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TOP DOG STORIES (AMAZING TRUE STORIES ABOUT DOGS)

Man's best friend always manifests his solidarity and infinite loyalty. Many dog stories tell us how they have literally given their lives for their owners.

In dangerous situations, these animals do not hesitate to do everything in their power to save humans, even if they are strangers.

There are also many dog stories of them following their owners everywhere, even in danger or risk of death.

Dogs can understand that a child is vulnerable and have been found to intervene to protect him at the risk of their own safety.

Dogs give us great life lessons every day. They are faithful, loving, and cheerful companions. They give everything to man without asking for anything in return.

Throughout time they have been man's inseparable companions, even if we may forget about them.

For tens of thousands of years, they have accompanied us in every moment of our history. 

In this article, we share some of the most amazing dog stories.

True Dog Stories That May Sound Absurd

Who doesn't like fairy tales about animals, maybe about a nice dog?

But here we are talking about real dog stories that are absurd incidents that really happened in the world.

For dog owners, our little dogs are probably the most interesting thing in the world. 

We fill our friends and relatives (not to mention our social profiles!) with photos and facts about them that seem impossible not to share with the world.

But in reality, there are always those who can overshadow us with a more absurd and incredible story than ours.

In this case, let's talk about the most bizarre and weird dog stories we could find on the web.

Whether they are scientific discoveries, absurd behaviors, or things that have happened to furry pets worldwide, the important thing is that they are truly unique.

The Craziest Dog Stories

The Dog That Shot a Hunter

In 2019, former football player Matt Branch and his friends went duck hunting.  They brought with them a cute Labrador named Tito. 

The former Louisiana State University lineman left a loaded shotgun in the back of the pickup truck. 

The safety was obviously engaged, making the weapon safe. The group had only departed a few feet away to prepare for the start of their hunt near Eagle Lake in Mississippi. 

The dog Tito suddenly decided to jump to his feet in the back of the pickup.

In doing so, he was able to release the safety of the 12-gauge rifle and pull the trigger.

The shot went through the side of the car and hit 29-year-old Branch in the left thigh.

Matt underwent several surgeries, but the damage was too severe: eventually, the doctors had to amputate his leg.

Amazing Dog Story About a Recovery on an Oil Rig

Oil rig workers were stunned to find a dog in the water. This happened in 2019. The oil rig was 220 kilometers off the coast of Thailand. 

This cute puppy managed to swim to the platform, where he clung desperately to the base.

The crew built a rudimentary leash and practiced for 15 minutes before getting it around the animal's neck.

They were able to drag it to safety.

The dog was dried, refreshed with water and meat, and was also given a cute flower garland to wear. 

The crew members also gave him some kennel and named him Boonrod.

In Thailand, this term is used for survivors who have good karma.

Once Boonrod was brought ashore, the vets declared the dog to be in good health and housed him at an animal rescue group.

One of the oil rig workers, Vitisak Payalaw, said he would adopt Boonrod if no one offered him a permanent home.

It is unclear how the dog ended up this far from the coast, but he probably fell off a fishing vessel.

This True Dog Story of a Dog Owner With a Broken Heart

In 2016, Joanie Simpson of Texas went through a challenging time.

Her 62-year-old son underwent surgery, her daughter's husband had lost his job, and a property purchase deal was going badly.

Worse still, her beloved Yorkshire terrier Meha had congestive heart failure.

Joanie loved that little dog madly, but her pet was so sick that Joanie had arranged Meha's date to proceed with the euthanasia.

Unfortunately, when that day arrived, Meha seemed to be fine, and Joanie canceled the appointment.

The Yorkshire died of natural causes the next day, but terribly in the sight of its owner.

One morning, Joanie woke up with all the symptoms of a heart attack.

Joanie was flown to a Houston hospital where emergency personnel was preparing for her arrival.

However, it turned out that Joanie never had a heart attack: she instead experienced a real medical condition called “broken heart syndrome.”

This sometimes fatal condition mimics heart attacks and can be triggered by strong emotions, such as bereavement.

Since dog owners often cry intensely over their pets, it shouldn't surprise us that Joanie wasn't the first recorded case in which someone developed this dangerous condition after their dog died.

A Dog Story of Love For A Dog Could Be Genetic

In 2019, researchers wondered if love for dogs was genetic, and Sweden was the perfect place to find out.

The country has the largest number of twins and requires all dogs to be registered with the Swedish Board of Agriculture (an organization for agricultural development).

