Episode 5

In this episode, we discuss the financial implications of owning a dog, a new study that has tackled the question of whether dogs can recognise their owners by their scent, the viability or otherwise of leash and collar systems, and we celebrate another truly remarkable Wagtastic Woof.

How much does it cost to care for a dog through its lifetime? In The Twilight Bark, we take a look at the assorted costs that come with dog ownership. Will you be clutching your wallet and howling in misery, or will the findings be a pleasant surprise?

In the Doggler Effect, we examine precisely how smelly you need to be for your dog to recognise you! An exciting new study from one of our dog nerd's favourite experts tries to make "scents" of the world (see what we did there?). Do dogs really see their surroundings in Smell-O-Vision?

This time in Gadgets, Gizmos and Gastronomy, we examine the world of the much-heralded multi-functional leash and collar systems. Our presenter and dog nerd go head-to-head over the necessity of yet another gadget in modern life.  Do we really need all singing and dancing dog accessories when a simple leash would suffice?

And Episode 5's Wagtastic Woof is a tearjerker. Tune in to find out why.

Transcript

Introduction

Caroline Bartley 0:15

Hello, and welcome to Talk2ThePaw, a podcast that celebrates dogs for simply being like wagtastic. I'm Caroline Bartley, and with the help of canine nerd, Scott Andrews, we'll consider how and why these fabulous animals make such a huge contribution to our lives. We're already halfway through the first season of the dogcast and we've been amazed and delighted at how it's been embraced. Thanks so much to our listeners, right around the world, including glorious and far-flung locations like Vanuatua Egypt, Sri Lanka, and New South Wales in Australia. It's a joy to have you all on board with us. Autumn has well and truly arrived here in the Northern hemisphere, so grab your favorite snugly blanket settle down and unwrap the bow on the box of delights that is episode five, it's time for The Twilight Bark Time to see what news story has caught our eye this time around. And the Metro has an interesting report on the financial implications of owning a dog. The article cites research undertaken by NetVoucherCodes, which has looked at 42 of the UK's most popular dog breeds. And the findings may have you clutching fearfully at your wallet. It reports the average yearly cost of food and treats is just over 350 pounds, for grooming it's around 280 pounds, and pet insurance will set you back just over 110 points. All of this of course, is breed dependent with owners of St. Bernard's expected to pay as much as 17 and a half thousand pounds over the course of a dog's lifetime. Scott, I think some people might find these figures quite alarming, but do they surprise you?

Scott Andrews 2:16

No, not really. If you've listened to the episode where we were talking about coronavirus, we actually looked at a dog's trust report that mentioned, uh, an astronomical inflation in the cost of dogs. Pre-lock down, the price of a puppy was about 1000 pound on average, after lockdown it's gone up by about 155%. So now you'd be looking at paying almost two and a half thousand pound.

Caroline Bartley 2:37

The article had mentioned specific breeds and associated costs for those breeds, but on a more general tone, is there any figures cited for the average lifetime cost of owning a dog?

Scott Andrews 2:50

Yes. So thep give the figure of 11,162 pounds and 11 Pence for a lifetime of an average dog. But the question you've really got to think about is what makes an average dog?

Caroline Bartley 3:02

That's almost like saying what makes an average human.

Scott Andrews 3:05

Bear in mind that the criteria for this study, they looked at 42 breeds. Now we're talking breeds, pedigree breeds. We're not talking mongrels, mutts and the heinz variety that make our lives so much better.

Caroline Bartley 3:17

Yeah, to be fair, which is probably the kind of dogs that most of us have, well certainly mine is a little mongrel.

Scott Andrews 3:24

In the case of mongrels the price will be different if you actually look at, um, take, for instance, the Standard Poodle, the estimated cost for a lifetime is 18 and a half thousand pounds.

Caroline Bartley 3:34

Okay. Clutching my wallet.

Scott Andrews 3:36

One of the things that, um, PETA highlighted regarding this report is that there are a number of, um, pedigree breeds that have common medical issues associated with them. So in the Poodle's case, it would be progressive vision loss, seizures, diabetes, and a collapsing trachea. I suppose my point is that not every Poodle's going to experience that in their lifetime, there are going to be plenty of Poodles that are healthy. In my opinion at least, this study is very much looking at the worst case scenarios.

