Furry facts

Can dogs dream? 10 little-known facts that will leave you speechless

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Dogs have walked alongside humans for thousands of years, earning them the title of "man’s best friend." But loyalty and love aren’t the whole story. Behind every wagging tail lies a bundle of quirks and special skills that most people never notice. Some of these traits are downright funny, others almost unbelievable, and a few might even make you see your own pup in a brand-new light. From secret talents to curious habits, here are 10 surprising facts about dogs that prove they’re far more than just companions.

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Believe it or not, dogs can favor one side of the body over the other. Very much like humans, pups often show a clear preference when it comes to their paws. This phenomenon is called "lateralization," meaning individuals stick to their "dominant" paw for most activities. Whether they’re batting at a ball, stepping off the couch, or greeting you with a shake, dogs consistently go left or right. In other words, they can be natural "lefties" or "righties," just like us.

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What may look like nothing more than a damp snout is actually a built-in ID card. If you take a closer look, every dog’s nose is etched with a maze of ridges, swirls, and tiny bumps, all arranged in a completely unique pattern. Much like snowflakes, no two are ever alike. In fact, a dog’s nose is as distinctive as a human fingerprint. Some researchers suggest that one day, nose prints could become as reliable as scanning a thumb, offering a surprisingly scientific way to tell every pup apart.

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Emotions may be invisible to us, but to a dog, they practically float like a scent trail in the air. When your heart races with nerves or your mood lifts with joy, your body releases chemical signals. Thanks to their supercharged noses—armed with more than 220 million scent receptors—dogs pick up on those shifts instantly, often before you’ve even noticed them yourself. To your pup, stress has a specific smell, happiness another one, and so does calm. It’s almost like they’re emotional mind-readers, guided not by divination, but by an extraordinary sense of smell.

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Picture this: a blazing summer afternoon, the kind where the air feels heavy and the shade doesn’t give much relief. Your dog trots across the kitchen tiles, leaving a trail of little damp spots behind. At first glance, you might think you’ve spilled water somewhere. But if you look closer, you’ll discover tiny sweat prints, released straight from the pads of your dog’s paws, one of the few places where canines actually perspire. It’s their built-in way of cooling down, imprinted right onto your floor.

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Back in the 1930s, tales spread far and wide about a remarkable Australian cattle dog named "Bluey." Season after season, he rounded up livestock, worked alongside ranchers, and showed the stamina of an animal half his age. His energy seemed endless, and his loyalty never wavered. By the time he finally slowed down, Bluey had reached the astounding age of 29. That’s more than double the typical dog’s lifespan, and even today, his record still stands as the gold standard for canine longevity.

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Did you know a newborn Dalmatian doesn’t look like the spotted star of storybooks? In fact, every puppy arrives in the world completely white, its coat as blank as a brand new canvas. As the weeks go by, something magical happens and dark spots begin to appear, one by one, across their fur. Some cluster close, others scatter wide, giving each pup a unique pattern, almost like fingerprints. By the time they’re old enough to tumble around the yard, their trademark black or brown polka dots are in full bloom, as if nature itself had been painting in slow motion.

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Cheetahs may be the kings of speed, galloping across the savanna at nearly 70 miles per hour; yet, that lightning burst burns out fast. In less than 30 seconds, their muscles overheat and they have to stop, leaving them panting in the shade. Greyhounds, on the other hand, are built for the long run. With their lean bodies and powerful lungs, they can race at 45 miles per hour, keeping the pace far longer than their feline counterparts. Put the two in a sprint and the cheetah wins every time; switch to an endurance race, and the graceful greyhound takes the crown.

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Here’s a mystery that still leaves scientists scratching their heads: when dogs pause to relieve themselves, many instinctively line up north to south. There’s no command from their owners, no obvious reason, it’s just a quiet ritual repeated across countless backyards and parks. Researchers suspect it’s connected to Earth’s magnetic field, suggesting that every pup carries a tiny compass tucked inside its body. If only ancient explorers had known about this! The exact reason remains unsolved, but it’s a reminder that our four-legged companions harbor instincts as enigmatic as the planet itself.

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It may sound like something from a sci-fi tale, but a dog’s ears are truly tuned for super-hearing. While human ears pick up around 20,000 hertz, a dog can catch pitches soaring to nearly 65,000. That incredible range means the faint squeak of a toy, the groan of a floorboard, or even the high whistle of a kettle miles away might reach them as sharply as if it were right next to them. For us, silence is easy, but for your pup, the air hums with hidden notes, an invisible orchestra of sounds we’ll never get to hear.

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Ever seen your pup snooze and suddenly start twitching, whimpering, or kicking its paws? That’s a dream unfolding. Just like us, dogs also slip into REM sleep, the stage where minds fire up and replay the day’s adventures. A quiet nap on the couch might transform into a romp through the park, a splash in a puddle, or a tug-of-war with their favorite toy. Sometimes you can even notice their ears flicking or their tail giving a sleepy wag. In dreamland, there are no leashes, no fences, no bedtime, but endless freedom to chase, play, and explore the world.

