Dog Breeds and Facts
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209 free Dog Breeds and Facts trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
50 free dog breed trivia questions with answers. Are you a true dog lover? Put your knowledge to the test with our comprehensive Dog Breeds and Facts trivia quiz. From ancient breeds to modern favorites, discover how much you really know about man's best friend and uncover fascinating canine facts along the way.
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Q 01Which small breed, whose motto is the Latin 'multum in parvo' (much in little), has a wrinkly short-muzzled face and curled tail?
Pug
The Pug reached Europe from China in the sixteenth century. Legend says one saved the Prince of Orange by raising the alarm before an attack, and the breed became the mascot of his royal house.
Q 02Which sighthound is the fastest of all dog breeds?
Greyhound
The Greyhound is built for the chase: long legs, a deep chest and a flexible spine power a gallop in which all four feet leave the ground twice in every stride.
Q 03What breed was Chaser, the dog who could fetch 1,022 toys by name?
Border Collie
Chaser was a Border Collie. Retired psychology professor John Pilley spent hours a day for three years naming each toy, hiding it and sending her to find it, with play as her reward rather than treats.
Q 04Which breed, bred by Cape Colony settlers to bay lions, is nicknamed the 'African Lion Hound'?
Rhodesian Ridgeback
The Rhodesian Ridgeback tracked a lion and held it at bay until the hunter arrived, but never killed it. The breed began as crosses between the ridged dogs of the Khoikhoi and the settlers' European hounds.
Q 05A dog's front dewclaw sits in the same position as which human digit?
Thumb
The thumb: a dog walks on its other toes, and the dewclaw is an extra digit that rarely touches the ground. That is why its nail seldom wears down on its own and needs trimming.
Q 06Which dog breed is famous for its distinctive blue-black tongue?
Chow Chow
The Chow Chow's blue-black tongue is essential under its breed standard, and the dark pigment extends to the lips and mouth. Puppies are born with pink tongues that darken as they grow.
Q 07Which rust-gold pointing breed is nicknamed the 'Velcro dog' for its clinginess?
Vizsla
The Vizsla was bred to hunt close beside its handler and bonds so tightly that owners call it the Velcro dog. Hungary's golden-rust pointer was all but extinct after the world wars and had to be rebuilt.
Q 08The Canaan Dog, redomesticated from semi-wild desert dogs since the 1930s, is the national dog of which country?
Israel
Israel: Rudolphina Menzel chose the desert's semi-wild dogs because only the fittest could have survived there, then trained them as sentries and messengers and later as guide dogs for the blind.
Q 09Which small-to-medium Hungarian herding breed is famous for its naturally corded coat?
Puli
The Puli's coat cords naturally as its woolly undercoat tangles with the outer coat; cords can be flat or round, and black is by far the most common colour, with white and grey rarer.
Q 10Which 'gentle giant' breed, bred by hospice monks for rescue work, is shown with a neck barrel?
Saint Bernard
The Saint Bernard is named for the Great St Bernard Hospice in the Alps. Its monks say their dogs never carried brandy barrels, and trace the image to an 1820 painting by an English artist.
Q 11Which Italian breed, once a marsh water retriever, now specialises in hunting truffles?
Lagotto Romagnolo
The Lagotto Romagnolo retrieved waterfowl in the Romagna marshes; after those wetlands were drained in the 19th and 20th centuries, breeders repurposed its nose for truffle hunting.
Q 12Which gundog's swimming is aided by fully webbed paws, an otter-like tail and a waterproof coat?
Labrador Retriever
The Labrador Retriever descends from the water dogs of Canada's Atlantic fishermen, which worked from the boats and retrieved fish that came off the nets; British breeders later turned them into gundogs.
Q 13Which breed was named Alaska's official state dog in 2010?
Alaskan Malamute
Q 21In which country did Sir Dudley Marjoribanks develop the Golden Retriever at his Guisachan estate?
Scotland
Scotland: at Guisachan in the Highlands, Marjoribanks, later Lord Tweedmouth, mated his yellow retriever Nous with a Tweed Water Spaniel called Belle and kept careful records of every breeding that followed.
Q 22The Mexican hairless dog is better known by what name?
