Five surprising facts about dogs you probably didn’t know

He may be man’s best friend, but how much do you really know about your pup? Here are five amazing facts about dogs you probably didn’t realize.

1. Extra eyelids: in addition to top and bottom eyelids, dogs have another in the corner of their eye that acts like a windshield wiper to clean and moisturize the cornea.

2. Feeble taste: dogs gain most information about their food from the way it smells, not the way it tastes. They only have 1,700 taste buds on their tongues compared to our 9,000.

3. Instinctive sleeping: when your dog curls into a ball to sleep, it’s not just adorable, it’s also an instinctive response to the need to stay warm and to protect their abdomen and organs from predators.

4. Amazing noses: not only is their sense of smell 10,000 times stronger than ours, every dog’s nose print is as distinctive as a human fingerprint.

5. Remarkable ears: each dog ear has 18 muscles that enable it to turn, tilt, raise, lower and move, thereby allowing Fido to hear faraway sounds — up to four times as far as a normal human ear can detect! Dogs can also hear high-frequency pitches humans can’t detect.

Not only are dogs loving and loyal companions, but they’re also fascinating animals with unique characteristics and abilities.