Radio 2SM Breakfast Segment #18 with Kaye Browne

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This week:
Tails on our pets are so cute aren't they?... but why do they have them and what do they mean?
And now that winter is upon us, how can we deal with rodents 'safely' - eg; no poisons!?
Also this week... Got a black or dark coloured dog? could you find them if they got off-lead at night?
And 'paw-lickers'... Why do they do it and is it a sign something wrong?
Plus:
Why do dogs howl at sirens! (Check-out Kaye's version!)
00'00" - Welcome Ron Wilson
00'06" - Wagging Tails... What Do They Mean?
01'40" - Dealing With Rodents In Winter
03'35" - Walking Dark Dogs At Night!
04'24" - Why Do Pets Lick Their Paws?
06'02" - Why Do Dogs Howl At Sirens?
Image: Dog Tails Wagging... (c) https://olddoghaven.org/a-tail-of-two-dogs/
FULL TRANSCRIPT:
RON: Time now for our weekly pet segment with Kaye Browne from VETtalk On-Hold... Kaye good morning!
KAYE: good morning to you!
RON: Look in last week's segment we said that we were going to talk about dogs tails and well I suppose cats tails as well really, but I'd never thought about it much before I just assumed the dog wags his tail when it's in a good mood and that's it, but there's more to it than that?
KAYE: Yeah there is quite a bit more to it because tails are just one aspect of body language that dogs use and cats by the way and frankly you know when we meet people when we're out walking or shopping or whatever we don't necessarily like everyone that we meet so we might show it in the way that we're not doing very positive body language so with tails we don't have a tail but dogs can communicate a lot through tail wagging but they can also be very confusing.
You see putting your tail straight up and wagging can mean "Hi I like you and come and play." Or it can mean "I'm just feeling a bit nervous" if they're standing very still. So you can't really look at the tail wag in isolation from everything else but the scientists have now determined really that they're very sensitive our canine friends and our feline friends and tail wagging to the right definitely is a better thing, this indicates friendliness and curiosity. Tail wag to the left not so happy and if they've got their tail tucked underneath them they're very very nervous.
RON: Well I'll keep an eye out... now and Is it the dog's right or my right and it's going to be confusing you know that's the problem with all of this you've got to figure it out. Now last week when we spoke we talked about looking after our pets in this cooler weather but we may have some visitors we don't expect in the furry animal line. You can have rats and mice coming into your house how do we deal with that in relation to the pets that we already have?
KAYE: Yes well don't let them chase them for one thing a girlfriend of mine had spotted a little mouse dash underneath her dishwasher recently and so trying to do the right thing got some of those special catch and release boxes that you can get from your hardware store thinking "Oh she'll do the right thing and go and release it in the wild."
Well it didn't work because pretty soon she saw that the mouse that came in was uh a mother and uh there were 11 more little mice trying to take up residence for the winter so she did try using actual mouse traps in you know the old fashioned kind that we see in the cartoons which unfortunately are more deadly and you know they do knock them out pretty quickly and then you can pop them in a bag in the freezer and put them in the rubbish do not use baits please.
My father's dog got into some poison in the garage one time and had to be rushed to the vet for emergency treatment because even though they say that a lot of the ingredients they use in baits these days are safe if a pet should accidentally ingest them they're not and I'd rather not take the opportunity because it's a pretty nasty sort of a thing.
The baits I don't know if you've ever seen what happens to mice and rats when they take some of these baits, they start to bleed because the chemicals stop them from clotting blood properly and that's indeed what can happen to our dogs and cats if they eat the bait or indeed if they eat the dead rodent that ate the bait.
RON: Yeah it all sounds very nasty doesn't it and another thing that uh we should be careful about in winter and again I'd never thought about this uh it gets dark so early in the evening that if you're out walking the dog after work if you had a black dog with you for instance that's going to be a problem!
KAYE: Yes, when I had my four-pack, unfortunately they are there at the Rainbow Bridge as they call it one of them was a little black poodle and in the dark if I didn't put an LED collar on him I wouldn't have been able to spot him. I wouldn't have let him off the lead mind you but it's actually safer if you get some of these illuminating collars and leads and also put a high viz vest on so that if you're out and about, other people can see you as well and no one's going to get a fright or be accidentally knocked over.
RON: Now a couple of issues that we can talk about are licking paws and even I've seen dogs chewing their paws. What can cause that?
KAYE: Well it's part of some natural behaviours to start off with because you know dogs and cats do it as part of general grooming so it's generally if they're not doing it to excess actually okay but excessive licking or biting can signal that there's something else wrong it could be allergies it could be anxiety it could be poor gut health or even an injury or simply boredom and anxiety because paw licking is actually some sort of self soothing behaviour they say and so if they keep licking their paw they feel a bit more relaxed.
So if your dog is licking for that reason then you need to do more walking and playing with your dog or it could be environmental irritants or it could be something that people have sprayed on grass and then you've walked over it might be a fertilizer or something and unfortunately that's triggered something so the dog is licking at their paws because it's annoying them and their paws then get red and raw and if they don't stop licking them then they can have hot spots and other nasty things so a rule of thumb wipe your dog's paws with unscented baby wipes or even a wet towel if you don't mind having that wet dog smell on your towels, but definitely try and see if you can wipe down their paws and dry them if you come back and they're a bit damp 'cos damp dog smell and damp dogs don't go well happy
RON: That's right now in the past we've talked about things like heavy rain and thunder upsetting dogs but another reaction I see is if they hear a siren dog's howl... what's that all about? KAYE: Oh you mean something like this "AHHWOOOOOO"
RON: No no… that's on the full moon I think I've heard you do that!
KAYE: You promised you wouldn't tell!! oh look it's actually quite fascinating and it's amazing that some dogs do it and some don't. Now a lot of the time they think that it's a form of mis-communication or you know response to a dog thinking "Oh there's another lonely dog out there." It's desperate to find a friend so they howl to try and let that lonely dog know that they're there and they should come over and meet and greet 'cos let's face it they can't you swipe left or swipe right or whatever it is you do to meet dogs
RON: Yeah come on don't pretend you don't know (LAUGHS)
KAYE: So that's the mistaken identity because you know dogs come from wolves a very long time ago and wolves are known to howl over long distances so that they can let people know where they are another theory and unfortunately we tend to reinforce it accidentally is that the dog thinks "Oh there's something wrong.
I better warn my human there's this terribly loud sound." 'Cos they hear much better than we do and so they want to warn us about a possible danger. The problem is the siren goes away and the dog thinks "Aha it worked my howling made that nasty danger go away so if I hear that again I'll howl again." So the cure for that one is to come up with a cue and teach your dog to be quiet on command and then they'll get a nice treat. Does take a bit of training but you can do it.
RON: I'm going to have to get a new bag of treats I'm giving my dog treats for so many things now I don't know where I'm up to Kaye as always very entertaining and informative of course Kaye Browne there with our pet segment Kaye is from VETtalk on Hold

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