Have you ever wondered about your dog and what they are truly capable of? Sometimes when I am hanging out with my dog Forrest I look and him and think, “What are you thinking? What do you think I am thinking?” Sometimes when he looks deep into my eyes, I think that he can read my mind.
I wonder what he is thinking, what he knows, and what he thinks of me. Dogs just seem to know so much more than humans do.
Animals, particularly dogs, have special abilities that we cannot begin to understand. Dogs have superpowers that allow them to understand the world in such a different way than humans understand the world.
By using their senses more efficiently, differently, and just better than humans, their awareness of life around us is much more advanced than ours. With these skills, it is no wonder that dog superpowers seem so amazing to us.
Although we do not understand all of the reasons why or how dogs sense more than humans, there are some things that we can, sort of, understand. We have gathered together ten of the most amazing dog superpowers that we know, and we will look at each of these to see how they show us what skills dogs can have.
10 Incredible Dog Superpowers
Super Hearing
One of the most obvious things that we know dogs can do is to hear things completely differently than humans do. Our dogs seem to be able to know when we are coming home, when the dog food can is being opened from across the house, or when that pesky dog from next door is getting ready to walk by the house.
Dogs can go from sleeping soundly to jumping towards the front door waiting for a walk even as we try to quietly put on our jacket. They just seem to hear everything so well!
Part of the reason dogs hear better than people is that their ears are designed for hearing. If you look at how a dog’s ear is formed, it is almost like they have a cup or bowl just outside of their ear canal. This “cup” allows sound to naturally project into the ear.
This, along with a developed ability to hear farther and hear high-pitched sounds, lends itself to their super-hearing abilities.
Predicting Earthquakes and Tornados
This may sound crazy, but there is a great deal of evidence that animals, dogs included, can predict when a major weather or land event will occur.
It is not uncommon to see news of a large earthquake somewhere in the world, followed by stories of people describing how their dog pulled them to safety under a table, barked and barked until the owner followed them, or assisted to help rescuers find people buried in the aftermath and rubble.
The explanation given by researchers is that because of the different senses that dogs possess the ability to feel small vibrations in the ground since barometric pressure changes and other variables that occur before something happens. These heightened senses create an awareness that people just do not possess.
Empathy
Have you ever watched a sad movie on TV, started to get emotional, or start to cry, and suddenly your dog is by your side rubbing up against you? Dogs have the uncanny and amazing ability to know when you are sad or hurt and when that happens, they want to help make you feel better.
We don’t know if it is due to the sounds of our cries or the emotions that are coming from our hearts, our dogs know when we need comfort, and they strive to give it to us.
Understanding Sign Language
One of the wonders of dogs is that they understand so much, from spoken language commands, which seem easy, to even sign language! It is not a wonder that they can learn sign language, as dogs are visual creatures.
When helping to train dogs, many people combine spoken words along with command signs. The benefit of this is that it allows a dog to follow directions without speaking to them. This comes in handy in noisy situations or when other dogs are present and you need to get your own dog’s attention.
Dogs See Us as Family
As we all know, dogs were originally pack animals in the wild. They formed family groups and lived together, hunted together, and had a family dynamic and structure as to who helped who and what each role represented.
As dogs became domesticated, they assimilated into families, which they learned were now part of their “pack.”
Dogs learned that when with humans, there is a family structure and dynamic, that there are people that take care of them, feed them, and people that they can trust. It is this pack behavior that creates such loyalty within our animals, and why they feel so close to us, just as we feel close to them.
Dogs Noses Have a Fingerprint
As humans, we have many things that are truly unique to only us – extensive verbal language abilities, advanced machinery making and to make each human completely unique, our fingerprints. Each person has their own set of swirls, twirls, and loops that define exactly who we are.
What is shocking to many people is that dogs also have a unique fingerprint, which happens to be on the end of their nose! We may not think of animals as having such a specific characteristic, but nose prints have their own set of skin variations that are one and only.
Dreams
Dreams can be such an amazing jump into part of our own mind – fun, adventurous dreams, brave and exciting dreams, and even some scary dreams – dreams bring us to places that we may not be able to visit in real life.
Dogs also have dreams, but what they dream of, we will never know. It’s fun to try and figure out what they could be dreaming about; do dogs dream of finally catching that squirrel that teases them from the window? Do they dream of biting the mailman? Or chasing rabbits through the snow?
Whatever dogs dream of, it is sometimes fun to watch them twitch and run in their sleep, imagining a world full of fun doggy adventures.
Emotions
Of the many superpowers that dogs possess, one of the more interesting ones is a dog’s ability to smell emotions.
We know that dogs have an excellent smelling ability, and we also know that people give off different sweat odors depending on how they are feeling emotionally. So is it that hard to believe that dogs can smell our emotions?
Over time, it is thought that as dogs spend time with their owners that they begin to learn which smells coincide with different feelings, activities, or emotions. Since dogs are so smart, they piece together each part of the puzzle to create a better understanding of our world, and who we are.
And when they start to understand us better, they react more appropriately to each of our emotions.
Detecting Cancer
Along with being able to smell like a superhero, that super smeller lends itself to being able to detect many things. Because dogs tend to be highly trainable, using that nose to detect other things, like cancer, has been applied to lots of different environments.
Although not widely used yet in medical practice, there are applications that have utilized dogs to detect forms of cancer in humans.
Finding Their Way Home Without a Map
One of the most amazing things about dogs is that they are super loyal – dogs that are embedded in their family pack want to stay with their pack.
Unfortunately, sometimes dogs get separated from their families. We all have heard stories or seen posters around that showcase a missing pet and the heartfelt plea for them to return.
Fortunately for dogs, they have an amazing sense of direction. Not needing a map, they use the familiarity of smells and other tells to find their way back to a place that has even more familiar smells. Dogs follow each smell to the next to find their way back to their family.
Bottom Line
As you can see from the list above, there are so many ways that our dogs are amazing. From understanding our emotions, being part of our family, and having amazing smelling abilities, dogs truly do have superpowers.
We love our dogs for so many reasons and knowing that they can use the skills that they possess to help us, make us feel better, is heart-warming.
Dogs can be an incredible part of our lives, and truly, we can offer dogs as much as they can offer us.
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