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50 free Hard Dogs trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
These hard dogs trivia questions are for people who already know a Malamute from a Husky and want something that actually stretches them. They cover breed origins (who bred the Dobermann, where the Golden Retriever was created, why the Dachshund has that name), canine oddities (the barkless Basenji, the six-toed Norwegian Lundehund, the mop-coated Komondor, the Chow's blue-black tongue), the record book (tallest, heaviest and oldest dogs ever verified, the Border Collie who learned 1,022 words) and the real dogs of history: Laika, Hachiko, Togo and Balto, Barry the St Bernard, Greyfriars Bobby, Rin Tin Tin, Sergeant Stubby and the first Seeing Eye dog. There is also dog science (teeth, colour vision, how dogs cool down, when domestication began) and the institutions of the dog world, from Westminster and Crufts to the Iditarod. The easiest questions here would be the hardest on a general dog quiz. If you want a gentler round, try our main dogs trivia (brainpickle.app/quiz/a/dogs) or the seniors version (brainpickle.app/quiz/a/dogs-for-seniors). Every answer has been checked against a reference encyclopaedia, and each question shows its explanation and citation once you have answered.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which Central African breed yodels rather than barks because of its unusually shaped larynx?
Basenji
The New Guinea singing dog shares the trait, and the breed is sometimes called the 'barkless dog'.
Q 02The Norwegian Lundehund normally has how many fully formed toes on each foot?
Six
The extra toes helped it climb into cliff crevices to pull out puffins, which is what its name means: puffin dog.
Q 03Which breed's tongue is purple or blue-black, a colour that extends to its lips?
Chow Chow
Chinese legend links the breed to black-tongued war dogs from Central Asia that resembled lions.
Q 04Dalmatian puppies are born with plain white coats; their first spots usually appear within how many days?
10
Spots are most often black or liver on white and range from 2 to 6 centimetres across.
Q 05How many toys could Chaser, the Border Collie trained by John Pilley, identify by name?
1,022
Pilley trained her from eight weeks old in 2004 as a formal research project in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
Q 06Which breed excels at water rescue thanks to webbed paws, a double coat and a muscular build?
Newfoundland
'Newfs' have a dense soft undercoat beneath a water-resistant outer coat.
Q 07Zeus, the tallest dog ever recorded by Guinness, was a Great Dane standing how tall at the shoulder?
44 inches
He beat the previous holder, George, by an inch and died in September 2014.
Q 08Aicama Zorba of La Susa, the heaviest dog ever recorded at 343 pounds, was what breed?
English Mastiff
In 1989 he measured 8 feet 3 inches from nose to tail, about the size of a small donkey.
Q 09Bluey, the oldest verified dog ever, was an Australian Cattle Dog who died in 1939 at what age?
29
She lived on a farm in Rochester, Victoria, and still holds the Guinness World Record.
Q 10Barry, the famous St Bernard of the Great St Bernard Hospice, was credited with saving how many lives?
40
His byname Menschenretter means 'people rescuer', and his preserved body is in Bern's natural history museum.
Q 11Laika, the first animal to orbit Earth, flew aboard which spacecraft in November 1957?
Sputnik 2
A stray from the streets of Moscow, she died of overheating hours into the flight, on the fourth orbit.
Q 12Hachiko, the loyal Akita, waited for his dead owner at which Tokyo railway station for almost ten years?
Shibuya
Professor Hidesaburo Ueno died at work in May 1925; a statue of the dog now stands outside the station.
Q 13Which sled dog led the longest, most dangerous stretch of the 1925 serum run but was overshadowed by Balto?
Togo
Both dogs belonged to musher Leonhard Seppala; Balto ran only the final leg into Nome and got the Central Park statue.
Q 21Which continuously held US sporting events predate the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show (1877)?
The Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks
The show was tied to Madison Square Garden almost without a break from 1877 to 2020.
Q 22Charles Cruft, founder of Crufts dog show, worked as general manager for what kind of company?
A dog biscuit maker
The first 'Cruft's Greatest Dog Show' was held at the Royal Agricultural Hall in Islington in 1891.
Q 23Karl Friedrich Louis Dobermann, who first bred the Dobermann in the 1880s, had what day job?
Tax collector
Q 14Who was Balto's musher on the final leg into Nome?
Gunnar Kaasen
The team ended up in squalor at a Los Angeles dime museum before Cleveland schoolchildren raised money to rescue them.
Q 15Greyfriars Bobby, said to have guarded his master's grave for 14 years, lived in which city?
Edinburgh
He was a Skye or Dandie Dinmont Terrier, and his 1873 fountain statue is a much-rubbed landmark.
Q 16Rin Tin Tin was rescued as a puppy from a World War I battlefield in which country?
France
American soldier Lee Duncan found him in Flirey, nicknamed him Rinty and got him into silent films.
Q 17Sergeant Stubby, the decorated dog of World War I, was the mascot of which US infantry regiment?
102nd
He warned his men of mustard gas attacks and reportedly caught a German soldier by the seat of his trousers.
Q 18Morris Frank, the first American with a Seeing Eye dog, met his dog Kiss in 1928. What did he rename her?
Buddy
He gave the same name to all six of his later guide dogs, and The Seeing Eye school opened in 1929.
Q 19Terry, the female dog who played Toto in The Wizard of Oz, was what breed?
Cairn Terrier
Toto was her only credited role, and her daughter Rommy also became a movie Cairn.
Q 20Which male Rough Collie first played Lassie in the 1943 film Lassie Come Home?
Pal
Eric Knight's 1938 short story became a novel in 1940; Pal went on to six more MGM films.
He also ran the dog pound in Apolda, Thuringia, which gave him plenty of breeding stock.
Q 24The Golden Retriever was developed in the 1860s at Guisachan, a Scottish estate belonging to whom?
Sir Dudley Marjoribanks
Later Baron Tweedmouth, he crossed Flat-coated Retrievers with Tweed Water Spaniels.
Q 25Which former cavalry captain founded the German Shepherd breed in 1899 after seeing Hektor Linksrhein at a show?
Max von Stephanitz
He renamed the dog Horand von Grafrath and registered him as the first German Shepherd.
Q 26The name Dachshund means what in German?
Badger dog
They were bred to scent, chase and flush out badgers and other burrowing animals.
Q 27Most cynologists believe the Poodle originated in which country?
Germany
It is called the Pudel in German; larger Poodles retrieved wildfowl from water and smaller ones worked in circuses.
Q 28Which Hungarian livestock guardian is nicknamed the 'mop dog' for its long corded white coat?
Komondor
It was brought to Europe by the Cumans and first appears in a Hungarian codex of 1544.
Q 29In 1978 Guinness named which Chinese breed the world's rarest, with only about 60 left?
Shar Pei
Hong Kong businessman Matgo Law had appealed to the American Kennel Club in 1973 to help save it.
Q 30Chinese emperors carried the smallest of which breed in their robes, hence 'sleeve dog'?
Pekingese
The breed's name refers to Peking, home of the Forbidden City where it was a favourite of the court.