One of the cutest dogs is our spotted friend, the Dalmatian. These white dogs with black spots make people think of firefighters, but why? Hundreds of years ago firefighters used horse-drawn carriages to pull the equipment to fight fires. So they also needed dogs to guide and calm down the horses. Today lots of people have them as pets, thanks to the 101 Dalmatians movies. If you’d like a friendly, high-energy dog, a Dalmatian might hit the spot.
Wee ones: Who has more spots, a Dalmatian puppy with 8 spots, or a puppy with 6 spots?
Little kids: If you see 3 Dalmatians, how many more ears than tails does the whole crowd have? Bonus: Dalmatians aren’t born with spots! The spots start showing up around 3 weeks after birth. If your pup is 10 days old, is it getting spots yet?
Big kids: In the movie 101 Dalmatians, there’s a mom Dalmatian, a dad Dalmatian, and the rest are puppies. How many puppies are there? Bonus: If more than half of the pups are girls, what’s the fewest number of girl puppies they could have?
Answers:
Wee ones: The puppy with 8 spots.
Little kids: 3 more ears than tails. Bonus: No, because that’s just a little more than 1 week.
Big kids: 99 puppies. Bonus: 50 pups. Half of 98 is exactly 49, so if you add 1 more to the total, that pup has to be a girl too so they still outnumber the boys.