Caroline Bartley 4:08

Do you think that people think about the financial implications of actually owning a dog? Before someone gets a dog is that something that they should take into account?

Scott Andrews 4:19

Absolutely. You know, right now puppy prices have gone through the roof. As we mentioned before, due to COVID and the lockdown, there are a number of puppies being returned to dog shelters as it stands, and they're not very much older. Obviously you've got assorted anxiety issues to deal with. The fact is if you was to take a puppy from the Dog's Trust for example, you would pay 150 pounds. And that would be it. Now, as we're talking about average lifetime costs, if you buy a puppy, the average lifespan for a dog is about 12 years. Whereas if you rescue a six, seven, eight year old dog, you can cut that price in half. Granted, okay. The insurance cost may be different. The average yearly cost, according to this report for pet insurance is 111 pounds. My own dog who has had a, my Scottish terrier. You know, he has, um, a chronic illness with no cure. I've probably spent close on eight to nine thousand pounds in his lifetime on vet bills alone.

Caroline Bartley 5:13

I think most, most people, sorry to interrupt, would find that astronomical actually.

Scott Andrews 5:17

Exactly. And there aren't many insurers in the world who are gonna offer me 110 pounds a year. So you've got that to consider. One of the things that struck me as odd was the average cost of grooming they gave was 278 pounds. Personally, with my own dog, I am paying 160 pounds a year.

Caroline Bartley 5:35

Well, obviously it depends what you're getting done, it depends on the breed of the dog, how they have to have their coat done, it also depends on the size of the dog.

Scott Andrews 5:43

There's another example, if you are looking to get a dog, if you're looking to rescue a dog and you're trying to keep your costs down, you have to take a good look at the fur. Take for example, a Boston terrier. They don't know have hair, they don't need cutting, they don't need grooming, they don't need a blow dry. In some respects, there are certain breeds of dog that you wouldn't have that cost. Another price that struck me was the average cost of food and treats 350 pounds,

Caroline Bartley 6:03

Which to me seems quite cheap actually.

Scott Andrews 6:05

Well, the fact is when I train with my own dog, I often use cheese, cooked chicken, little bits of sausage. There are a lot of things that I use that comparatively to go into a pet shop and paying two pound or three pound for a bag of 28 treats. It's another way in which you can make a saving. And finally they estimate the year, the cost of toys and equipment 77 pounds.

Caroline Bartley 6:28

Again I think that's quite cheap.

Scott Andrews 6:30

Really, to me, that sounds like you're buying your dog an iPhone.

Caroline Bartley 6:33

No, maybe this is the survey is, is saying too much about me. Maybe I should just, I should just quit talking now?

Scott Andrews 6:39

Well look in all honesty, I do have at least two boxes of toys that my dogs have no interest in whatsoever. Certain dogs prefer to play in certain ways and if you can identify that quickly, that will save you a lot of money. Um, for instance, Labradors, they're the greatest connoisseurs of fetch as we were talking about in the last episode. What more do you need for a Labrador than a ball to chase?

Caroline Bartley 7:00

I have this experience myself. When my boy was younger, you buy them expensive toys and then they end up playing with the box

Scott Andrews 7:08

To be fair with one of our dogs last Christmas she had more joy opening her Christmas presents on Christmas Eve, just because the paper, she wasn't interested in what was inside of it, but the paper was shredded all over the hallway.

Caroline Bartley 7:21

That's right, it was knocking over the Christmas tree, I remember you saying, and then picking her present and opening it.

Scott Andrews 7:27

She had a proper Merry Christmas. There are ways in which you can save money.

Caroline Bartley 7:32

But if you want a pedigree dog and perhaps your financial circumstances are such that you can't afford to pay tens of thousands of pounds a year in looking after the dog, are there any more amenable options that you can use that you can take advantage of?

Scott Andrews 7:51

But certainly within breeds, often smaller dogs do cost less. Within the study, they come up with the five cheapest dogs. It's the, Patterdale the Jack Russell, the Staffordshire terrier. So Staffies who honestly, you can find in abundance in dog shelters. Whippets and Boston terriers. Each of these dogs cost on average, somewhere between seven and eight thousand pound in their lifetime, which is considerably less, you know. When you're looking at the other end of the scale, they're ranging from 14,000 to 18,000. No Standard Poodles being the tops and St. Bernard's, Chow Chows, and much to our surprise, we were talking last episode about Labradoodle. They're within the range of the most expensive. There is a great difference. That's about a 10,000 pound difference in itself.

