It’s the same question I have asked myself for years:
“How could an animal that greets others of its kind with The Sniff, drinks from a toilet or fetid farm pond with equal enthusiasm, rolls in dead fish at every opportunity, and licks its privates possibly tell – let alone care – how something tastes or smells?”
This issue comes to mind whenever I hear about some “new and exciting” human product repackaged for dogs. Doggie pasta. Doggie bottled water. Doggie sodas. And so on.
Let us state for the record that yours truly is a dog person. Although dogless since Goldie (sweet-natured yet terminally ill and suffering) had to be put down by our vet, I’ve owned dogs from childhood on. I’ve loved them, played with them, cared for them, spent countless days afield with them, and shed boy tears and man tears while digging their graves.
Do dogs have discernable personalities? Absolutely. Especially English setters like Goldie, also Kip before her. It was easy to tell when either was smiling or frowning, elated or down in the dumps.
Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.
Same with Stormy, a Labrador retriever whose image and antics appeared numerous times under my byline in newspapers, magazines and books.
Ditto Lucky, Smoky, Taffy, Imp and other Heinz-57s down the line.
(Hard-headed Belle, a blue-blooded English pointer? Maybe not so much. From puppyhood throughout her long life, Belle stayed wound up tighter than a seven-day clock. She tested my patience more than once. But I never gave her a shotgun sendoff like South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem did with one of her problem pooches – to supposedly prove she “knows how to make tough decisions.”
Yet I’ve never equated any dog with a human being. Which may explain why I went slack jawed upon discovering lattes and colognes designed especially for Bowser.
This revelation came recently as I researched the many pumpkin spice goods now appearing on store shelves and catalog/internet pages.
Coffee and smell-good for dogs? What?!
Lattes contain caffeine, which affects canine nerves something awful and can even be fatal. Ask any vet. Even faux lattes for Fido, with whipped cream and vanilla ice cream, aren’t necessarily a dog’s best dietary friend either.
Worse are perfumes and colognes. As Dr. Daniel Mills, professor of veterinary behavioral medicine at England’s University of Lincoln, said in a recent interview with the New York Times: “This is entirely for the owner’s benefit, not for the dog’s. Dogs have a fantastic sense of smell, and changing their odor can cause significant issues.”
The only scent I detect from these products is a strong hint of money.
Sam Venable’s column appears every Sunday. Contact him at sam.venable@outlook.com.
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
