10 Even average family dogs that are largely inactive and sleep most of the day have more endurance than the most fit human athlete. 

Dogs have a higher rate of maximum oxygen use when compared to humans, which means that they are less likely to get tired than us. They are capable of efficiently consuming oxygen when exercising at maximum capacity which gives them increased aerobic energy and extra endurance. Unlike us, dogs get their energy from fat instead of carbohydrates, and their endurance is based on how well they can utilize the fat stores in their body. The amount of energy they get from fat oxidation is twice as high when compared to less aerobic animals such as goats. (source)

9 Contrary to the common belief, dogs can see colors. They have two cone cells in their eyes, unlike three in humans, which means they can see they can see colors in between blue and yellow.

Many people think that dogs can only see in monochrome and use the differences in brightness to distinguish the outlines of the objects. After scientist Jay Neitz discovered that dogs contain two cones, a team of researchers at the Russian Academy of Sciences tested the sights of eight dogs of various sizes and breeds. They used four pieces of paper with different colors to find out whether the dogs identified an object by means of its color or brightness. The result being, that 6 out of the 8 dogs made choices based on color 90 to 100 percent of the time. (source)

8 A Russian dog whose owners were killed in a car accident, refused to leave the site despite attempts to adopt or re-home him. He waited for his owners for 7 years until he died. The city people informally adopted him and built a monument named “Loyalty” to him.

The dog, whose actual name was unknown, was travelling with a girl and a man when the accident happened. The girl died on the spot and the man was rushed to the hospital but didn’t survive, but the dog did. Since then he would wait at the spot, in all weather, rain or snow, and all through the year running up to the passing cars to see if it were his owners. In the beginning the people were curious, but soon the story of the dog spread around and they called him “Kostya”, meaning “Loyalty”. Despite several attempts by the people to adopt him or building doghouses for him, he would always come back to the spot and all he would take from them was food. After he died, they campaigned and had a bronze statue built of him. (source)

7 Dogs now watch a lot more TV, thanks to the high-definition sets that are now prevalent at homes. The old CRTs were too blurry for the dogs, but with modern flat-screens they can see as clearly as humans. 

Our eyes are capable of discerning the frames of a video at 55 fps (frames per second), where as dogs do it at 75 fps, which means the older CRT TVs which work at around 60 fps are not good enough for them. Because of the low refresh rate, the videos appear to flicker too much for them, which is why the videos flat-screens with higher fps would seem more real. There are apparently reports of dogs becoming more and more interested in watching TV, enjoy shows with nature and animals, with even new channels cropping up just for dogs. (source)

6 In 2008, a 2-year-old dog tried to save his owners after five armed pirates hijacked their yacht. When the pirates boarded the yacht and started tying the owners up, the dog attacked them furiously, biting and snapping, until he was stabbed and shot. The owners and the dog survived the incident. 

Peter Lee and his wife Betty were traveling to Trinidad on a yacht when they spotted a battered unmarked fishing boat speeding their way. When Lee realized they were in danger, he tried to outrun them by ramming and speeding away while the pirates were shooting at him. But the pirates soon got control and boarded their yacht. When the pirates started tying them up, it was too much for the dog, who launched an attack on them until they shot at him. He was stabbed between the shoulder blades and shot in the leg. When the pirates left after robbing what they could, Lee was able to give the dog first aid and reach Trinidad. (source)

5 Dogs can suffer from PTSD too. It is known to affect at least 5 percent of military service dogs. 

Despite their unapologetic cheerful disposition, dogs are also sensitive to the things that go badly in the world. Many military dogs, bomb detection dogs, or search and rescue dogs used to find bodies after a disaster, often experience PTSD. Even civilian dogs that were abused, neglected, abandoned, whose owners have died, or have gone through disasters are prone to developing PTSD. (source)

4 A group of stray dogs in Moscow have figured out how to use the subway trains to travel between various locations. They prefer empty or less populated cars and even know when to get off the train to reach a location.

Stray dogs in Moscow are perhaps the most smart untrained dogs in the world. These dogs are known to form into packs and send younger “cuter” members to beg for food from people as they have more success at procuring it. They even know how to obey traffic lights and have learned how to cross the streets just like pedestrians. Malnourished dogs are actually uncommon owing to the fact that most people would just toss what they eat, and the dogs have even become very selective about the food owing to its abundance. The lack of need to compete for food has also contributed to their stable social behavior.

Among these dogs, there are around 20 dogs, out of 500 dogs inhabiting metro stations, that have learned how to use trains to commute between locations. Theories suggest that they use their sense of smell, time spent on the train or the announcements on loudspeaker to determine where they are. (source)

3 Dogs drink water by forming a cup like shape by curving their tongue backwards. 

Humans drink by creating a suction action using their cheeks, a feature that dogs don’t have. To compensate for this, they curve their tongue and quickly drag a column of water upwards with an acceleration that is five times that of gravity. Before the water could fall back down, they close their jaws, chomping down on the liquid and swallowing it in. (source)

2 A 3-year-old Russian girl who was lost in Siberian taiga forest survived 11 days by drinking water from a creek and eating berries while being protected by her dog. After nine days, the dog went away to find help and returned with rescuers. 

Karina had followed her father into the forest without him knowing it, and her grandmother who was in charge of her at that time thought he know about it. Her dog Naida also followed her into the forest and when she got lost, slept by her side and kept her warm during the cold nights. After nine days the dog left her trying to find their remote family home in the village Olom and to bring rescuers. Three days later she was found and had lost a lot weight and was covered in mosquito bites. Now she is back to her usual self, active, cheerful and playing with her friends, thanks to her dog. (source)

1 Dogs have “Eureka moments” too and are known to enjoy the experience of solving problems to obtain their reward. 

Researchers at a university in Sweden conducted tests to find out if it is the rewards or getting the rewards after solving a problem that make the dogs happy. They took 12 dogs and trained them in a few skills such as using a dog piano, which would produce a note when pressed, a plastic box to be pushed of a stack so that it would noisily hit the floor, and a paddle lever that would make a bell ring. Each dog was experimental dog half of the time and control dog the other half of the time. The experimental dogs were only rewarded when they performed the task as they were trained while the control dogs were rewarded no matter what they did. The researchers found that experimental dogs were found to be very excited about solving problems as well as getting the reward. According to them, it was because it gave them a sense of control, a feeling that they could get their rewards by doing something, a feeling that is not so different from what humans feel. (source)