "Hercules" has the world's thickest neck at 38 inches |
Strangest Dog Records:
- Striker, a Border Collie, is the current Guinness World Record holder for the "Fastest Car non-electric window opened by a Dog" at 11.34 seconds;
- England currently holds the Guinness World Record for having had the largest dog walk with 10,272-dogs participating;
- Six dogs set a world record for the most dogs surfing on one board at the Surf City Surf Dog Weekend in 2011;
- The Guinness World Record for the largest dog cake was set in 2011 with a cake made of dog food, shaped like a Corgi & weighing 150.91 pounds;
- In 2011,Andy Pelphrey set a record by bouncing a baseball off the side of a building 23 times in 30 seconds while petting a dog;
- In 1988, Olive Oyl, a Borzoi,set the world record for most consecutive jump rope jumps by a dog: 63 complete rotations;
- Guinness Book of Records once listed the Komondor as having the longest continuously growing coat of any animal
- Each Iditarod sled dog needs at least 100 salmon to make it through the winter months in Alaska;
- The first 100 miles of the Iditarod is known as "moose alley" for the many moose which forage for food on the trail;
- Iditarod's bib #1 is reserved to honor the individual who has made a significant contribution to sport even if they're not mushers;
- A sled dog running in Alaska's Iditarod race burns an average 10,000 calories;
- John Suter ran Standard Poodles in four Iditarods from 1988 to 1991 & finished midpack in each race;
- The Iditarod entry fee is $1,750;
- People can purchase a ride on a sled for the first few miles of the Iditarod; The revenue is used to send home mushers who didn't earn a prize
 |
| Helen Keller with her Akita |
- The first Akita arrived in America in 1937 when Helen Keller returned from Japan with one;
- The Chinese Crested Hairless breed gained healthy numbers with help of committed breeders including the stripper, Gypsy Rose Lee;
- When his Italian Greyhounds died, Frederick the Great buried them with his own hands on the grounds of his Sans Souci Palace;
- President Reagan’s Cavalier King Charles Spaniel was given a dog house designed by the great great grandson of President Rutherford Hayes;
- Gary Berghoff, better known as Radar O'Reilly on the TV show M.A.S.H., owned five dachshunds of each coat variety;
- Edgar Rice Burroughs named his Airedale Terrier after the character he created, "Tarzan."
Pop culture
- The first time a Beagle is mentioned in the cartoon strip, "Peanuts," was in 1960 when Snoopy denied being one;
- The original Wizard of Oz script called for "Toto" to be played by a Dachshund, and the one that was nearly used for the part was a dog owned by Margaret Hamilton, the actress who played the Wicked Witch of the West;
- The first dog to ever appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated (February 14, 1955) was a Great Dane;
- On a 1972 episode of the game show, "The Price is Right," a Lhasa Apso puppy was the first item up for bid (Ed.Note:I find this ironic, given Bob Barker's active role with animal rights groups);
- When Lena Horne and Billie Holiday hung out together, they usually talked about Holiday’s dogs which included her beloved Boxer;
- The very first dog to walk a tightrope at a circus was an American Eskimo dog;
- On the day Rin Tin Tin died in 1932, his owner's neighbor, the actress, Jean Harlow, came over & cradled his head as he passed away
 |
| 13 dogs jumping the same rope at the same time set a new world record |
- Illinois,it is illegal to give a dog whiskey;
- Police offers in Palding, Ohio are allowed to bite a dog to quiet it;
- It's illegal to educate dogs in Hartford, CT;
- In Chicago,it’s illegal to take a French Poodle to the opera;
- People who make "ugly faces" at dogs in Oklahoma may be fined and/or jailed;
- The only mammals with prostates are humans and dogs;
- There are seven types of blood groups in canines;
- Dogs vocal cords are much thicker and less sensitive than ours - so they can bark longer than we can before getting hoarse;
- If you unfolded and laid out the delicate membranes from inside a dogs nose, the membranes would be larger than the dog itself;
- Blowing into a dog's ear, even innocently, is the equivalent of finger nails on a chalk board is to us, but amplified 100s of times;
- A dog’s raspy tongue serves to debride contaminants from a wound when s/he licks it & stimulate circulation;
- Approximately 70% of a dog’s immune system is located in her gastro-intestinal tract
It's hard to know when to stop, but this is as good a place as any. If you like this sort of thing, follow me on Twitter where my trivia appears hourly, 17 hours a day. Find me at: http://twitter.com/KnobNots. In the meantime, what's the weirdest dog "factoid" YOU'VE come across?
Posts
Suzi, Suzi, Suzi. Have you forgotten about me? We *know* this factoid isn't true!
ReplyDeleteThe only dog breed ever developed by a communist country is the Russian Toy Terrier;