The World's Oldest Dog
According to the Guinness Book of Pet Records, an Australian Cattle dog named "Bluey" from Victoria, Australia died when he is almost 29 years old.

Worlds Largest Dog
The worlds heaviest as well as longest dog ever recorded was an Old English Mastiff named Zorba. In 1989, Zorba weighed 343 lbs and was 8 feet 3 inches long from nose to tail! I use the past tense here because I don't have recent data on Zorba. Lets hope he is doing well.

Worlds Smallest Dog
The smallest dog in history was a tiny Yorkie from Blackburn, England. At two years of age and fully grown this little dude was an incredible 2.5 inches tall by 3.75 inches long! He weighed only 4 ounces! HE was approximately the size of a matchbox.

Worlds Best Drug Sniffing Dogs
A US Customs Labrador named "Snag" has made 118 drug seizures worth a canine record $810 million.
The greatest number of drug seizures by dogs is 969 in 1988. IN ONE YEAR! The team of "Rocky" and "Barco" patrolled the Texas and Mexico border, alias "Cocaine Alley." They were so good that Mexican drug lords put a price of $30,000 dollars on their heads.

The Greatest Number Of Dogs
The greatest number of dogs ever owned by one person were 5000 mastiffs owned by Kubla Khan.

Anything over 45 minutes Seems like Forever to Your Dog.
You will be greeted as enthusiastically coming back from a two-hour shopping trip as you will coming back from a two-day vacation.

My Dog's Age - The Preferred Rule
Multiplying a dog's age by 7 to find the equivalent human age -- is fallacious. A dog is able to reproduce at 1 year and has reached full growth by 2 years. To calculate a dog's age in human terms, count the first year at 15, the second year as 10, and each year after that as 5.

How Much is that Doggy in the Window?
Based on an average life span of 11 years, the cost of owning a dog is $13,350.

Two Dogs Survived the Sinking of Titanic.
They escaped on early lifeboats carrying so few people that no one objected. Miss Margaret Hays of New York brought her Pomeranian with her in lifeboat No. 7, while Henry Sleeper Harper of the publishing family boarded boat No. 3 with his Pekinese, Sun Yat Sen.

Population Control - Value of Spay and Neuter Programs
A female dog, her mate and her puppies can produce 12,288 dogs in five years.

The Dog that Ruled Norway
A dog was once the King of Norway for 3 years during the 11th century AD. The Norwegian King, angry his subjects once deposed him put Saur on the throne, demanding that he be treated regally.

Island of Dogs
The Canary Islands were not named for a bird called a canary. They were named after a breed of large dogs. The Latin name was Canariae insulae - "Island of Dogs."  

Chocolate is Poisonous to Your Dog
The theobromine in chocolate that stimulates the cardiac and nervous systems is too much for dogs, especially smaller pups. A chocolate bar is poisonous to dogs and can even be lethal.

When it comes to dogs, males are from Mars and females are from Venus. Even if they have been neutered, males tend to be more aggressive than females and will have a general tendency to roam and get into more fights than other dogs than females. Females are much more even-tempered.

On the negative side, females do come into heat twice a year and will spray a urine-scented substance that's not pleasant (unless you're a male dog), inviting every male dog in the neighbourhood to come and visit. Also, females tend to be more excitable than males and tend to spontaneously urinate more readily. They can also be harder to housetrain.

Females are generally more patient and caring with their owner's children than males, while males are more protective of the family than females, males are also bigger, of course. In the larger breeds, a male may weight as much as 40 pounds more than a female.

This Information is reproduced with permission from "The Simple Guide to Dog Training", TFH Publications Inc., 1990.

There are a number of factors to consider before getting a dog and one decision is whether to get a mixed-breed dog or a purebred. A purebred dog can be defined as having a mother and father of the same breed, as well as a number of generations of the same breed before them.

There are a couple of advantages to getting a mixed breed, one of which is a better health record. Purebred dogs may have some inherited medical problems, which can be expensive both fiscally and emotionally. A mixed breed or "mutt", on the other hand, is classically healthier, perhaps because undesirable maladies have fallen by the wayside as it was bred over the years, leaving only the healthier strains. Another advantage is that a mix-breed dog is a lot cheaper than a purebred dog. Many people will give a mixed breed for free, and shelters and humane societies charge a considerably lesser fee than breeders.

However, when you buy a purebred dog, assuming you're getting a good example of the breed, you can more or less predict what the dog will be like (and won't be like) when he is fully grown. For example, if you want a dog that's great with kids, choose a Basset Hound; if you want one that is extremely smart, get a Poodle; or if you want one that's a good retriever, get a Labrador. These predictions may not be possible if you buy a mixed-breed puppy that looks like his Beagle mother but acts more like his German Shepherd father.

This information is reproduced with permission from "The Simple Guide to Dog Training", TFH Publications Inc., 1990

As you learn about the different traits inherent in the various type of dogs, be honest with yourself about who you are and what your personality can and cannot tolerate, as well as the feelings of other people in the house. For example, if patience is not one of your virtues, then certain dogs may not be for you. Years ago, for example, when the remake of the movie 101 Dalmatians came out, the breed's popularity soared. However people who obtained the dog later learned that Dalmatians are strong-willed and difficult to train, and many of these dogs ended up in the animal shelters or were abandoned. Real-life endings were far less happy than in the movie. On the other hand, if the adopters had strong personalities, they might have looked on the strong-willed persona of the dog as a challenge and even liked the dog for his wilfulness. Of course, what you will have to handle may not be so obvious with dogs of mixed parentage, but if you try to determine what breed is dominant in the dog, you should be okay.

This information is reproduced with permission from "The Simple Guide to Dog Training", TFH Publications Inc., 1990