Twin studies allow scientists to compare genetic, behavioral, and environmental data between people who share 50-100% DNA.

The 2019 study was very accurate, looking at data from more than 85,000 adult twins.  

Next, the team went through dog ownership records for 15 years. Only a little over 8,500 people owned a dog as a pet.

Surprisingly, computer models found that genetics and environmental factors could predict those most likely to adopt a dog equally.

While the exact genes remain unidentified, the dog lover's DNA patterns were slightly higher in women.

The study added an interesting piece to previous research on the health benefits of dog ownership.

He suggested that health benefits such as improved fitness and mood could be partially explained by genetics.

Robotic Dogs Takes Dog Stories to a New Level

And among the stories about dogs, certainly could not miss one with robots!

Boston Dynamics is a Google-owned company specializing in technology, and one of their fields is robotics. 

In recent years, the company has revealed plans to use robot dogs to deliver packages to customers. 

Nicely called the Spot, one of these roof racks really looked like a dog: it walked on all fours, climbed stairs, and was agile enough to withstand thrusts.

The company has not been apparent how they would plan to fight against the theft or abuse of these robotic puppies once they go out on the street to deliver someone's mail.

Spot also had a younger brother called SpotMini, who looked like a hybrid between a dog and a giraffe.

This intelligent creature was also able to map the world around it to get around obstacles easily. Boston Dynamics also tested the two robot dogs as workers on factory production lines.

In retrospect, this may be a safer option for the safety of these robots.

Amazing Neolithic Dog Stories

In 1901, researchers studied a Neolithic tomb located in the Scottish Orkney Islands at Cuween Hill. Inside, around 24 dog skulls were discovered.

A later study found that the animals were buried some 4,500 years ago when the tomb was already 500 years old.

But as unusual as it was, the real surprise came in 2019 when a skull was reconstructed.

Scientists wanted to know what Scottish dogs looked like during the Neolithic.

Scientists used a forensic technique by taking a 3D scan of the dogs' skull's details and then used that information to create a “real” head.

The result was a wolf-like creature. And since the dog was already domesticated at that time, its resemblance to the European gray wolf was quite unexpected.

The animal, which was the size of a collie, also lacked the high forehead of modern dogs.

As well as providing a curious glimpse into ancient Scottish dogs, the skull has also shown its importance in ritual burials.

This Dog Story is The Rarest Dog Being Rediscovered

For decades no one has seen the New Guinea Highland Wild Dog, so much, so that general opinion has declared that they were now extinct.

However, two (not very useful, though) photographs taken in 2005, and 2012 suggested that these dogs may still be alive.

In 2016, researchers found a dog-like footprint in the highlands of New Guinea.

Cameras were set up along this track, and in two days, the devices captured 140 images of at least 15 different wild dogs.

But even better, the researchers met the animals face to face: males, females, and playful puppies showed that there was a population in full swing.

Most had golden furs, straight ears, and tails curled towards the back.

The DNA samples returned other interesting fragments.

Wild dogs are officially the most primitive and ancient canids globally and have lived on the island for around 6,000 years. They are also related to the Australian dingo and the New Guinea singing dog.

There are still only 300 singing dogs left, and they are the captive-bred version of the highland wild dog.

Researchers Tell This Story How Dogs Manipulate You With Their Eyebrows

Fido destroys the sofa; while he is sitting among the sponge shreds and is scolded, the clever puppy looks at the owner with a certain look.

Raised eyebrows make this armchair killer confused, sorry and vulnerable, and forgiveness creeps under our best defenses.

In 2019, researchers found that dogs evolved to manipulate humans via their eyebrows.

They imitate human emotions to trigger a useful response for them.

However, this is not an evil plot against humanity, but most likely a real natural selection led by the owners.

For thousands of years, people have taken better care of the dogs they felt connected to. As a result, the dogs developed special muscles around the eyes.

Completely absent or underdeveloped in wolves, this type of muscle allows dogs to intensely raise their eyebrows to touch the strings of the human heart.

The Siberian husky does not have this behavior. This breed is a close relative of the wolf, so the Siberian Husky's eye muscles are underdeveloped.

This Unique Dog Story About Professional Poop Trackers

We continue with our dog stories with something a little smelly. The canine conservation program was founded in 1997, also known as “CK9”. They have trained dogs, called Scat detection dogs to find wildlife droppings.

Most dogs are fetching, with a strong fixation for toy balls, and this obsession with the ball is the fundamental requirement for choosing new CK9 candidates.

