You see it coming: Your dog has just climbed out of the pool, or you’ve just given her a bath, and you can see her prep for the shake — you know, the one that will send water flying everywhere. You try to stop her, but it’s too late. She rolls and shakes her loose skin, spraying you with the smell of wet dog. You’re left soaking wet, but your dog is practically dry, as if put through the spin cycle in a dryer.
How do they do it?
What we might call an “indoor apocalypse” (spending the day mopping water and fur from the bathroom floor), dogs see as the only and most efficient way to get dry. (A large dog can rid itself of 70 percent of the water in its fur in just four seconds, according to the video.)
While this video features different kinds of mammals shaking it off, it focuses on how dogs use their loose skin and fur to tailor the movement and the speed of their shake to dry themselves the best. (They can generate a force 70 times stronger than the Earth’s gravity.) If you’re like us, you’ve always wanted to see the process in slow motion, and thanks to David Hu and his colleagues at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, you can watch this video compilation of animals shaking it out.
Go ahead. Watch it several times. (We did.)
Photo: Dog shaking off water by Shutterstock.com
Via The Blaze
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