Latest / Paws Between Us - Pet Stories, Welfare and Building A Bond / Short Paws: Dog-Friendly Destinations & Heartwarming Smiling Science

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Short Paws: Dog-Friendly Destinations & Heartwarming Smiling Science · Paws Between Us - Pet Stories, Welfare and Building A Bond

• 0:00
  Welcome to Paws Between Us, your regular dose of positive
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  pet news. Every other week, we bring you a short,
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  uplifting episode packed with the latest feel-good stories and research from
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  the world of pets. So take a moment to tune out from all the negative
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  news dominating our headlines and help us shine a light on the good,
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  celebrating the joy pets bring to our lives and sharing the inspiring
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  changes making their lives better too.
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  So settle in for a short pause and let's spread some positivity together.
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  Hey, Sasha. Hey, Nat. How's it going? Yeah,
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  I'm all right. Thank you. How are you? Did you have a nice holiday?
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  I did. Thank you. Yes. I'm just fresh back from a trip to
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  Jersey. First time I've ever been to Jersey. And yeah,
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  was very impressed. Beautiful island. Really,
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  really dog-friendly. Didn't choose Jersey because it's so dog-friendly,
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  but now I know it is, I'll definitely go back. Ooh,
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  one for the listeners to look into then. Yeah. I mean, it's a very pretty
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  island. Lots of wonderful beaches, lots of
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  great food, really nice restaurants and cafes.
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  And all of them, in fact, every single one that we went to,
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  welcome dogs. Oh, wow. Inside and out.
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  I know nothing about Jersey. Is there like a main city town?
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  Yes. So there's the main, main part of Jersey, St. Helier.
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  Oh yeah. Yeah. Which is where the ferry goes into
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  that we travelled on. So we went from Portsmouth to St. Helier. And then And
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  then that's kind of in the south of the island. And from then you've got
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  around the island, many beaches, many little
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  sort of towns. I say towns, they're probably villages actually,
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  because Jersey's actually really, really small.
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  You can drive from one side of the island to the other very
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  quickly. I think it's only about 15
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  miles wide. Ooh, okay.
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  Wow. I mean, don't quote me on that, but they,
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  you could easily get from the west of the island to the
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  east of the island in about half an hour and from north to south.
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  So, and so you saw a lot and a lot of the places were dog-friendly
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  and there was lots of dog owners about. Yeah.
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  What I really liked with the beaches was that dogs were
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  allowed on them throughout the year. You have to keep a
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  dog on a lead between, I think it's half 10
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  in the morning and half 5. Okay.
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  Where I've been to other beaches in England, there's often a restriction,
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  so you can't allow dogs on the beach during the
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  summer months at all. Right. So,
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  you have like dog-friendly beaches, but that's
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  only often a small part of the beach, whereas in Jersey,
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  dogs are allowed all over the beach. So long as you just
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  keep them on a, on a lead. Okay. Which I really,
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  really like, like that. So we'd kind of get up on the morning,
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  take Betty for a walk early. We could let her off the lead,
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  had a little paddle in the sea. And actually the sand was really good for
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  her to walk on. So it was quite, quite soft.
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  So yeah. Yeah. It, it, you know, 'cause I think we've, we've been
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  told to avoid walking on pavements 'cause she drags her feet. She just
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  sort of scuffs them. Oh yeah. Sometimes they can like sort of bleed. So actually
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  walking on sand And it's quite gentle on her paws,
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  and that was really nice. So yeah, so she
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  had a good holiday too. She did, she did. I mean, she's never
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  been one for swimming, so I held her and we had
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  a little, little swim in very shallow water. Yeah,
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  a little doggy paddle. Yeah, a little doggy paddle.
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  She met some doggy friends on the beach, which was really nice.
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  Yeah, just, just a lovely chills holiday.
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  So yeah. Yeah, I did.
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  Thank you. Just a bit of a shocker being back
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  to reality. And yeah, but I'll be
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  taking my holiday in a couple of weeks, so I'll let you know how that
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  goes. I was looking to explore, I don't know if I'd mentioned this, but a
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  friend of mine told me about cat-friendly
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  lodges on the border of Scotland. I think, I don't know
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  if it was quite on the border, whether it was just outside Edinburgh. I'm not
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  sure. But, um, what I was astounded by, I wouldn't take my
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  cats because my cats don't travel, but people do travel with cats. These lodges have
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  got like cat climbers in them, cat scratching posts,
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  different, um, cat, uh, bed, like heights of beds
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  and things so they can kind of climb up and sleep up high. And then
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  you don't normally hear about cat-friendly places like that. Hear about dog-friendly places
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  all the time, but I was intrigued by that. But we were going to go
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  to Scotland, but we don't got chance. We haven't got time now. So we're just
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  making it to Northumberland. That's as far as we'll get.
