Dogs

Alex Re

Hello, welcome to on wildlife. I'm your host, Alex Re. On this podcast, we bring the wild to you, we take you on a journey into the life of a different animal every week. And I guarantee you, you're gonna come out of here knowing more about your favorite animal than you did before. Some of you may know that this is the 25th episode of on wildlife. So to celebrate that milestone, this episode is going to hit a little closer to home. This week, I'm interviewing Wendy Ray, who just so happens to be my own mom. She's a veterinarian assistant for Highland vet house calls, meaning she travels to people's houses to take care of their pets. So we're gonna get a little less wild today, because we're heading into your own houses to talk about the animal that's been called man's best friend. dogs.

Dogs come in all shapes and sizes, and we categorize them into different breeds depending on their physical characteristics and their behaviors. And they're obviously very diverse. One of the largest species of dogs is the Great Dane. on its hind legs, it can get to be over six feet tall, and weigh over 100 pounds. On the other side of the spectrum, Chihuahuas are one of the smallest dog species where they weigh around three pounds and get as tall as a half of a foot. But despite the extreme differences between breeds, dogs are actually all the same species. One of the ways that biologists define different species is by looking at if they can mate and have fertile offspring. If organisms from two different populations can produce fertile offspring together, then they're most likely classified as different species. So the reason that dogs are all considered the same species is that any breed can mate with a different breed and produce a viable fertile offspring. To give another example, lions and tigers are different species, and they can actually meet together and make a baby called a liar. But all male tigers are infertile, meaning that they can't have offspring. But where did dogs come from? You've probably never seen a pug in the wild, mainly because they wouldn't survive very long. Well, the descendants of dogs are wolves. And humans are the reason that dogs are what they are today. In fact, dogs were the first animals that we ever domesticated. Scientists are still arguing about how it happened. But the main consensus is that around 30,000 years ago, in Eurasia, a population of wolves stuck around a group of hunter gatherers so that they can eat the scraps of the food that were left behind. And over time, the humans started to breed the least aggressive wolves together, eventually creating dogs. New research has even come out that their domestication happened separately in two different places around the same time. Now, dogs have some really cool senses and ways of communicating with each other. And even with humans. For starters, they have an amazing sense of smell. Some research even shows that it's around 100,000 times better than hours. This is partly because they have 300 million olfactory receptors, which is a scientific term for smell receptors in their nose. And they can use the sense of smell in a variety of different ways. We notice it when they meet other dogs, they tend to sniff each others butts. When a dog sniffs another dog's butt, they're actually gathering a lot of information about the other dog, like their sex, how old they are, and even what they eat. So it's just a really weird way of them getting to know each other. Not only that, but we use dogs sense of smell to our own benefit. They can be trained to sniff out drugs or even find the scent of a missing person. They can smell something from over 12 miles away. But aside from their smell, they also have a really strong sense of hearing, they can hear much higher frequency sounds than us, which is why dog whistles might sound silent to us. But dogs can hear very clearly. We can hear up to 20,000 hertz, while dogs can hear at over 45,000 hertz. Part of the reason that they're so good at hearing is because they can move their ears around in order to focus a sound better. Have you ever seen a dog tilt its head, probably one of the cutest things you could ever see. Well, this could be a way for them to pinpoint a specific sound. And even though dogs are known to make a lot of noise, one of the most prominent ways that they communicate with us and each other is by using body language. For example, dogs can wag their tail when they're excited, or put their tail between their legs when they're nervous or scared. They also use eye contact. If two dogs make eye contact, this could be a way that they stablish dominance, the dog that breaks eye contact first is submitting to the fact that the other dog is dominant. But there's a lot of research that shows how making eye contact with your dog can actually strengthen your emotional bond. It's been found that when humans and dogs make eye contact, oxytocin is released in both individuals. And oxytocin is a hormone commonly called the love hormone. One of my favorite behaviors shown by dogs is called play sneezing. You might notice that your dog sneezes a lot when you're playing. And this is a dog's way of making sure that you know that they're just fooling around and not coming off as aggressive. It's really fun to observe all the funny behaviors your own dog does, that helps them communicate with you. Okay, we're gonna take a quick break. And when we get back, you'll get to hear what my mom Wendy Ray has to say about these furry friends.

