In this episode, we discuss a UK High Court ruling regarding dog bites, a new study on Labradoodles, a beer for dogs, and we celebrate another truly remarkable Wagtastic Woof.
If your dog bites someone and you are not at home, are you responsible? In The Twilight Bark we discuss a new ruling in the UK High Court, introduced following an incident where a postal worker lost part of a finger. The ramifications for dog owners and dogs could be huge.
In the Doggler Effect we ponder one of life's great questions - what do you get if you cross a Labrador and a Poodle? The answer may not be as obvious as you might think. A U.S. study has revealed the secrets hidden in Labradoodles' DNA. Are they really the dog that we have been led to believe?
Fancy a brew? A major US brewery has launched a new doggy beer. Will it leave your hound licking its lips or is it just another example of our continued attempts to anthropomorphize our pooches?
And finally, this episode's Wagtastic Woof is the ultimate surrogate mum. Tune in to find out more.
In this episode, we discuss a UK High Court ruling regarding dog bites, a new study on Labradoodles, a beer for dogs, and we celebrate another truly remarkable Wagtastic Woof.
If your dog bites someone and you are not at home, are you responsible? In The Twilight Bark we discuss a new ruling in the UK High Court, introduced following an incident where a postal worker lost part of a finger. The ramifications for dog owners and dogs could be huge.
In the Doggler Effect we ponder one of life's great questions - what do you get if you cross a Labrador and a Poodle? The answer may not be as obvious as you might think. A U.S. study has revealed the secrets hidden in Labradoodles' DNA. Are they really the dog that we have been led to believe?
Fancy a brew? A major US brewery has launched a new doggy beer. Will it leave your hound licking its lips or is it just another example of our continued attempts to anthropomorphize our pooches?
And finally, this episode's Wagtastic Woof is the ultimate surrogate mum. Tune in to find out more.
Hello, and welcome to Talk2ThePaw a podcast that celebrates dogs for simply being wagtastic. I'm Caroline Bartley. And along with canine nerd, Scott Andrews, I'll be discussing how and why these fabulous animals make such a huge contribution to our lives. As surely as day follows night, and autumn follows summer,,episode three must be followed hot on its heels by you've guessed it, episode four. So without further ado, let's leap headlong into the first of our regular features. It's the Twilight bark. So what news story has caught our eye this time round. A number of outlets are reporting a new ruling by the high court in the UK, which states dog owners could face up to five years imprisonment if their animal attacks a postal worker delivering items through the letterbox. The change to the law comes after a postman lost a fingertip while posting mail. And since 2013 figures show 650 postal workers have been attacked, some quite seriously, while delivering items through letterboxes. So Scott, what does this ruling actually change? I was quite surprised that it wasn't already in existence.
Scott Andrews:It is, um, quite unusual because there are, uh, an abundance of laws already in existence. The change here is that the judge has explicitly said that when someone's delivering or posting something through a letterbox, there's always a short time when they have their fingers exposed to a dog within the property. So if a dog injures that person and the owner had allowed the dog to freely roam the house, the owner can be criminally liable.
Caroline Bartley:Can the owner still be prosecuted even when the dog is home alone?
Scott Andrews:This is a big, big change. If you go back to the origins of the dangerous dogs act in 1991, it actually he says in section three, which refers to keeping your dogs under control. If a dog is dangerously out of control, the owner is guilty of an offense. If the dog injures someone, when it's in a frenzied state, then the owner is directly responsible. The other interesting point, I suppose, within this law is that 1b specifically explains that a householders case includes people entering the building or even trespassing. So if a burglar breaks into your house and your dog bites him, you could be criminally liable. The last point I want to make is that the dangerous dog act does have the facility to imprison people for up to five years if the dog injures someone.
Caroline Bartley:In the event of an individual being convicted, we understand now what happens to them, but what actually happens to the dog?
Scott Andrews:The court is obliged to order the destruction of a dog, unless the owner can prove that the dog is no longer a danger to the public.
Caroline Bartley:And how would someone actually do that? How can you prove that a dog who has already attacked someone is no longer a danger to the public?