In fact, the toy acts both as a training tool and as a reward.

The program offers a non-invasive way to collect information on threatened and endangered animals. The wildlife droppings are full of personal details, and a single deposit can reveal the gender, stage of pregnancy, diet, and health of the animal.

It can also allow scientists to recognize people if they want. The most notable tracking feat involves killer whales off the coast of Canada.

While on the deck of a search boat, some CK9 dogs spotted floating (but very quick to sink) clods of killer whales on multiple occasions.

We Found This Dog Story About a Dog's Use of Earth's Magnetic Field

Birds migrate using the planet's magnetic field. In a study that ended in 2014, researchers announced that dogs also exploit this field, but the reason they use it is strange.

The study worked for two years, looked at 70 dogs of 37 different breeds, and recorded their toileting habits.

In an attempt to find a link between the dogs' toileting and the Earth's magnetic field, the team observed 1,893 defecations and 5,582 urinations. 

Oddly, dogs preferred their “business” to take place along a north-south axis; and the strangest discovery was that dogs actively avoided crouching along the east-west axis. 

Despite all the work done during thousands of these “bathroom” moments, researchers still can't explain why dogs do it.

READ NEXT: 10 Most Famous Dogs in History

10 of the Best Novels and Short Stories about Dogs – Interesting Literature

Literature

Novelists and short-story writers have created some classic narratives about man’s best friend, the dog. But what are the very best stories and novels about dogs? Where should we begin in assessing the classic, canonical literature that features dogs?

From Homer’s Odyssey onwards – where the hero’s faithful hound remembered him upon his return to Ithaca – the annals of literature are full of famous literary dogs. Here are ten of the best works of fiction to feature our four-legged friends.

1. Mark Twain, ‘A Dog’s Tale’.

My father was a St. Bernard, my mother was a collie, but I am a Presbyterian. This is what my mother told me, I do not know these nice distinctions myself. To me they are only fine large words meaning nothing. My mother had a fondness for such; she liked to say them, and see other dogs look surprised and envious, as wondering how she got so much education …

This 1903 tale is one of several stories on this list which are told from the dog’s perspective. The dog in question is sold to a new owner and is sad to leave her mother behind, but the family she goes to live with are kind to her. One day, a fire breaks out in the nursery of the house – and the dog comes to the rescue …

2. Eleanor Atkinson, Greyfriars Bobby.

Bobby slipped out, dry as his own delectable bone, from under the tomb of Mistress Jean Grant, and nearly wagged his tail off with pleasure. Mistress Jeanie was set in a proud flutter when the Grand Leddy rang at the lodge kitchen and asked if she and Bobby could have their tea there with the old couple by the cozy grate fire …

Perhaps the most famous novel ever written about a dog, Greyfriars Bobby (1912) is a Scottish tale about the faithfulness of dogs towards their owners. Written from the perspective of the Skye terrier which gives the novel its title, the novel also features Auld Jock, Bobby’s owner, who has a close bond with his pet terrier.

When (spoiler alert) Jock dies, Bobby refuses to leave his master’s side, even when Jock is buried. Bobby ends up guarding Jock’s grave, by day and night, thus neatly symbolising the two main features associated with dogs: fidelity and vigilance.

3. O. Henry, ‘Memoirs of a Yellow Dog’.

But you needn’t look for any stuck-up literature in my piece, such as Bearoo, the bear, and Snakoo, the snake, and Tammanoo, the tiger, talk in the jungle books. A yellow dog that’s spent most of his life in a cheap New York flat, sleeping in a corner on an old sateen underskirt (the one she spilled port wine on at the Lady Longshoremen’s banquet), mustn’t be expectcd to perform any tricks with the art of speech …

In this 1903 story from one of America’s greatest writers of the short story, the yellow dog of the story’s title recounts his life, his owners, and his love for his master (and his dislike for his master’s wife). Man and dog really do have a stronger bond in this story than man and wife – but we won’t spoil the ending …

4. Rudyard Kipling, ‘Garm – a Hostage’.

First published in 1899, this short story from the writer who also gave us the poem ‘The Power of the Dog’ – tells of a man whose friend gives him a bull-terrier as a ‘hostage’. However, ‘Garm’ – the name the narrator gives to his newly acquired dog – misses his original owner, who visits his beloved terrier on a regular basis. This is another tale tinged with sadness, but shot through with the strong bond between a man and his dog.

5. Jack London, The Call of the Wild.

London (1876-1916) was the first writer to become a millionaire from his writing, and although he wrote a vast number of different books including an early dystopian novel (The Iron Heel) and a novel set in the days of early man (Before Adam), he is best-known for his two short novels set in the Yukon Territory in Canada during the Gold Rush, The Call of the Wild (1903) and White Fang (1906).

The first of these is probably the most famous and widely read, and focuses on a dog which is stolen from its home in California and made to work as a sled-dog in the snowy wilds of Alaska. As the novel’s title suggests, The Call of the Wild is about the canine protagonist’s transition from a life among civilisation to the relative freedom he finds among the wilderness of the Yukon.

6. Virginia Woolf, Flush: A Biography.

Although it’s subtitled A Biography, this short 1933 book is as much fiction as non-fiction. However, its subject was real enough: the Victorian poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s pet dog. The cocker spaniel, Flush, is acquired by Barrett Browning and taken from the countryside to London, where he lives among the London literati before travelling out with the Brownings to Italy. This is Woolf’s funniest book, and although it’s wildly different from The Waves or Mrs Dalloway, it shows off her distinctive modernist style.

7. Franz Kafka, ‘Investigations of a Dog’.

Kafka is a master of the weird, the unusual, the not-quite-right, his stories and novels haunting us long after we have finished reading them. And although he’s well-known for longer works like The Castle and The Trial, he was also a master of the short story form, including the long short story (witness his masterpiece, ‘The Metamorphosis’).

This 1922 story is another tale narrated by a dog, telling us about its experiences. But Kafka’s canine narrator is a philosophical creature, who is interested in the deeper meaning behind his existence and who seeks rational explanations for the things which have befallen him.

8. Richard Adams, The Plague Dogs.

Everyone knows of Watership Down, Adams’ bestselling 1972 novel about a group of rabbits, but his 1977 novel The Plague Dogs is not as well-known. The novel focuses on Rowf and Snitter, two dogs which escape from a government research station in the Lake District in northern England.

They survive among the wilds of Cumbria, which Adams describes with great power and skill, but there’s a price on their backs – especially as it’s feared they may be carrying a deadly strain of plague which they acquired at the research station …

9. Philip K. Dick, ‘Roog’.

This story was written in 1951, and is an early work by the prolific science-fiction author – and a patron saint of the counterculture – Philip K. Dick (1928-82), best-known for writing the novel that inspired the film Blade Runner as well as other classic novels and stories such as ‘The Minority Report’ (also made into a film) and for the alternative-history novel, The Man in the High Castle.

This is another story told from the point of view of a dog. Boris believes the garbage-men who come to collect the trash from his owner’s house are aliens invading from another planet. He calls the strange creatures ‘Roogs’, but his attempts to warn his owners about the alien invasion are futile. But Dick leaves enough doubt in our minds that the dog may, after all, be right, and the ‘garbage-men’ may not be all they seem – as usual with Dick’s fiction, our understanding of reality and everything we take for granted is given a good shake.

10. Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

Perhaps no pick of the best novels and stories about dogs could be without this more recent example, this 2003 mystery novel loosely inspired by the Sherlock Holmes adventures and featuring a teenage protagonist, Christopher, who goes in search of the neighbour’s missing dog. Although people tend to assume that Christopher has Asperger’s, Haddon has refuted this, and the book makes no reference to it. Instead, as Haddon has said in a blog post, the novel is about being an outsider.

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Tags: Books, Classics, Dogs, Literature, Novels, short stories

A dog is not just a friend of man. Scientists have determined that she is man's oldest friend

  • Paul Rincon
  • BBC

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Humans domesticated the dog just after the end of the last ice age, before any other animal. This is evidenced by the results of a study by the Laboratory of Ancient Genomics at the Francis Crick Institute in London. nine0018

Data published in the journal Science shed light on blind spots in the history of man's longtime companion.

11 thousand years ago, dogs already lived next to people in many places of the Northern Hemisphere and even then were divided into five varieties.

Despite the widespread settlement of European dogs during the colonial era, the descendants of ancient local breeds have survived in North and South America, Asia, Africa and Oceania.

"When you think about it, it's amazing: the first thing that people of that time, hunters and gatherers, tamed a wild predator. Wolves are still feared in many parts of the world. So why did people do this? How did this happen? What is special about a dog? which we wanted an answer," says research team leader Dr. Pontus Skoglund. nine0011

An international team of scientists examined the genomes (complete sets of DNA in the nuclei of cells) taken from the remains of 27 ancient dogs found in different archaeological cultures and compared them with each other and with the genes of modern dogs.