March is Women's History Month. So all throughout the month of March, I'll be recognizing notable women in science. The first person I want to talk about is Dr. Murray main, our daily who was the first black woman to get her PhD in chemistry. Not only did she do amazing things in the science world, like studying how metabolism works in the cell, and figuring out that high blood pressure and high cholesterol are related. But she also made science education more accessible to people of color. She even created different programs that help people of color get into med school and other areas of higher education. She really opened the door for so many young people to get into science, which is just amazing. If you want to learn more about Dr. Daly, or this series, check out on wildlife.org.

Okay, we're back. Here's the interview with my mom, who's a veterinarian assistant, and has been around dogs all her life. Hi, Mom, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. I can't wait to start talking about dogs with you.

Wendi Re

Hi, Alex, I am so excited to be here. And I can't wait to share my experiences with you. Awesome.

Alex Re

So you are a vet assistant, could you just walk me through a day in the life of what you do?

Wendi Re

I would love to. First of all, we are a mobile vet practice. So we go into people's homes, we don't have a truck, where we take the dogs out of the homes and bring them into the truck. We just go into their houses and we literally work on the floor. On on the bed that they're most comfortable on. We tried to make the pets we mostly do cats and dogs. But today I'll talk about dogs. So we just try and get them to where they're the most comfortable. And this is like an amazing thing, because we can really give them really good exams, as opposed to when they go to a vet's office. They're, you know, they're nervous, they're stressed, we can get true heart, heart rates on them true pulse rates on them, because there's so much more relaxed in their own home. Like when we come in, they think we're just regular guests.

Alex Re

That's awesome. And you feel like everybody who owns a dog knows that the dog's biggest nightmare is going to the vet especially driving there, it can be kind of a nightmare for them.

Wendi Re

Yep. And they and they just they're either really excited until they see the vet. And then they freak out and freeze or it's just so much nicer to be in their house. And they you know, they really just relax and let us do our thing.

Alex Re

Absolutely. That's great. And so what are some of the most common issues that you see in your dog clients?

Wendi Re

well being, being that we can go into the home, I think is so excellent, because we can actually see problems that exists that a regular vet can't see, like a lot of times they'll tell us that for some reason the dogs not walking up the stairs anymore, or walking down the stairs anymore. So it could be as much as they're in pain because of arthritis. Or they they're losing their vision. Like a lot of dogs. They get cataracts just like we do, and then they get nervous walking up and down stairs. So we you know, that's so easy for us to tell. We can tell if the staircase is well lit or not. Another one of my, you know, favorite things is when the dog is severely overweight and the client can't figure out why. And we walk past there. Dog food bowl and see it's filled to the rim with dog food. They're like, Oh, we don't give it any treats, and it hardly eats anything. And it's because the bowl is so full, they can't tell how much the dog is actually eating. And basically, the way you can judge how much to feed a dog is, it's you should be giving the dog the size of their there's the size of their stomach, is basically the size of their brain. So if their heads tied their little tiny dog, you give them a little bowl of food, they don't need an overflowing bowl of food.

Alex Re

Yeah, that's really important information to know. And I feel like there's a lot of misconceptions about dog training and how to take care of your dog that can cause problems later in life. So it's, it's great that you're able to see that firsthand and go into their house. So going off of that question, you see a lot of dogs. So have you noticed that different breeds have different personalities or levels of intelligence?

