Crazy Things Dogs & Their Owners Have Found on Walks

Your smarty-pants pup has probably sniffed out something while you’ve been on one of your walks together. While Fido might not have found anything too valuable on your adventures, I wouldn’t count them out just yet. There are plenty of stories of canines discovering valuable items when out with their owners. Here are just a few that we know of.

Historical Artifacts

There are countless places that owners and their pups have come across fascinating items of historical value. One of the most valuable artifacts discovered by a pooch was in Ohio in 2010. A married couple was walking with their dog when it came across a pointy object shining on the ground. After Fido sniffed it out, they first thought it was a kid’s toy since it was an object that was a gray-blue color with hints of pink. But once the couple picked up the object and examined it, they realized it was a sharpened rock. They figured it must be an arrowhead from an Indigenous tribe, so they sent a photo to the Ohio Historical Society. Come to find out, it was a spear point from the Adena culture, which actually predated the Native Americans in Ohio. The spear point was then estimated to be between 2,800 and 3,000 years old!

A 300 Million-Year-Old Fossil

Finding fossils with Fido is also not very uncommon among pet parents. However, the old and more valuable fossils tend to be buried deep, making them hard to spot. The fossil that a pooch named Kitty found, though, was discovered out on a beach in Nova Scotia, and it was hardly buried. When Kitty’s owners picked up the fossil, they described it as looking similar to a chicken breast encased in rock. But this fossil was far more valuable than that. Kitty had actually discovered the partial sail, rib cage, and backbone of a long-extinct sail-back reptile, dated to be between 290 and 305 million years old! The couple ended up turning the fossil over to the Nova Scotia Museum, and it was displayed at Halifax’s Museum of Natural History. The discovery of this fossil was also extremely significant. It helped paleontologists fill in some of the gaps they had about their understanding of the ancient life that once lived in the region.

Meteorites

Since most objects that enter our atmosphere typically burn up before hitting the ground, I wouldn’t count on finding any space rocks anytime soon. However, a lucky Collie was able to spot a small rock only weighing 17 grams when out with its owner. The rock wasn’t much bigger than a tablespoon of sugar, but a meteor shower had rained down rocks a few days earlier, so the Collie’s owner didn’t overlook it. Luckily for them, because the meteorite found was estimated to be between four and six billion years old and worth over $20,000.

Gold Coins

In 2014 a couple in California was out with their furry friend when an old metal can sticking out of the ground was brought to their attention. Fido dug it up, and the owners discovered it was filled with gold coins! It was estimated that the can had probably been buried there sometime in the 1800s due to how old the coins were. Since the coins were so well preserved in the can, the whole collection was estimated to be worth over 1 million dollars. The couple found that there were even more of these cans buried on their property which ended up totaling 10 million dollars.

So, now when you’re out on your walks with Fido, you can both have an extra boost of determination because who knows – maybe they’ll find you some treasure!