Caroline Bartley 8:35

And who doesn't love a Jack Russell? I had a Jack Russell when I was growing up and he was just, he was a little tiny white and tan thing and just a bundle of energy. And I found really good around, uh, I was when I was about seven or eight at the time. So really good with kids, but Jack Russells always a great option.

Scott Andrews 8:53

One of the biggest mistakes prospective dog owners make is that we buy the dog for the lifestyle we want. We don't buy the dog for the lifestyle that we have.

Caroline Bartley 9:02

Just to finish off Scott. Anything else that you have taken from the survey?

Scott Andrews 9:07

First and foremost, if you are looking to get a discount dog, so to speak, your best path of action don't buy a puppy, look to adopt. If you're adopting, you're looking in most places, now I mentioned the figure from the Dog's Trust- 150 pounds to take the dog home. So that's your first saving between that and a puppy, a puppy post lockdown, that's a saving of 2,500 pounds, which is considerable. The second thing to consider older dogs. Now obviously, depending on your lifestyle, depending if you've got kids, an older dog may not be as active as you'd want.

Caroline Bartley 9:44

Yeah. And sorry to interrupt, but again, an older dog and you sort of alluded to it there, there are only certain familial circumstances and households that you will be able to take those dogs into.

Scott Andrews 9:57

Yes. Certainly, but, the good shelters and say, for example, I keep mentioning the Dog's Trust because it is recognizable as a nationwide brand with certain standards and protocols. They will have already tested and tried to identify what the dog likes and dislikes and whether the dog can be in a home with cats or dogs or kids?

Caroline Bartley 10:15

Small children that's right. Yeah.

Scott Andrews 10:17

So in that respect, they would have done the hard work for you. Second thing to consider. So, you know, obviously with the older dog, the dog's going to live less years which means that entire cost over the lifetime is going to be less.

Caroline Bartley 10:28

But the upside of that is you're giving a dog, hopefully what will be a beautifully, comfortable, and lovely home for the remainder of its lifetime, which is surely a benefit in itself.

Scott Andrews 10:40

It's a benefit and it's a wonderful thing. You think if you're getting a dog that is older or say half way through his lifetime, that might be, if it's a smaller dog, like a Jack Russell that could be another 4,000 pounds saved. The other good thing when you do take a dog from a shelter because they have their own vets and their own medical testing. The number of times I've heard stories where people have gone to buy puppies from breeders, 12 months down the line, they discover that there is a medical problem. Very often luxating patellas, or it could be something else going on that they weren't aware of, they didn't budget for it. Realistically, this is something that needs to be checked. If you do all of those things, one, you're still going to get a dog, you're still going to be able to share your life with one of the most wonderful creatures that walk this Earth. Two you are going to be able to do it on a discount. And three most important of all, you are giving a second chance. It's the most magnificent thing you can do.

Caroline Bartley 11:36

And also if I can just make this final point when you're taking a dog from, um, an animal shelter, or as you mentioned, somewhere like the Dogs Trust. That dog will be microchipped, that dog will also be neutered or spayed if it's a female.

Scott Andrews 11:54

And vaccinated as well.

Caroline Bartley 11:55

Of course, I forgot about that. So those are other sort of additional cost saving measures to take into account as well.

The Doggler Effect

Scott Andrews 12:02

Yes, if you're scared by these price tags pay a visit to your local dog shelters, see if you can make a miracle happen this year.

Caroline Bartley 12:21

You join us deep in the heart of Paw HQ, and we're ready to get to grips with the latest doggy science and this time, Scott, I believe we're focusing on why a dog's sense of smell is so crucially important?

Scott Andrews 12:35

As we've discussed on previous episodes, we know that dogs live their lives through their noses. We know that when they're born, their eyes are closed, their ears are closed and they're living just through their noses. There's some evidence to say that dogs are able to smell a scent that's been left behind up to six weeks previously. It is the most important organ for a dog.

Caroline Bartley 12:56

But this has surely all been covered in previous studies, there can't be anything new to this can there?