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  The cats are being looked after by my niece, so, uh, they're in, they're in
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  good hands because she's doing an animal studies course. So,
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  uh, in the perfect safe pair of hands, the best
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  it could be. Yeah, that's the perfect setup. Are they staying at yours
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  and she's popping around, or are they going to stay with her? Yeah, no,
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  no, she's— they're gonna stay here. She's gonna come in. The only thing I'm worried
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  about is her using all of the, like, the oven, the microwave. The cats
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  I've got no concern about. I'm more worried about all the gadgets and technology.
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  But then again, she's young, so I'm sure she'll work it out. She'll probably be
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  better at it than me. Yeah, probably. Or just be ordering takeaway.
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  Sounds like your house is really high-tech then, if you've got all these different
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  gadgets and controls and buttons to press. It's because,
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  because like, I think my dad was here once and I had to leave him
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  like a book, a manual, because it's all touch— lots
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  of it's touchscreen stuff, and it's like, it's gonna be confusing,
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  but I'm underestimating a 21-year-old really badly
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  here because she will be fine with it. I'm absolutely certain. I don't know why
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  I'm worrying. You know, when you go away, you worry about everything, don't you?
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  Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you do. You do. But I'm sure everything,
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  yeah, I'm sure everything is in safe hands. So,
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  but it's good to have the, the Scotland place on the sort
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  of bucket list or the place to visit in the future. Not heard
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  of cat-friendly accommodation before either. I've always heard of dog-friendly. But never
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  cat. Exactly. I'll have to share the link. I have got it. Maybe I'll stick
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  it in the comments so people can have a look at it themselves.
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  Check it out. It'll be there. Yeah. So what news
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  have we got, Sasha? What's caught your eye this week? So there is,
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  what's caught my eye this week is actually what I've just been talking
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  about, because there has been a recent survey by Accor of
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  British pet owners who found that 56% of
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  dog owners plan their trips around their pets, while an impressive
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  68% would opt not to travel if their dog
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  couldn't come along. Now there's no stats here for cats,
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  but it is based on dog-friendly cities in
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  the UK. And interestingly,
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  Liverpool gets the top spot in terms of being
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  very dog-friendly. So big paws up to Liverpool
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  for welcoming our canine friends.
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  It received the top score for basically having
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  lots of dog-friendly eateries, lots of dog-friendly Many
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  venues in Liverpool make four-legged visitors very welcome, which means it's really
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  easy to explore the city. And yeah, just lots
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  of dog-friendly cafes and pubs. And I haven't been to Liverpool in a long,
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  long time actually. So I'm now really intrigued
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  to see just how dog-friendly it is.
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  And second in the list is Brighton.
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  Interestingly, Brighton has lots of beaches,
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  but there are seasonal restrictions. So that was the thing I was just talking about
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  in Jersey, there are no seasonal restrictions. Restrictions, but in Brighton there still is.
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  But there's lots of parks, lots of vast open spaces and woodland
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  walks, and lots of coffee shops that are welcoming
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  of dogs, which is great to hear. And I once went to
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  Brighton, not that, well, I say not that long ago, it's when we first got
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  Betty, so it probably was a long time ago. And stayed at a really nice
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  hotel and we hadn't had Betty that long and she did pee on the bed.
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  That was just mortified. Oops. You're like, whoops.
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  Don't think we got charged for that, but we were a bit worried that
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  we were gonna get slapped with a bit of a bill for a pee stain
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  on the duvet. Sometimes in these dog-friendly places,
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  you're not actually allowed to have your dog on the bed.
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  Betty, as you know, is very attached. Yeah. So we'll forget about
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  that one. And then in 3rd spot is Glasgow.
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  Hmm. So yeah, 3 top dog-friendly places in
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  the UK to visit this summer. If you haven't already been away,
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  and you're thinking of somewhere to go in the next few weeks with your dog,
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  definitely check those out. But yeah, big paws up to Liverpool for
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  being super dog-friendly. It's really good to hear.
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  I am surprised by that because, well, I never thought Liverpool
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  would be particularly dog-friendly over anywhere else. And interestingly enough,
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  not like mentioned London, but maybe London's so big
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  with so many suburbs, it's hard to sort of categorise. I don't know.
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  Did London come in the list at all? Yeah. Do you know what?
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  It didn't. Interesting. No, it didn't.
