10 Unbelievable Facts You Probably Didn’t Know About Dogs

It's known that modern wolves are ancestors of dogs. But believe it or not, dogs originated from an entirely different species that disappeared thousands of years ago. 

Even though their DNA matches by 99%, modern American and European wolves are only very distant relatives of dogs.

There are a wide variety of dog breeds with different colors, sizes, shapes, fur, and physical characteristics. The sheer number of dog breeds is more massive than with any other mammal, domestic or wild.

Can you believe that there are almost 400 dog breeds in the world, and this is just the best guesstimate since it's continuously growing due to artificial selection? But, there is one limit to this variety, which is the physiology of a Chihuahua to Great Dane, cause they are descendants of ancient wolfs.

Did you know that dogs have a second nose? Well, they do. The second nose is known as the vomeronasal organ, also called Jacobson's Organ. 

The Jacobson's Organ is a "sense of smell" receptor that is not receptive to ordinary odors like the ones humans can sense. So, dogs have a double nose, one that's sensitive and another super-sensitive one.

A dog's nose print is unique as a human's fingerprint and can be used to identify them accurately. That's right; there are no two dogs with the same nose prints. Since 1938, the Canadian Kennel Club has been using dog nose prints to verify identity.

Dogs are brilliant creatures. So, to get attention, or to get what they want; dogs can pretend to be sick or injured. They do it often, after all, they are rapid learners.

For many years, it is believed that dogs see everything in black & white. However, sometimes, dogs can see some colors, but not nearly as many as us. They can see green, yellow, and blue colors, but they're not able to recognize red, which they see as dark grey.

Dogs smile too but not always for the same reasons that we do. Do you know that apparently, dogs smile to convince their master to give them affection? However, a smile does not always mean the dog is happy; it can be a sign of nervousness. It looks adorable most of the time.

Dogs sleep in different positions. Sleeping belly-up is only shared for domesticated pets, which is not surprising as it is a very defenseless posture. However, if your dog never sleeps this way, that doesn't mean he or she doesn't feel safe. After all, it's a personal choice.

It is believed that wherever a naughty dog does something wrong, he will feel guilty. But it's been approved wrong; scientists prove that that look is just a natural reaction to the behavior of the owner at that moment. 

Guilt is a very complex emotion for a dog, and the dog fears to get into trouble. So, your pet learns that whenever he makes these "I'm so sorry" eyes, your heart melts.

Researchers proved that people unintentionally developed a variant of something called Williams syndrome in dogs. 

Dogs have different characteristic variations from wolves in the genes GTF2I and GTF2IRD1. As a result, these structural variations make dogs friendly, and perhaps this is why dogs are much closer than wolves to humans.