Scott Andrews 13:01

And you'd be really surprised to learn that most studies are focused on, um, visual or auditory stimuli and not olfaction. There's previous research done that have checked if dogs recognize their humans by sound, by facial expressions. There has been some olfaction research, the main parts being proving that dogs are able to distinguish their own urine from another dog's urine. They've also managed to prove that dogs can track direction of movement through smell. Interestingly, and this is where things get really weird. They've also proved that African elephants can distinguish humans by sense. When you think that the level of research done into scent is almost equal in elephants as it is the dogs. It says we've got a lot of work to do here.

Caroline Bartley 13:45

Talk to the elephant, the tangential podcast coming soon. This particular study, why has it excited you?

Scott Andrews 13:53

It is written by one of the goddesses of dog literature, Alexandra Horowitz. She wrote a book called Inside of a Dog that I randomly bought some years ago when I was on holiday in New York. And I very nearly didn't leave my hotel room for the week I was there.

Caroline Bartley 14:10

Well gee you were exciting company, huh?

Scott Andrews 14:12

Oh I know. But no, she, she is, um, a phenomenal dog writer and her understanding of dogs is quite incredible. So I highly recommend anyone read it.

Caroline Bartley 14:23

So that was reason number one.

Scott Andrews 14:24

Okay. Reason number two. So this study is called, um, discrimination of personal odour by undomestic dogs. And it was in the international journal of comparative psychology. The exciting part of this is that they've tried to demonstrate that dogs are able to distinguish their owner's scent from a stranger's scent. They did this using 38 dogs and they gave the owner of each dog, a tee shirt to wear for two nights. So they literally wore it in their sleep took it off, put in a bag, wore it for another night, took it off, secured it in a bag to prevent the scent from escaping. Now, when they selected the dogs they gave all owners a questionnaire, because they wanted to ensure that they were only using dogs that were never discouraged from sniffing

Caroline Bartley 15:07

Discouraged from sniffing?

Scott Andrews 15:09

I don't know if you've ever been walking down the street, you see a friend you stop to talk and then your dog starts putting their nose in an area no one with polite manners should put their nose.

Caroline Bartley 15:18

That's just being a dog, hey.

Scott Andrews 15:20

We do this if we're running late when we're walking a dog and we might be trying to encourage our dog or hurry our dog up.

Caroline Bartley 15:26

Yeah, I know and we've, we've discussed this before in the importance of exercising your dog, that it's a social and emotional thing for a talk as well as just physical, yeah.

Scott Andrews 15:35

Absolutely. And I don't know if many of you realize that you can actually train your dog not to use their nose. Obviously, if you're trying to do a study on this subject, you cannot have dogs that have been taught no, don't use your nose, just keep walking.

Caroline Bartley 15:48

Obviously you need subjects who are willing and capable of performing the functions needed by the study.

Scott Andrews 15:55

Yeah, I suppose that the simple way is you need dogs who are capable of being dogs.

Caroline Bartley 15:59

Of course, yes.

Scott Andrews 16:00

The dogs were tested. I'm not going to get into great detail about the room. The important part is to know is that the dogs presented with a box, containing their owner's t-shirt. They w ere shown up to three times. And the time they spent sniffing the t-shirt was measured. The next stage they were presented with another t-shirt with an unfamiliar odour in a box. Again, the time was measured. Now this is where we need to get our nerd on.

Caroline Bartley 16:26

Strap yourselves in everybody.

Scott Andrews 16:28

I know this could get messy. So they were looking for something called habituation.

Caroline Bartley 16:35

Habituation. Perhaps time for an explanation

Scott Andrews 16:37

Habituation is a decrease in a response to stimuli after repeated presentations. So to simplify it, when the dogs were sniffing the familiar odor, they should have sniffed it for a shorter time, especially after being shown the same t-shirt again and again and again.

Caroline Bartley 16:51

All right. So moving on from habituation, what else did the scientists find?

Scott Andrews 16:55

From the 38 dogs that they tested 4 dogs had to be ruled out due to recording issues. Three of the dogs didn't approach any of the boxes. Four dogs did not habituate in regards to what we were talking about. Essentially four of them did not spend a shorter time sniffing the familiar box to the unfamiliar. 1 dog showed no difference. And 26 of the dogs did as expected. They spent a significantly longer time smelling the unfamiliar scent.

Caroline Bartley 17:24

All right. So fair to say the majority of the dogs, so that's 26 out of the 38 performed as would have been expected. Four little ones who didn't habituate, any reason given for that?