Scott Andrews:This is one of the greatest mysteries out there. Obviously when it was legislated, it was thought to be an intelligent point. Realistically, there is no easy way to predict a dog's behavior based upon past events.
Caroline Bartley:So if a person is convicted, just let me get this right, they may get a prison sentence, correct?
Scott Andrews:Yes.
Caroline Bartley:Any other punishments open to the court?
Scott Andrews:Well, the court actually has the power to disqualify people from owning dogs. So it could mean that aside from going to prison, you may never be able to have a dog in your life again. The other power that the court has now is to make an order for unlimited compensation.
Caroline Bartley:I guess we've always thought that a letterbox, it's a regular feature known to us all, seemingly such an innocuous feature, but perhaps now in light of this new legislation, not as innocuous as we first thought,
Scott Andrews:Well, when you read the headline, you think, oh my God, you know, letterboxes kill people. It is very much written with the intent of scaring people. Now to put it into context, as I like to, and in the UK, there are up to 90,000 postal staff, which is a lot of people delivering a lot of letters. Now this article directly refers to the fact that there have been 650 dog attacks on postal workers in the last six years, which generally shows that it isn't as great a problem as these, um, clickbaiting articles would have you believe. However, there are some other things to consider. First of all, it's not just postal staff that knock on your door. There might be people delivering leaflets, people delivering newspapers, Jehovah's witnesses.
:Election canvassers of course,
Scott Andrews:Which we should set our dogs on when possible.
Caroline Bartley:Uh, now that would start an entirely different debate.
Scott Andrews:Okay, well, let's move on from that. So, you know, the first point is there are obviously more than just postmen and women knocking on our doors. The second thing to consider is that not every attack is reported.
Caroline Bartley:Yeah, that's true.
Scott Andrews:You might go knocking on a door or post something though a door. You might get a nip on your hand. Now, a lot of people will just shake it off and think, you know, yeah, that's my own fault or they'll justify it whatever way they can. But it means that both the 650 dogattacks is misleading, but also contextually we have no honest way to evaluate just how dangerous the situation is around a letterbox.
Caroline Bartley:What can we do to, I guess essentially, to attack proof our homes?
Scott Andrews:This ruling essentially recommends that dog owners install letterbox cages. I don't know if you've ever seen one of those.
Caroline Bartley:I have seen one of those and on a purely aesthetic level, not that nice looking.
Scott Andrews:To be fair, they make your front door look like Hannibal Lecter. This quite wide and broad cage goes around your letterbox to prevent your dog or children even getting too close to the letterbox. That is one way of ensuring safety around that area. Now I genuinely believe that these cages would prevent any kind of situation.
Caroline Bartley:These cages are attached to the doors, preventing the dog's access to the letterbox. Will the cages change or alter the dog's behavior in any way?
Scott Andrews:All it's going to do is prevent the dog from getting to the door. The fact remains the doorbell, or even the front door is exciting for a myriad of reasons. It's the portal to the outside world where the greatest sniffs live. It's the place where all the visitors who come bringing strokes and toys and play and attention come from. It's the scary place where intruders walk past. So you know, this front door holds a, an aura around it for a dog. When the doorbell rings, what do we do Caroline?
Caroline Bartley:We go to answer the door.
Scott Andrews:We go to answer the door. So we're hurrying along to the front door, the doorbell has summoned us and we run along. And then we wonder why our dogs are keen to do the same. We are making the doorbell even more exciting than it ordinarily is.
Caroline Bartley:More interesting as well. Interesting and exciting.
Scott Andrews:Absolutely. In essence, we add value to the doorbell by our own behavior.
Caroline Bartley:This may seem like a bit of a bizarre question, but is there any way to train excitement out of dogs?
Scott Andrews:In general it does depend how long it's been going on and how deep rooted the behavior is. The first thing anyone would need to figure out is to try to identify the trigger, the motivation for it. You know, often you'll hear someone say that my dog gets really excited when someone knocks on the door or rings the doorbell, but what they're not seeing is the preceding behavior. And in many cases, the dog may be up on the sofa or up by the window and it might actually see the person walking down the front path. So the excitement has already started before the doorbell has rung.