Wendi Re

Oh, absolutely. I feel like all the dogs are like, very true to their breed. That doesn't mean like like a pitbull is vicious. That's not what that means, like, most people's are extremely, like very, very well behaved with children. They're great family, pets, their their terriers. And terriers are known not to be good with other dogs. And they could also be trained out of this with proper socialization, when they're when they're puppies, and like herding dogs are very true to their cells. Just a side note that herding dogs are dogs that were bred to herd livestock, to herding dogs that you may know of our Border

Alex Re

Collies and German Shepherds.

Wendi Re

If you have cats or kids, they will hurt them, they will keep them in, you know, in one space, so and they get very upset when they're when they can't keep track of them. And that's when, you know, like they'll nip at the kids ankles. But that's not because they're vicious or attacking them. It's because they're trying to keep them in, you know, in a circle like their, their breed was meant to be. And if you treat the breed, you could train a dog to do just about anything. But you have to train it the way the breed was meant to be trained. Like, if it's, if it's a herding dog, they're very, very smart. You have to challenge its brain, you have to give them a job, they have to be active, they have to be you have to give them puzzles to solve, there are all kinds of dishes that you can buy, that they're great, you can buy, like puzzles, and you put treats in the dish with puzzles and they have to open doors, they have to figure out like these things are great for for those breeds that are really smart. There are some breeds that are awesome for just being a couch potato. And it's not necessarily a big breed versus a little breed. Everybody thinks big breeds, you need a lot of backyard space, a lot of room and that's not true, a lot of times big dogs are just love to lay on the couch next to you. They just, you know, they just need that one on one time with you.

Alex Re

And that kind of brings up the conversation of nature versus nurture, like we've bred these dogs to behave a certain way. So it's important to recognize that when you're training them,

Wendi Re

you could pretty much make any, any dog I personally believe that there are no dogs that are bad. They, you know, unfortunately, a lot of times they come from bad situations. Now there are studies being done where even when they're in the mother's womb, if they're malnourished, that could affect their brain development and make them you know, petrified of things or make them vicious or, you know, unfortunately that you can't really help. And that, you know, that leads us into the you know, the next discussion. Basically, should you adopt a dog as opposed to getting one from a breeder or one from a pet store. And we're I think it is amazing to get to adopt a dog because there are so many dogs that need adopting that you know, you shouldn't go for that shy one that's hiding in the corner. Because there could be something wrong with it. You know, I'm not saying don't go for the the runt of the litter because that doesn't necessarily mean anything. But the but the shy one that's afraid of everything hiding in the corner. Probably a very fearful dog. And it's going to grow up to be a very feel fearful dog. And it's very hard to train out of a dog. You know, you can give it as much love and care as you want. But sometimes that's very hard to train out of a dog.

Alex Re

You know, and can that make them dangerous if they're fearful?

Wendi Re

Yes. The saying that we always go by is you're more likely to get bitten by a fearful dog than a vicious dog. A vicious dog will warn you when they're back to bite, bite, or they don't want to hear them. And you heed those warnings as opposed to a scared dog. You know, they look sweet and cute. And they back up in a corner before you before you know what they attack you because they're so afraid. Yeah. And it's not because they're vicious. It's just because they're afraid.

Alex Re

That's really good to know. And I actually talked about how dogs use body language to communicate earlier in the episode.

Wendi Re

It's easier to read those mornings than it is to read the warnings of I mean, scared dog basically doesn't give you warnings. It just stays frozen until you get too close. And then it attacks.

Alex Re

Yeah, definitely. That's not fun. If you if you've ever been bitten by a dog, you know that it's not a pleasant experience. All right. So dogs also commonly face a lot of health issues, like you were talking about before. But something that we didn't bring up yet is Lyme disease. Can you talk a little bit about what Lyme disease is why it's dangerous for dogs and maybe even people?

Wendi Re

Okay, well, Lyme disease is a tick borne disease. So and they usually come from deer ticks. So basically, they're the deer tick gets on the dog, and feeds off the dog and then regurgitates back into the dog. And then that's where the Lyme disease comes into play whether tick regurgitates into the dog,

Alex Re

I just wanted to bring up that one of the reasons why it's so important to prevent these ticks from getting on dogs is that they can hop off of the dog and latch on to people as well.

