Dog Anatomy in Pictures

Human and Dog Anatomy are, unsurprisingly, quite different… although there are similarities. In the third of our summer infographic series we give a fun, light-hearted look at the inner workings of our canine friends! This graphic follows on from out ever-popular dog world records and dog training information infographics.

Dog Anatomy

Some people say that dogs and their owners tend to favor each other over time, but have you ever wondered how human anatomy actually compares to dog anatomy? While the differences are substantial, you may be surprised to learn how many similarities there are.

Let’s start with the tongue. While a human has about 10,000 tastes buds not only on their tongue but also under it, along the inside of the mouth and even on the lips, a dog has only about 1700 taste buds and those are concentrated around the tip of the tongue. This means that though dogs can distinguish sweet, bitter and salty tastes, their sense of taste is less developed than ours. Dogs actually get more information about food from its odor as a result of a sense of smell more than a million times more sensitive than humans.

Sweaty Dogs!

Speaking of the nose, dogs have sweat glands only on their nose and the pads of their feet as opposed to humans who have sweat glands over their entire body. Humans use sweat to keep cool while dogs cool down through panting – another way that human and dog anatomy is so very different.

Dogs not only taste and smell food differently, they also digest it differently. While the human stomach digests food in a couple of hours, it takes a dog stomach at least four hours with raw food and as long as 12 hours with dry food. While dogs have proportionally shorter digestive tracts that are only about three times the length of their bodies, they have much stronger stomach acid than we do. The human digestive tract is about five times longer than a human’s height at around 30 feet.

Eyes and Eyesight

Another interesting aspect of dog anatomy is their eyes and eyesight. Though dogs have poorer eyesight than humans, they have a field of vision of about 250 degrees compared to the 180 degrees that humans have. They are more sensitive to movement and light, though they are not able to perceive color as well we can.

The human body has 206 bones and that number never varies. Depending on the breed, however, dogs about 320 bones depending on their tail and dew claws. The bones themselves are not much different from human bones, but the skeletal structure makes dogs more agile than humans in many ways and definitely faster. Domesticated dogs can reach speeds up to 45 miles per hour while the fastest humans can barely top 25 miles per hour.

Dog Intelligence

Dogs also are intelligent. A dog can reach the mental level of at least a two year old child according to many behavioral measurements, though we may often feel our pets are much smarter. With more than 170 million dogs in the world, the 7 billion humans often find a companion they feel is special.

The comparison of anatomies between dogs and humans shows us differences that are as basic as the number of chromosomes we have with humans having 78 and dogs only having 46. It shows us that while we both have beating hearts that pump blood through our veins, ours beat about 72 times per minutes while a dog’s beats anywhere from 60 to 140 times a minute depending on the size of the dog. While we spend about one-third of our time sleeping, dogs spend half their time napping. The average human lives close to 70 years while the average dog lifespan is less than 15 years. Despite all these differences, dogs are still one of man’s most beloved companions and perfectly suited to bring joy to our lives.

Dog Anatomy Infographic

We hope you enjoy the dog anatomy post and, if so, don’t forget to browse through our collection of stunning dog coats, waterproof dog collars and comfortable dog beds.

20 Comments
  1. This is really cool info – very interesting! And I love the fun, colorful layout! 😀 Thank you, Matt!

  2. This is great stuff, just what I was looking for to create a presentation in our area for elementary students. May I borrow this or buy this to use?

    Thanks, you have just saved me a ton of time!

    1. Hi Nancy,

      You’re more than welcome to use this – we’d appreciate a ‘thank you’ in the form of a link back to Pet365 but it’s by no means a requirement 🙂

      Matt

      1. You bet! We will absolutely add a link back to your site. This is really helpful for a project we are starting in September with a local school to show there really isn’t much difference between humans and animals, with the focus on compassion. And we want these kids to create pictures of compassion to be used for future t-shirts. Thanks for the ok Matt.

  3. While this is nice, I was looking for actual anatomy – where bones and organs are compared to humans plus pulse sites, heart and lungs for assessment by owners before calling the vet. This is fun information but I would like to see it more detailed. Thanks. BTW, I”m an RN so some professional human bias, I suppose :).