Caroline Bartley:Okay. So before that actual trigger, it's like an excitement level has been building up.
Scott Andrews:And then suddenly there's this noise, you know, and this is great excitement to the dog. And one of the most fundamental mistakes that most dog owners make is when the dog goes crazy and starts barking away, what do we do?
Caroline Bartley:Well, usually we try and placate the dog. We try and silence the dog.
Scott Andrews:And how do we do that?
Caroline Bartley:Most households, I would say, it's by remonstrating with the dog in some way.
Scott Andrews:You imagine there you are, you're standing there, your dog's going ruff, ruff, ruff. And you're going to be quiet, shsss, be quiet. Now to your dog who doesn't speak human, all it's hearing is, it sounds like you're barking to the dog.
Caroline Bartley:That is increasing the excitement level further that, right?
Scott Andrews:Absolutely. Absolutely. And then the bell goes or the door goes and you've got something to chase or to race to.
Caroline Bartley:And at that, that stage, it's just a veritable riot of excitement.
Scott Andrews:Oh exactly. By this point, your dog is absolutely bonkers. You know, what many people don't realize is their contribution towards it. Now I'm blessed with a Scottish Terrier that doesn't bark.
Caroline Bartley:Yes. I remember you, you telling me about this and I know we've spoken about this. He's a very quiet boy.
Scott Andrews:When he was a puppy and he got excited, if he started barking or growling as he was playing, I'd stop.
Caroline Bartley:Okay. So you removed the stimulation.
Scott Andrews:Yes. Any comment from him and it was over. Now, I had him 18 months before my neighbor realized I had a dog. Obviously that's not always that easy for everybody, but the thing to consider, if you can identify the trigger, if your dog does like sitting up on the sofa or looking out the window, you can obscure the view, so the dog can't see through the window. To deal with the problem the best you can, you could always look to hire a professional, to hire a trainer or a behaviorist who could teach you how to desensitize your dog to the stimuli that setting your dog off. And to be honest, they would be a great help to you in identifying precisely what is triggering your dog.
Caroline Bartley:Time for the Doggler effect, where we examine the latest canine research under the expert tutelage of talk2thepaw's very own dog nerd, Scott Andrews. We've dragged him away from cleaning the petri dishes just long enough to give us the lowdown on a new study involving my favorite named dog breed, the labradoodle. Scott, tell us more.
Scott Andrews:The National Human Genome Research Institute have published a new study in Plos Genetics, where they compared the DNA sequences of 150,000 random positions in the genomes of Australian Labradoodles with the same positions in genomes of Laborator Retrievers and Standard, Miniature and Toy poodles. They did look at a cross section of different dogs, as well as first-generation crosses between Labradors and Standard Poodles. The results were mostly as expected. The offspring of Labradors a nd Standard Poodles w ere genetically a 50 50 mix, but what they found when t hey l ooked further down the generations w as that the Australian Labradoodle retains a huge amount of poodle genome, and doesn't retain a lot of L abrador.
Caroline Bartley:Okay. So why is this, why are the Labradoodles then mostly poodle?
Scott Andrews:Well, the article suggested that they are adding pure breeds to keep the dogs healthy and develop consistent traits.
Caroline Bartley:Wouldn't it be simpler just to get a poodle?
Scott Andrews:That's an excellent question. And to understand that we actually need to look at the origins of Labradoodles. All the way in Australia, back in 1988, a man named Wally Conran was working for the guide dog association there. And he was contacted by a woman that needed a guide dog over in Hawaii. The only problem was her husband had allergies. He trialed a number of Poodles, believing Poodles are a smart, intelligent breed, quite trainable. Unfortunately none of the Poodles actually seemed adequate for the task in hand. So this left him with fewer choices and he decided to try to crossbreed Poodles with Labradors in the hope of creating an Uber guide dog that would capitalize on this combined smartness but would have the Poodle's hypoallergenic coat or so he thought. Although he managed to provide the lady in question with a guide dog, I believe that dog's name was Sultan. He later went on to claim that he had opened a Pandora's box and Frankenstein's monster. And that creating Labradoodles was the greatest regret of his entire life.