In part, the genetic evolution of dogs repeats the human one, since people moved along with their four-legged companions. But there are also important differences.

Photo caption,

The ancestors of the Rhodesian Ridgeback lived in Africa

For example, in the early era in Europe there were numerous varieties of dogs that genetically descended from two main breeds that lived in the Middle East and Siberia. nine0011

And then at some point, presumably with the onset of the Bronze Age, they were all supplanted by one genetic line that had common ancestors and spread widely throughout the continent. Moreover, this did not correlate with the migration of people.

"If we look back 4-5 thousand years ago, we will see that in Europe there was a wide variety in terms of dog breeds. However, all the numerous and even more dissimilar modern breeds originate from one small group of animals" , says study participant Anders Bergström. nine0011

Genome analysis of Rhodesian Ridgebacks from southern Africa and Chihuahuas and Xoloitzcuintles from Mexico confirmed their local origin.

Image copyright, SPL

Image caption,

The New Guinea Singing Dog is named for its melodic howl that begins with a high note

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East Asian dogs have a more complex pedigree. Chinese breeds arose as a result of crossing between the ancestors of the Australian dingoes and New Guinean singing dogs with breeds from Europe and the Russian steppes.

The singing dog is so named for the melodic howl that begins with a high note.

"Dogs are our closest and longest partners in the animal kingdom. Studying the DNA of ancient dogs reveals how far back in time our common history goes and where it began," says co-author Gregor Larson of the University of Oxford. nine0011

It is generally accepted that dogs are descended from wolves that accidentally wandered into human camps, most likely in search of food. After taming, they began to serve people as hunting assistants and watchmen.

The current study shows that all dogs are descended from one or more closely related now extinct wolf populations. If domestication occurred repeatedly and in different places, the rest of the genetic lines were little reflected in the DNA of modern dogs.

So far it has not been possible to find out where and when exactly this main domestication took place. nine0011

"The history of dogs is so dynamic that it's hard to read it in genetic lines. It remains a fascinating mystery," says Dr. Skoglund.

Other domestic animals, including cats, were tamed when people settled down and started farming, that is, over six thousand years ago.

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Cats were probably attracted by the food waste of crowded settlements, and then they were useful to new owners as hunters for mice that devastated barns. Obviously, this happened in the Middle East, the cradle of agriculture.

"As for dogs, they could be tamed anywhere: in cold Siberia, in the hot Middle East, in Southeast Asia. Anything is possible," says Pontus Skoglund.

The history of dog domestication: how a man found his best friend

Rock paintings in Saudi Arabia dated to the 9th millennium BC. e., you can already see images of a man with a dog. Are these the first drawings and what are the theories about the origin of pets?

As with the history of the domestication of cats, there is still no consensus on when and how dogs were domesticated. Just as there is no reliable data on the ancestors of modern dogs.

The birthplace of the first domestic dogs

Experts cannot determine the specific place where dogs were domesticated, since this happened everywhere. The remains of dogs near human sites are found in many parts of the world. nine0011

For example, in 1975, paleontologist N. D. Ovodov discovered the remains of a domestic dog in Siberia near the Altai Mountains. The age of these remains is estimated at 33-34 thousand years. In the Czech Republic, remains were found that are more than 24 thousand years old.

The origin of the modern dog

Historians define two theories of the origin of pets - monophyletic and polyphyletic. Proponents of the monophyletic theory are sure that the dog originated from a wild wolf. The main argument of supporters of this theory is that the structure of the skull and the appearance of dogs of many breeds have many similarities with wolves. nine0011

The polyphyletic theory says that dogs are the result of crossing wolves with coyotes, jackals or foxes. Some experts are leaning towards the origin of certain types of jackals.

There is also an average version: the Austrian scientist Konrad Lorenz published a monograph, which says that dogs are descended from both wolves and jackals. According to the zoologist, all breeds can be divided into "wolf" and "jackals".

Charles Darwin believed that it was wolves that became the progenitors of dogs. In his work “The Origin of Species”, he wrote: “The selection of them [dogs] was carried out according to the artificial principle, the key force of selection was people who abducted wolf cubs from the den and then tamed them.” nine0011

The domestication of the wild ancestors of dogs has affected not only their behavior, but also their appearance. For example, people most often wanted to keep the position of the animal's ears hanging, like in puppies, and therefore chose more infantile individuals.

Living close to humans has also affected the color of the dogs' eyes. Predators usually have light eyes as they hunt at night.


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