Dogs can tell time

Due mainly to a long association with humans, dogs remain uniquely attuned to our behaviour. This includes grasping the concept of time. While they can’t precisely understand the digits on a watch face, it has been proven that they know the difference between one hour or two.

Another neat trick they teach themselves is predicting future events. Dogs love to have a schedule; if you return home at 6 pm each day, they can recognise the hands on an analogue clock to mark the time. Especially if you take them for a walk at that time.

Dogs get seriously jealous

Courtesy of a study conducted by the University of California San Diego, it has been made clear that dogs feel jealous. Seriously jealous.

Undertaking an experiment where humans engaged with three different objects in front of their dogs (a book, a plastic jack-o-lantern, and a realistic-looking stuffed dog) the results showed that, when the human was paying attention to the fake dog, the real hounds moved in with barking, biting and whining. Such actions were not as prominent with the other objects.

Russian Dogs use public transport

Stray dogs in Russia have learned how to use the countries complex subway system for their benefit. Some of Moscow’s 35,000 wild canines employ the handy underground metro to jump between locations where they know that food will be found. It’s just one of the ways that homeless dogs have figured out how to survive in the humanmade cityscape. While credit is given to strays for dealing with distractions that domesticated dogs cannot handle, we still find the idea of 35,000 homeless dogs somewhat upsetting. We’d take all of them home with us.

Doing the 'business'

According to a study published by the Frontiers in Zoology journal, dogs use the Earth’s magnetic field when relieving themselves. Not only that, but they also prefer to do so in a north-south axis. The study suggests that dogs are sensitive to small variations in Earth’s magnetic field.

Dogs were left to roam free without leads, across ground not influenced by walls or roads, with 37 breeds examined over two years. We don’t envy the poor individual tasked with cleaning up ‘the evidence’.

How Many Dogs?

There are approximately 600 million dogs currently living across the planet. Estimations claim that only 200m have homes, though. Of these homes, some 75.8 million are in the United States with the most popular breed being the Labrador. Labradors have been America’s favourite dog for the last 26 years.

Ever wondered why dogs curl up into a ball while they sleep? This is an age-old instinct to keep themselves warm during the night, and to protect vital organs from predators while they are resting.

Dog food!

It’s official. Customers buy more dog food than any other pet supplies in TRDP shops! Value growth in the first six months of 2019, compared to the same period last year, was 11%. Cat food was the second-largest category in the pet supplies sector (6.7%), followed by Cat Litter in third (0.07%).

The most popular brand remains Pedigree Chum, with Happy Shopper, Bakers, Winalot and Euro Shopper making up the top 5. For more information on UK sales data for dog/pet food, get in touch with our data team.