Caroline Bartley:Those are quite strong words. I find them quite sad,
Scott Andrews:They are incredibly strong words. And if you actually sort of read more about what he had to say, rather than just the headlines, he does talk about how unscrupulous breeders have started breeding these crossbreeds for cash. They're doing it to make money. They're mass-producing the dogs and they're creating unhealthy, sick, and in some cases, almost crazy dogs. I suppose, what upsets him is that he's the man forever associated with the Labradoodle, but now he sees almost like puppy mills going into overdrive. It breaks his heart and it's filled him full of regret.
Caroline Bartley:So are we saying then that Labradoodles are really for people who want an allergy free Labrador, maybe that's an unfair assertion?
Scott Andrews:No, no. As you say the original idea, the reasons to cross the Poodle was that Poodles are often believed to have hypoallergenic coats. So the idea was you wanted the coat of the Poodle with a dog, with the brains of a Labrador or at least the appetite for work. Unfortunately going back all the way to 2011. Now there was a study in the American Journal of Rhinology and Allergy that revealed the amount of dog allergens found in households does not vary depending on the breed and families with hypoallergenic dogs are living with the same level of allergens in their homes as people who live with a non hyperallergenic dog.
Caroline Bartley:Okay. So this myth, I guess, that we've all been fed over the past number of years about hypoallergenic dogs, it's a misnomer really, there aren't any allergy free dogs.
Scott Andrews:No, no. Even if you get yourself a, Labradoodle, they are not allergy free as simply there is not such a thing. But there are some dogs that are less likely to create reactions.
Caroline Bartley:And those are?
Scott Andrews:What you need to know is that there are some dogs with non shedding coats and dogs with non shedding coats are less likely to cause a reaction. One of the safest bets are the Water Dogs. Irish Water Dogs, Portuguese Water Dogs, Spanish Water Dogs, all types of Schnauzer. You tend to find these non shedding coats more common in toy breeds, such as the Maltese and Havanese, Shih Tzus. You find it in Terriers as well. Again, not all terriers, but the Yorkshire Terrier, TIbetan Terrier, the Sealyham, which is one of my favorites. Oh, I met last year at a pet expo, a Glen of Imaal.
Caroline Bartley:Oh, those are quite rare, those little dogs aren't they?
Scott Andrews:They're incredibly rare and they're huge for a terrier. Yet when you see the pictures, they look like tiny little teddy bears. You can find a complete list on the UK Kennel Club website. But to repeat, there is not an allegy free dog. There is nt, no dog is hypoallergenic. If you want to do the best you can for your own home, you need to look at non shedding coats.
Caroline Bartley:We want this dogcast to be as interactive and experience as possible. So please get in touch. You can talk to the paw on Facebook, www.facebook.com/talk2thepawpod, Twitter@talk2thepawpod, email info@talk2thepaw.co.uk, all the podcasts are available to listen and download on Apple podcast, Spotify, and Google podcasts. Now we all know after a hard day, there's nothing better than relaxing with your favorite beverage of choice, whether that's wine, gin or just a good old cup of tea, but one brewery has taken it just a little bit further by launching a beer for dogs. Anheuser-Busche's Busch dog brew was introduced to coincide with the recent national dog day in the U.S but it's not an entirely new concept. Way back in 2009, Arjan Berendson started a new trend with a non-sparkling non-alcoholic drink for dogs. But Scott, this Busch dog brew, it's not a beer in the traditional sense, is it?
Scott Andrews:Oh no, it's absolutely not a beer. You know, in the sense that it won't lead your dog to looking across the bar, at the Labrador just across the way and think that, you know, that she's the most beautiful dog in the world only to wake up the next morning, discover she's a bulldog. She wants those inhibitions and you won't find your dog dancing like nobody's watching or falling asleep on a park bench somewhere. So certainly no, it's not a beer.
Caroline Bartley:There is no alcohol in the doggie beer. So if there isn't alcohol in it, what is in it?
Scott Andrews:It's um, a mixture of pork, corn, celery, basil, mint, tumeric and ginger.
Caroline Bartley:So all good wholesome things. Okay.
Scott Andrews:Yes, but as a flavor it wouldn't work for me.
Caroline Bartley:I'll have a pint of that my good man.
Scott Andrews:That's it. It's no wonder that mint isn't that popular in beer. Absolutely. They say that it's not a meal replacement, but it can be served on its own or over food. And it can even be used to soften hard food.
Caroline Bartley:So why would dogs actually like a doggie beer?
Scott Andrews:Well, I suppose the first thing to consider, I know spoke about this plenty of times before. A dog's brain is wired through its nose. So if the smell is strong enough and often not that pleasing to a human nose the dog is likely to indulge in it. The second aspect to consider is the same way, or the same reason we like beer.
Caroline Bartley:Okay. Do dogs watch a lot of sport? Do they eat a lot of pizza?
Scott Andrews:Well, you know, my Scottie used to enjoy a good game of basketball when he was a puppy.
Caroline Bartley:Of course he did.
Scott Andrews:I suspect it was the sound of the trainers squeaking that got his attention and not so much the game. I was actually thinking more about dopamine, right? So this is our happy feelgood hormone that is released when we eat something nice or we do something pleasurable. Dogs also experience dopamine, their brains produce Dopamine. It's actually what we harness when we train them. I'm sure most of us do use reward-based training. I might use a bit of cheese, a bit of steak or whatever when I'm training the dogs. And when I give them something good as a reward for them doing it, it encourages them to further do it. And the reason it encourages them to repeat the behavior is because the dopamine in their brain is saying aww steak yum.
Caroline Bartley:So it's the happy hormone?
Scott Andrews:It's the happy hormone.
Caroline Bartley:Okay. Apart from I'm just envisaging legions of dogs just lined up against a bar, waiting for, they're waiting for their doggy beer. Apart from giving them things like this, how else can we encourage the production of dopamine?
Scott Andrews:The first one, and it's a good one for us as well. Exercise.
Caroline Bartley:All right and we've spoken about this before. Of course yes.
Scott Andrews:It releases dopamine in the, all of us. Dogs that love fetch that is also dopamine releasing. In general, training these different aspects produce dopamine. Dopamine is the reward that subconsciously encourages us to do the same thing again and again that's why a dog will fetch all day, but you've got to be careful because in some aspects a dog fetching all day is a bit like a crack addict down the side of an alley.
Caroline Bartley:I'm going to say, yeah, it's the repetition of behavior and that encourages more production of dopamine and then yes and on and on and on.
Scott Andrews:Yeah. Before you know it, you know, the dogs hit his teen years. It's living underneath a bridge and anyone passes by it's looking at them and saying throw me the the ball man, throw me the ball, I just want the ball.
Caroline Bartley:I thought I could stop fetching, but I couldn't.
Scott Andrews:Exactly. You know, then they're going to meetings in their thirties, my name's Fido, I'm a Fetchaholic.
Caroline Bartley:I'm a fetch addict. Absolutely. But back to, I guess, back to a serious, but perhaps not so serious point. The thing that I'm slightly confused by, and I consider myself an animal lover and a dog lover. It's the anthropomorphizing of dogs. It's the giving dogs beer. Even though it's not beer. It's giving your dog clothes to wear. And yes, I know I am one of those people who puts a Christmas jumper on my dog, guilty as charged my Lord, surely this is, this is just another example of that sort of behavior? Why do we do it?
Scott Andrews:In some respects, this all fits into the marketing of a dog as a man's best friend. We want a beer. It's rude to drink alone. And now we can give our dog a beer. You know, we can sit drinking beer, watching Titanic or...
Caroline Bartley:Okay. Well, if that's, if that's your thing. Yeah. Okay.
