Thursday 9 February 2012

Understanding more about a Dog Brain

I bet you have often asked yourself the question how big is a dogs brain?
The average dog brain weighs around 72g, whereas our human brain weighs between 1300g-1400g. The dogs brain is bigger than that of a cat brain, which only weighs 30g.
Some dogs like Pugs have flatter heads, in these dogs the brain has moved towards the front of the head by up to 15 degrees and the area in the brain, that controls smell, has changed location, this is why flat face breeds of dogs have a reduced sense of smell and air intake, compared to those breeds with sharp pointed faces.
A dog brain does not perceive time in the same way that we do, he cannot sit and think about memories he enjoyed in the past, or sit and think about the things he will enjoy in the future, he is just set in here and now.
A dog will obviously remember commands that you teach him, such as sit, walkies, paw but he will not remember how and where he learnt that command.
Dogs have a great body clock, they know when you are due home, when they will get their walk and when dinner will be served, they look out for things that happen at that certain time of day and how their body feels at that particular time of day.
For example before you walk your dog, the church bells may ring, your dog will pick up that familiar noise and relate it to him going on a walk or maybe his body feels really hungry at a certain point of day and he knows when it feels that exact way dinner normally gets served shortly after. 
Above is a diagram of the dog brain, since the wolf was domesticated 12,000 years ago there has been a lot of variation while breeding but the main change is the skull shape, there are a large assortment of skull shapes to be found in all dogs.