Creative repurposing

From trash to burnt toast: 12 works of art made with bizarre materials

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They say that creativity is all about finding opportunities where others don’t. The artists on this list must have taken that definition very literally because they all use highly unconventional media to create their work. From Post-it notes and stamps to fruit and trash, these 12 artistic visionaries are game for any kind of everyday material. Keep reading to learn more about them!

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Is "Post Pop Art" a thing? This artist from Staffordshire, England, seems to think so! Pete Mason combines pop art and graphic design to create portraits of famous people out of recycled postage stamps. He sorts the stamps by design, color, and pattern and then applies them to a previously sketched canvas. Each of Mason’s pieces, which include portraits of Princess Diana and Martin Luther King, takes up to 20,000 stamps.

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Don't throw away that burnt slice of toast; you can make art with it! Or at least that's what New Zealand artist Maurice Bennett did. Using thousands of pieces of toasted bread, burnt to varying degrees, he created billboard-sized mosaic portraits of well-known personalities, from Elvis Presley to the Mona Lisa. Bennett preferred to use white bread, but sometimes experimented with multi-grain to achieve different shades. Clever, huh?

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Who would have thought that junk mail could be turned into something beautiful? Well, a New York-born artist decided it was time to take action. A pioneer of the Green Fine Art movement, Sandhi Schimmel creates mosaic pictures out of all kinds of unusual materials, from junk mail to catalogs and old greeting cards. She was first inspired by a process called "upcycling," which she discovered while in Venice, Italy. Most of her artworks are portraits, like a piece featuring Madonna called "All American Blonde" and a re-creation of the famous The Birth of Venus.

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Franz Spohn is a multifaceted artist based in Pennsylvania. He’s a sculptor, illustrator, art professor, and even TV host! For the past 25 years, he has created over 200 mosaic murals made from plastic tubes filled with hundreds of colorful gumballs. His pieces usually portray popular icons like Barack Obama and Rosa Parks. Spohn’s masterpieces have been exhibited in several museums around the world. Talk about eye candy!

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Who said you had to be good at drawing to be an artist? A 20-year-old art student from Leavenworth, Washington, created a 25-foot-high portrait of Jimi Hendrix made from more than 8500 Bicycle playing cards. With the help of a computer program, David Alvarez mapped and divided a picture of the great American musician into parts. After deciding where each colored playing card would go, he meticulously placed them on a styrofoam board. He completed his masterpiece in just 21 hours!

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Did the world need another Mona Lisa? Probably not, but this version is noteworthy because of the materials used to create it. In 2006, a group of computer engineers presented a re-creation of da Vinci's masterpiece made out of random computer parts at an art exhibition in Beijing, China. To make this collage, they used computer chips, circuits, and old motherboards. This piece of "geek art," titled "Technology Smiling," fascinated audiences. What do you think the Italian Renaissance artist would think of it?

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Those sticker labels that come on fruits and vegetables are sometimes so cute that you feel bad throwing them away. Barry Snyder of Erie, Colorado, probably wanted to prevent these design gems from going to waste when he came up with the idea of creating his amazing mosaic artworks. He uses around 4,000 labels for each of his four-square-foot creations. People even send him stickers from all over the world, so he doesn’t run out. His pieces are so popular that they can sell for up to $10,000. Who would have thought that something destined to become trash could be so lucrative?

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British artists Tim Noble and Sue Webster use different objects and materials, mostly trash, to create people and animal shadows. They arrange the objects in such a way that, when light is projected onto them, a recognizable silhouette can be seen on the wall. They have even managed to create identifiable portraits! For their contributions to British contemporary art, Noble and Webster received an honorary doctorate from Nottingham Trent University in 2009.

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Inspired by the Y2K computer scare in 2000, American artist Scott Blake began creating artworks out of bar codes. He started with circles and squares and soon switched to designing digital portraits of icons such as Elvis Presley, Andy Warhol, and Marilyn Monroe in Photoshop. Many of his pieces are interactive; if scanned with a cell phone, you can hear Blake’s subjects telling their stories.

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Since 1988, artist Helge Lundstrom and his daughter Emma Karp have been creating apple mosaics for the annual Kivik Apple Festival. Known for being an important fruit supplier in Sweden, this town celebrates the end of the harvest with these works of art as its centerpiece. Each piece is made from up to 75,000 apples of different varieties, from bright green Granny Smiths to duo-toned McIntoshes. What do you think of this juicy approach to art?

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This particular material is as bizarre as it is abstract. Yet, it still achieves impressive results. Iranian artist Hamid Naderi generates digital images from mathematical formulas. How does he do it? He finds the mathematical equation that corresponds to each color he wants to represent in a pixel. Through his work, Naderi proves that math doesn't have to be boring; it can be a vehicle for creating art and beauty.

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The Eisenhower Junior High School in Taylorsville, Utah, holds several world records—probably more than any other school in the country! Many of their record-breaking attempts were even featured in the Guinness World Records and Ripley’s Believe It or Not. One of its most incredible feats so far was creating the world’s largest Post-it note mosaic. In 2009, 151 students created a 60-by-40-foot work of art using 38,400 colorful sticky notes. The construction took three hours, and after the event, the Post-it notes were recycled.