Scott Andrews:Well, I mean, I need to drink beer to watch something like that. But in essence, there's no reason to call it beer. It's only beer for us to make us feel less guilty about the amount of alcohol we consume.
Caroline Bartley:To make us feel better about it. Yeah.
Scott Andrews:Absolutely, it's purely like a, a selfish behavior selfish label. Really, if you want to give your dog something, that'll make them happy and get the most dopamine and give it the best evening. When you open your beer, get the stinkiest smelliest bone you can find. I'm not talking about no smelly meat smell. You need something that smells like about a six month old corpse. Remember your dog lives through its nose. The chances are, if your dog doesn't like the smell, it's not going to drink the beer anyway.
Caroline Bartley:I think it would be remiss of us. And this is, um, on a, on a genuinely serious note when we're talking about dogs and beer. There is a very genuine, serious medical and biological reason why we can't give dogs beer. Isn't there. Scott? Maybe you could just elaborate on that for us.
Scott Andrews:Yes. Beer as all alcohol is incredibly bad for dogs, but to focus on beer for a moment. Um, do you know what beer is made from?
Caroline Bartley:Um, beer is made from hops, barley.
Scott Andrews:Yes. Hops now, unfortunately hops aretoxic to dogs. They can cause a number of, um, quite horrendous physical reactions. So, um, vomiting, fluctuations in body temperature, labored breathing and kidney damage. Now the fact is dogs are smaller than us and it means they're more susceptible to alcohol poisoning.
Caroline Bartley:Yeah. Their physiology is obviously different.
Scott Andrews:No. Whereas it might take an adult eight beers to fall over and have a kip on the sofa, it's not going to take your dog much at all. The other thing to remember is that alcohol depresses our nervous systems. You drink a little bit too much, you might be out on the dance floor having a good time, but anyone can see you, they'd see that your arms and legs are moving at different times.
Caroline Bartley:Yeah. You look like you're on ice.
Scott Andrews:It makes you drowsy, it makes your coordination go. It affects cognitive function. A dog's body, a dog''s brain inclusive. It's much smaller. It's not designed for alcohol. What it does to the dog's nervous system is much, much worse. It's slows their breathing. It slows their heart rate. One of the most worrying conditions it can cause is what's called metabolic acidosis. And that's when a dog has an excess of acid in the dog's blood. This illness can actually be fatal on a dog and cause cardiac arrest. So in essence, do not ever give your dog a human beer. If you want to try a doggie beer, make sure you have a good look on the ingredients. And make sure there is no alcohol in it at all. And if you do want to sit at home and chill out with your dog in the evening, give your dog something smelly or even better, take your dog out for a walk, and have a little game of fetch. That will mean that you'll both get the dopamine that you're looking for.
Caroline Bartley:Time for my favorite part of the podcast Wagtastic Woofs, and the tale we have for you this time around will absolutely melt your heart. Georgia is the most remarkable dog. An Australian shepherd mix found living rough at a gas station in Rocky point, near the United States border with Mexico. She was taken in by a local dog rescue organization who discovered she was pregnant, but this little dogs already tough existence was to be made even harder. When all her pups died following their premature birth. Sunshine dog Rescue Group who find Georgia decided on a plan to help the devastated doggie mum deal with her very evident grief. They appealed on Facebook for any animals that needed a lactating mother dog and to their delight, they had a response. Three orphaned kittens in need of a loving surrogate mother, quite amazingly an immediate bond was forged and Georgia is even allowing her new charges to suckle from her though her milk production is a little low. This fabulous foster mom is cleaning, caring for, and protecting the kittens exactly the same, as if they were pups at beautiful outcome indeed for canine and kitties. And for Georgia, who's demonstrated that her love has no limits. A very well deserved round of applause. Remember you can nominate your own Wagtastic Woof. Get in touch and tell us all about that very special dog who's made a difference to your life. Contact us on Facebook or Twitter- Talk2ThePawpod, email info@ talk2thepaw.co.uk. Your stories and comments, questions, and suggestions are all welcome. That's all for now. Thanks so much for your company until next time. Goodbye.