Scott Andrews 17:39

No, not within the study. It could be for a number of things. Essentially the dogs are in an unfamiliar room. There's also an unfamiliar person there. It's a very strange environment. They might be timid, they might be anxious. They may well have been dogs that had been trained not to scent. Essentially, we don't know. What we do know from the dogs that were selected, none of the dogs were trained to do scent work. So ideally all the dogs should be scenting naturally. And the other thing we don't know is although they were wearing these t-shirts when they were sleeping, we don't know what other smells, the t-shirts might have picked up from the house. They were told not to use deodorants, aftershave, generally soaps, not to put any unfamiliar smell there.

Caroline Bartley 18:22

It should be as natural, as natural a body odour as possible.

Scott Andrews 18:25

Yeah. And at the same time the owner was actually sitting in the room. So there may have been scent emanating from the owner?

Caroline Bartley 18:35

What do these results actually tell us, what do they mean?

Scott Andrews 18:38

First and foremost, it shows that obviously this is an example of dogs collecting information from the noses. On all accounts, it looks as if the dogs can distinguish the scent of a familiar person to the scent of an unfamiliar person. Realistically, we don't know whether they associate the smell of their owner's t-shity with the owner or not. We can't really short of going over to them and saying, hey, excuse me, hello? Could you just ask this questionnaire for me? You know, generally it's not gonna work because dogs can't tell us, hopefully our great researchers are going to get more sneaky and smarter, and they're going to come up with a way to test that. It's a wonderful example of dogs using the nose. We know from this study that with an unfamiliar scent, the dog is going to scent for longer with a familiar scent, it will sniff for shorter. You know, you're out for a walk with your dog and your dog is suddenly sniffing and sniffing and sniffing at one piece of grass. We know that that's not a dog he knows from the neighborhood. However...

Caroline Bartley 19:33

Stranger danger, stranger danger!

Scott Andrews 19:36

Absolutely. You know, you walk up to a lamppost, your dog does five seconds ofquick sniffs. And you know, leaves a message, sends a WhatsApp back. He might be sending something to Bob the Border Collie atnumber 42.Tthis piece of information is something we can use when we're out walking our dogs to try and interpret their own behavior. So for us, it's fantastically useful. Now dogs use their noses. They live through their noses. Essentially, they see everything in smell-o-vision. We know they interpret friends and enemies by their smell. They communicate with each other in their neighborhoods as I've mentioned before with urine markings.

Caroline Bartley 20:14

Health status as well, yes.

Scott Andrews 20:17

Technically like a dog, a dog smelling another dog's urine is like reading someone's Facebook update without the annoying self depreciating pictures asking for love and attention.

Caroline Bartley 20:28

And my holiday in Florida.

Scott Andrews 20:28

Well I don't know if dogs do is that, you have to watch the way they spell it. Now we know they quite possibly measure distance. They measure speed. They're collecting so much information from scent that we don't know about. So this is just a very early step along the road to better understanding dog's noses.But to finish right. When you take your dog for a walk, your dog sniffing, sniffing for a dog is mentally stimulating, it's physically stimulating. It decreases their heart rate. It decreases their stress levels. So honestly, one of the kindest things we can do for our dogs is just to let them sniff.

Gadgets, Gizmos, Gastronomy

Caroline Bartley 21:07

We want this dogcast to be as interactive an experience as possible. So please get in touch. You can Talk2ThePaw on Facebook, www.facebook.com/Talk2ThePawpod, Twitter@talk2thepawpod. Find us on Instagram@talk2thepawpod, email info@talk2thepaw.co.uk. All the podcasts are available to listen and download on Apple podcast, Spotify and Google podcasts. We've all been there. You dash out of the house for that first dog walk of the day, and you're fresh out of poo bags or your dog needs a drink and you haven't brought a bowl, what to do? But fear not because there are leash and collar systems on the market that promise to help you with all those niggly problems and much, much more. I'm quite excited by this as someone who frequently dashes out of the house without most of what she needs. But my little canine nerd friend, you're not quite as enthused.

Scott Andrews 22:23

No. Do you remember the original Batman movie from the 1960s?

Caroline Bartley 22:29

Kapow, yes in other words. Although for the sake of accuracy, I was not born in the sixties. Thank you

Scott Andrews 22:37

It opens with the scene where Batman's on a ladder from a helicopter and this shark jumps up, big rubber shark thing, bites his leg and out of his utility belt he pulls a can of shark repellent.

Caroline Bartley 22:51

Of course he does a big of whoopass.

Scott Andrews 22:54

And hesprays the shark, and obviously the shark falls into the sea. I often see these all singing, all dancing, all inclusive leash systems, as you'd like to call them, promising the world and delivering very little. Many of them offer somewhat ideas that are genuinely good and a positive step in the right direction. But often it's the execution that lets them down. I know quite recently, I saw one that contains a water bowl, a light, a built in poop bag holder, a seatbelt, a shock collar, wait for it, best of all, it's retractable,

Caroline Bartley 23:28

What's retractable?

Scott Andrews 23:28

The leash.

Caroline Bartley 23:30

The leash is retractable? So what's the issue with the retractable leash?

Scott Andrews 23:34

Well, you know, originally they were designed to help you teach your puppy to recall, to come. The little puppy couldn't escape. Aside from the obvious injuries that people encounter on a weekly basis, such as burns on their hands, I've read stories in the newspapers about people losing the tips of their finger.

Caroline Bartley 23:48

What?

Scott Andrews 23:48

Their design is self-defeating. For a dog to actually go further forward the dog learns that he has to pull a little. So it's encouraging pulling, it makes walking a dog on a leash a lost cause. I know a lot of people will say, but I want my dog to go further, I want my dog to be able to explore more.

Caroline Bartley 24:07

And surely that's a good thing?

Scott Andrews 24:08

But they're very often the same people who are complaining that their dog is pulling all the time. So I had a client one day she'd been out, it was one night actually. She'd been out walking her dog. And they'd had their last walk before bed, she lived in apartment. So she had to walk the dog before going to sleep. And once she come back to her apartment block, you know, she's pressed the button for the lift, waiting for the lift to come and the doors have opened and she's walked inside and as the door closed she realized her dog hadn't gone with her.

Caroline Bartley 24:34

Oh my god.

Scott Andrews 24:35

So then the lift starts moving up with the dog outside on his collar and her with the retractable leash. She said, you know, she was hitting the buttons, trying to get the lift to stop, trying to get the doors to open. That didn't work. So she was trying to open the door with her fingers. That wouldn't work. So she even actually tried to bite through the leash with her teeth, terrified about what would happen. And when she got to the third floor, the doors finally opened and she come out and she ran downstairs as fast as she could. The good news is just the end of the cord was sticking out of the elevator doors. There was no sign of the dog. The dog, after about 10 minutes, searching had managed to get out the apartment building and was outside in the car park, sitting there shaking thinking what on earth had happened to me? The potential for tragedy with these leashes is what disturbs me most about them.

Caroline Bartley 25:29

I don't have an issue with the poop bags. As I said in the introduction, as someone who is, is frequently more, more ditzy than should be permissible, quite frankly, in society, I sometimes go out of the house without poo bags. My own fault, I'm not prepared. No issue with me in having a little thing for poop bags on your lead. But I had read that some of these, um, devices have what's described as a vibration element in them. Why would that be necessary? What would that even be for?

Scott Andrews 25:59

Honestly, it's not necessary. Normally there'll be a reception on the collar and there'll be a button on like the handle of the retractable lead. The idea being that, say your dog is not listening, and you know, it doesn't have good recall and he's running away. You press the button. So it sends a vibration to the dog's collar.

Caroline Bartley 26:17

It's like a punishment for the dog? Is it?

Scott Andrews 26:18

Yes, it absolutely is. Granted, it's not an electric shock.

Caroline Bartley 26:24

Yeah. Yeah. I think it's important to make that distinction. Yes.

Scott Andrews 26:27

Imagine this right. You're out for a lovely walk, some beautiful field. Lovely summer's day. You've got the summery breeze. You can smell cut grass. You can smell barbecue. So you try to explore a little more. Then you feel someone poking you behind the shoulder blades. You look around and no one's there. Then you continue walking and you get poked again, and again and again. Now what would that do to your mental health?

Caroline Bartley 26:53

Well, I'm quite certain when you describe it in those terms that the dog is not, the dog is just being the dog. And surely it's going to be quite hard for the dog to understand why when it's doing what it normally does, what it instinctively does, that it's almost being punished.