Xoloitzcuintle
The Xoloitzcuintle was sacred to the Aztecs, who sacrificed the dogs and buried them with their owners to guide the soul on its journey to the underworld.
Q 23Which sighthound was nicknamed 'the poor man's racehorse' by 19th-century colliers?
Whippet
The Alaskan Malamute was bred by the Mahlemiut people of north-western Alaska to haul heavy loads slowly over long distances, a dog built for freight rather than speed.
Q 14Which fluffy white Arctic breed's alert, happy expression earned it the nickname 'smiley dog'?
Samoyed
The Samoyed's upturned mouth gives it the famous 'Sammy smile'. It began as the reindeer-herding dog of Siberia's nomads, and polar explorers later harnessed it to their sledges.
Q 15About how long does a dog's pregnancy last?
About 9 weeks
About 9 weeks: gestation averages 63 days from ovulation. Counted from mating the range is wider, because sperm can survive for days before the eggs are ready.
Q 16Queen Elizabeth II owned more than 30 dogs of which breed over the course of her reign?
Pembroke Welsh Corgi
Pembroke Welsh Corgis: it all started with Susan, an 18th-birthday present in 1944 who even went along on the royal honeymoon, and the Queen's later dogs were bred from her line.
Q 17Which fox-like breed is the smallest of Japan's native dog breeds?
Shiba Inu
The Shiba Inu came close to extinction during the Second World War, when food ran short, and the breed was rebuilt afterwards from the few dogs that survived.
Q 18American fanciers formed a breed club to defend which French Bulldog trademark after a show judge rewarded the alternative?
Bat ears
Bat ears: the judge had picked only dogs with folded 'rose' ears like a Bulldog's, so the breed's American devotees wrote a standard demanding the upright kind.
Q 19Which toy spaniel breed is famous for its large, fringed, upright ears?
Papillon
The Papillon's name is French for 'butterfly', after its large fringed ears; the drop-eared variety of the same breed is the Phalène, French for 'moth'.
Q 20Among dog breeds, which size class typically lives the longest?
Small breeds
Small breeds commonly reach 10 to 15 years, while giant breeds have the shortest lives. It is a puzzle, because across the animal kingdom large species such as elephants and whales tend to outlive small ones.
The Whippet was bred small by northern English coal miners, who loved dog racing but could not afford to feed and kennel bigger hounds; it can still reach about 35 mph.
Q 24Seaman, the dog that accompanied Lewis and Clark all the way to the Pacific and back, was what breed?
Newfoundland
Seaman was a Newfoundland bought by Meriwether Lewis. He guarded the camp at night and once drove off a buffalo that charged through it while the men slept.
Q 25What is the smallest recognised dog breed in the world?
Chihuahua
The Chihuahua is thought to descend from the Techichi, a larger dog kept by the Toltecs a thousand years ago and bred down over the centuries into today's tiny companion.
Q 26Which dog breed is generally recognized as the tallest in the world?
Irish Wolfhound
The Irish Wolfhound is the tallest of all breeds. It nearly died out once Ireland's wolves had been hunted to extinction, until Captain George Graham gathered the last hounds and revived it.
Q 27The Kangal Shepherd Dog, a large livestock guardian, takes its name from a town in which country?
Turkey
Turkey: Kangal is a town and district of Sivas Province. Since the 1990s Kangals have also guarded farms in Namibia, keeping cheetahs away from the livestock, which helps to conserve the cats.
Q 28Which sled breed, developed by the Chukchi people, reached gold-rush Alaska in the early 1900s and soon dominated its sled races?
Siberian Husky
The Siberian Husky was smaller than the local freight dogs, yet a team won the 400-mile All Alaska Sweepstakes in 1910, and the breed took most of the territory's racing titles for the rest of the decade.
Q 29Dogs have up to 300 million of what?
Scent receptors
Scent receptors: humans have about six million. A dog can also move each nostril independently to tell where a smell is coming from.
Q 30Barry, the hospice rescue dog, is preserved in which city's natural history museum?
Bern
Bern: Barry is said to have helped rescue 40 people before he was retired to the city, where he died in 1814 and his body was preserved for the museum.