Wendi Re

So Lyme disease presents itself in dogs, usually as lameness. And we have this great test that test for Lyme disease. And it's pretty quick texts. It's a test, it's called a 40x test. And it's just we just need like three drops of blood. And in eight minutes, I can tell you if your dog has Lyme, anaplasma ehrlichia. And it's also a heartworm test.

Alex Re

Just a side note that anaplasma and ehrlichia are two other tick borne illnesses, whereas heart worms are actually worms inside of the dog. And they can cause a lot of serious damage like lung problems and heart issues.

Wendi Re

Now we have line vaccines for the dog, and which we know now the vaccine is awesome, because we used to, you know, people used to not really want to get it that often for their dog, they're very afraid to vaccinate, give them the their dogs, so many vaccines. So they kind of hold off now we were pretty insistent on getting the line vaccines. And now we hardly see lime in dogs if they've been consistent and vaccinated every year. And one of the worst things is a co infection. So the fact that we've gotten rid of the Lyme actually makes it easier to treat the animals because it's less less of the danger if it's not a co infection. So it's just treated with antibiotics as long as we catch it. So we like to do our Lyme test every year. And I wish we could do our line tests on children every year. But hopefully that's going to be coming around the corner soon as soon as they realize how dangerous Lyme disease is for people as well.

Alex Re

Yeah, that's great. And Lyme disease is very prevalent in people as well. I know from firsthand experience, it's not a great disease to have. And it comes in a lot of different symptoms. So you might not even know that you have it. So maybe that vaccine one day, we could transfer that to people hopefully,

Wendi Re

oh, I'm hoping they are working on it. I'm hoping that someday it's going to be we're going to be able to have the vaccine as well. That's great. Yeah, cuz it's really it's just such a danger. It's such a dangerous disease out there. People are just starting to realize it. It's so prevalent in everywhere in the United States, unfortunately all over the world too, but I just don't know that much. I just know it's very prevalent in the United States.

Alex Re

Yeah, definitely. So if somebody doesn't want to commit to buying or adopting a dog. What are some ways that they can help with the humane treatment and the safety of dogs?

Wendi Re

Okay, well definitely support your local shelters. They need food, they need blankets, towels. And of course, money is always great. There are other things that you could do as well, you could foster a dog, if you you know, if you don't want the long term commitment, but you do have a certain amount of time that you could commit to taking on a pet. We work with a an organization called puppies behind bars, which is this phenomenal organization where they have inmates raising puppies so that they can be anything from bomb sniffing dogs, to search dogs, but they're also emotional support dogs, for veterans. And you know, and it's just such a terrific organization, you can find out more information about that. From puppy. It's called puppies behind bars, calm, not just puppies behind bars.com. That's what it's called.

Alex Re

Got it. That's great. And that sounds like an awesome organization. So thank you so much for coming on. I really appreciate it. And I learned a lot about dogs and common things that we get wrong about dogs. So thanks again, mom for coming on.

Wendi Re

Okay, you're so welcome.

Alex Re

That was an awesome interview. And I'm so glad that my mom was able to come on and educate us all about dogs. Unfortunately, there are a lot of dogs that need our help. And there's a lot that we can do. One of the most important things is to support organizations that are already helping dogs. You should check out puppies behind bars, hope for paws and animal aid unlimited. Thank you so much for coming on this adventure with me as we explored the world of dogs. You can find the sources that we used for this podcast and links to organizations that we reference at on wildlife.org. You can also email us with any questions at on wildlife. dot podcast@gmail.com Don't forget to tune in next Wednesday for another awesome episode. And that's on wildlife.

Jess Avellino

You've been listening to on wildlife with Alex re brought to you every Wednesday.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai