The other day we gave Ali the dog a bath. Actually I stood back and watched while Ali’s servant lathered her up then rinsed off the suds. This is the time I have mixed feelings. Normally I like watching a dog do that thing where they shake all the water off their fur but since we were indoors…
Fortunately Ali must have known I have better uses of my time than to dry dog water off the bathroom walls so she stood still and waited for her ‘mommy’ to towel her off.
I said “mixed feelings” because one of my favorite things to see and it always makes me smile is when a dog shakes all the water off themselves. I smile because it looks funny and they always seem pleased with themselves after they do it.
It also gets me to wondering how they do it. They shake so much but it looks controlled at the same time. How do their bodies do that? Well according to The Atlantic a dog can shake roughly 70 percent of the water from its fur in just four seconds. The Atlantic goes on to say that a dog’s backbone can only move around 30 degrees in either direction so if the backbone at 12 o’clock on a clock, the backbone is making it to the 11am and 1pm marks. It then goes on to say it is really the loose skin that flaps around really fast as the dog is twisting traveling at three times the speed of the backbone and generating nine times as much force on the water droplets which is why and how they go flying off like candy out of a well whacked pinata.
The dog only shakes four times per second while a mouse has to shake 30 times per second! That is amazing! (Perhaps only the hummingbird moves faster. I have no idea though really.)
How and why they do it is all science and evolution. They fact they do it is all smiles.
Do you have a dog and does she do this shake thing? Click here to leave a comment and share your opinion and experience. Would love to hear from you.
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