Scott Andrews 27:10

Absolutely and you have to remember to be able to take your dog out for a walk you need to be able to handle the collar. And if anything, the vibration function is going to teach the dog to be afraid because this is the thing that keeps shaking at random and I don't understand why. Personally I much prefer to train dogs than terrify, well terrorize them.

Caroline Bartley 27:27

One important question that I think needs to be asked and something that struck me when I was reading, um, about these, these gadgets, these gizmos. Are they designed for the dogs or are they designed for humans? Are they designed to make human's lives easier? That's what I take from it. Maybe that's unfair?

Scott Andrews 27:46

No, you're absolutely right. They are devices of convenience.

Caroline Bartley 27:50

Yeah. Me and my poop bags.

Scott Andrews 27:52

You and your poop bags. It's great having poop bags in your lead, but still there's only going to be a limited supply. Now I once got a life hack from the most unlikiest suspects on this topic.

Caroline Bartley 28:03

Christopher Biggins?

Scott Andrews 28:04

No, my mother. Now my mother, she, she doesn't buy poop bags. She buys disposable nappy bags.

Caroline Bartley 28:13

All I like.

Scott Andrews 28:14

One, you know, you can buy them still, one pound two pound, for about a hundred bags from a supermarket,

Caroline Bartley 28:20

Enviro-friendly Scott's Mum.

Scott Andrews 28:20

Yes, biodegradable. And thirdly, it makes the poo smell like vanilla. Who doesn't like vanilla poo? There are some aspects, right? Obviously you do need poo bags.

Caroline Bartley 28:33

There's a lesson for me.

Scott Andrews 28:34

And I've seen some of them that havebuilt in water bowls.

Caroline Bartley 28:37

Again, what's the problem with that?

Scott Andrews 28:38

Nothing. I think it's a great idea. I suppose point 1 is how much water can you fit inside, like a retractable handle?

Caroline Bartley 28:45

Isn't some water better than no water though?

Scott Andrews 28:47

Yes. But what happens for instance, when you forget to empty it or refresh it? That doesn't appeal to me that much. I've seen others with lights for the collar and lights actually in the handle. So you have a little button to push and it turns on the light on the dogs, but on the handle of the leash. And a light on the dog's collar. Now this is something that I have first hand experience with, I'm color blind. I have a Scottish Terrier, some nights I'd walk him off the, off the leash. And I couldn't see him.

Caroline Bartley 29:15

Yes, because he's, he's dark colored. Isn't he?

Scott Andrews 29:17

Yes. He's a brindle Scottie. Now, as soon as he was running around in the dark and I put this light around his collar, he would be almost blind in the distance.

Caroline Bartley 29:28

And why, why was that?

Scott Andrews 29:28

I suspect that it was affecting his color perception. To summarize- a good long leash gives your dog the space for it to walk more naturally with you. It's not natural for a wild animal to be harnessed beside you, and we expect it of our dogs every day. If you do want to see an improvement, no all singing, all dancing, Batman utility belt dog leash is going to make the difference for you. The only thing that is going to improve your dog's behavior is you. You have to put in the effort, the hours, and train with your dog. There are no shortcuts to a happy walk.

Caroline Bartley 30:29

Wagtastic Woofs is where we at Paw HQ pay tribute to a particularly special dog whose done something truly remarkable. Our episode five superhero story is quite a poignant one though, as we celebrate the life of Kirby, a 12 year old English Springer Spaniel. This plucky pooch had a distinguished eight year career as a search and rescue dog with the fire service in Essex, England, and had worked in a variety of dangerous and challenging scenarios. His job saw him airlifted in helicopters, abseil down buildings and retrieve people from situations ranging from gas explosions to a collapsing power station. When he wasn't hard at work, he also managed to indulge in a spot of fundraising for good measure. Kirby retired from duty last year, having been diagnosed with cancer and he sadly lost his battle against the disease just a few days ago. To Kirby, who touched the lives of so many and proved that not all heroes wear capes. We thank you for your service. And instead of our usual wagtastic round of applause, here's a stirring bagpipe tribute to Kirby for being a very good boy, indeed. Remember, you can nominate your own Wagtastic Woof. Get in touch and tell us about that very special dog, whose made a difference to your life. Contact us on Facebook or Twitter@talk2thepawpod, email info@talk2thepaw.co.uk, Instagram@talk2 to DePaul, port your stories and comments, questions and suggestions are all welcome. That's all for now. Thank you for your company until next time. Goodbye.