Dogs

The smallest ever recorded breed in the UK is the Chihuahua. The tallest is the Irish Wolfhound, the fastest is the Greyhound and the St Bernard the heaviest.

The Basenji is the only dog that does not bark. Instead, it has a unique yodelling and chortling call.

The Kooikerhondje is well known in its hometown in the Netherlands, as it is reputed to have saved an attempted assassination of Prince William of Orange, by barding and waking him just in time.

The Chow Chow, Shar Pei and Ainu have unusual tongues.. they are blue!

The Shar Pei has very loose skin all over its body. This was developed for the horrible purpose of dog fighting. The loose skin makes it harder for the opponent to pin the dog down.

The worlds smallest dog was a tiny Yorkshire Terrier from Blackburn. At 2 years old he was fully-grown, he was anamazing 2.5 inches tall and only weighed 4 ounces. That made him approximately the size of a matchbox.

Pharos Hounds are said to originate from the Middle East as similar dogs are represented on Egyptian tombs dating back nearly 5000 years.

The Alaskan Malamute is named after the Malhemat Tribe - Inuit people who lived in the northwest of Alaska. They were nomadic people who used their dogs to haul all of their personal possessions on sleighs between locations.

Dogs cannot see as well as humans and they are considered colour blind. When a dog first sights an object it will first detect it by movement, second by its brightness and thirdly by their shape.

The world's oldest dog was an Australian Cattle Dog, he was, sadly, put to sleep at the age of 29 and 5 months.