The greatest authenticated age for dog is 29 years 5 months, achieved by an Australian Cattle Dog called Bluey that lived in Rochester, Australian.

The UK record is held by Taffy, a Welsh Collie that died at 27 years 313 days.

In 1987 a Great Dane living in Little Hall, Essex, UK, produced a litter of twenty-three puppies, of which sixteen survived.

The heaviest breed of dog is Mastiff, which can reach 91 kg, about 200 lb.

This can be compared to the smallest dog, a Yorkshire Terrier, which weighed in at 113g (four ounces) and stood 9.5cms (2.5 inches) at the shoulder.

The dog has the greatest variation in size and shape of any species of mammal.

Tobby Wendel, a standard Poodle living in New York, USA was left 15 million dollars by his owner when she died.

Guide Dogs for the Blinds are well known, but there are now also Hearing Dogs for the Deaf and Assistance Dogs for the Disable.

All are trained to carry out tasks to help people cope with their disabilities.

The lining of the nose in a Bloodhound would cover 150 sq cms if flattened out, compared to just 4 sq cms in a human. As a result, it is about a million times more sensitive than ours.