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  I don't know why. Maybe it was excluded, but lots of
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  cities in the list, but not, not London. I'm not sure our
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  listeners, like, know of any other smaller towns than big
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  cities, because actually, I went to Cirencester maybe
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  2 or 3 years ago, 2 years I think it was, and I found that
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  really dog-friendly. There were Dogs everywhere. We were sat
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  in a cafe just watching hundreds of dogs walk past with their owners
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  over like a period of an hour. It was so busy, lots of different
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  sizes and shapes and breeds. It was really lovely to see. And I think
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  we went into one of the shops and someone brought their husky in and I
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  was like, oh, even the shops like them in. So, I was quite surprised
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  by that. So, maybe someone else has been somewhere similar that would, that could recommend
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  other places. Yeah, indeed. I mean, that's the thing. This survey
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  focused on the top 15 cities, and like you say, there are lots of smaller
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  towns and places, especially on the coast, that are
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  probably very dog-friendly. So, and London definitely is dog-friendly,
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  'cause I've had lots of experience. Yeah.
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  Yeah. Goes without saying. So maybe they've excluded London,
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  but yeah, really good to see that there's a sort of
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  a shift. And just looking at, you know, if you were actually going out for
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  dinner somewhere with your dog in one of these cities that actually Edinburgh scored
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  the highest for dog-friendly eateries overall.
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  Okay. It'd be Liverpool when you think about it, across the different categories of
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  dog friendliness comes out the highest. But yeah,
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  Edinburgh is, yeah, also very friendly for the food side
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  of things. So yeah, what, what's caught your eye now this week? Um,
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  a couple of little things. So this is a follow-up from the
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  Humanimal episode we had last week where they were talking about how we can
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  do better for both animal and human health.
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  And the UK government has announced
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  something. It's called a Preclinical Translational Models
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  Hub, and they are committing to replacing animals
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  in science, which will be a
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  real encouragement for a lot of people. The hub will bring together
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  data, AI, cell engineering,
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  and disease modeling techniques and all the kind of new things that they're developing so
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  that they can develop medicines faster and without harming any animals. And so humanimal,
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  we're talking about using animal patients.
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  And so those who are already poorly or have a condition and doing clinical trials
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  with them, this will be kind of similar. We're not harming any animals in developing
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  medicines. We're either using patient animals or we can use
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  all this cell engineering and AI and data stuff that we've
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  already got to help completely stop any of that.
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  So yeah, so that's something that's kind of starting. The RSPCA
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  are kind of obviously massive advocates in support of this. I saw this on one
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  of their posts this morning. So they're looking forward to seeing like how this
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  develops and the government will be doing some monitoring of the successes.
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  So I think RSPCA are probably the ones to watch to see how they
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  see that that is developing or not developing well. So yeah,
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  but it's good news. It's great news. I think a lot of people will be
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  relieved to hear that, and I think there's I don't know a lot about it,
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  to be honest, and I don't like to get too much into it because it
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  is a very upsetting subject and quite a, quite a
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  passionate one for a lot of people. But I think all we can say is
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  it sounds like people are now moving in the right direction.
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  So yeah, it does. Yeah. I think that's a good way
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  to kind of sort of round that bit of news up, which is it's all
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  moving forward in the right way for all the right reasons.
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  So. Yeah. Yeah. Watch this space on how it progresses.
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  Yeah. And the other one was just about, it's a really nice
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  story. The other one's a nice story, but this is quite a sweet little story.
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  It's about how, so scientists have worked out like what's
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  going on inside a dog's brain when it sees a human or even a stranger.
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  And so research got 14 dogs who were encouraged
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  to sit very still while in a brain scanner. And they were shown pictures of
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  people's faces and the photos were like of happy smiling people.
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  And they saw that when the dogs saw them, the areas of brain
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  that is associated with reward lit up. So showing that like that
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  activity was linked to like good things. Like when they get,
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  when they get a tasty bit of food or when they get praise. So it's
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  like, in terms of our brains, it's like the hit or high that's triggered when
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  we win a game or we do something amazing, or we receive a positive comment.
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  The same thing lights up in our head. And so they were able to kind
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  of make the assumption that the same things are lighting up in the dog's head
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  when they see a smiling, happy person. So, so sweet. I mean,
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  this is even for like strangers. Dogs still see this like positive
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  value in like, someone's smiling at me. It's positive. I feel good.
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  This is making me feel great. It's saying like,
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  um, they, dogs can recognise that as a
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  positive thing and that they get enjoyment from it. What they did
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  further in the study was to look at other human emotions, anger,
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  fear, and sadness. But the part
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  of the brain that lit up only responded to happy faces. And it's just lovely
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  to sort of like, see that dogs are really good at understanding emotions
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  in humans. They've been developed over years and years
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  of companionship, working with us.
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  And they think that because of all of that history of just being person's
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  best friend, that it's sort of changed and developed the dog's brain circuitry.
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  And they've sort of been able to, through domestication,
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  been able to kind of develop social abilities to understand and cooperate with
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  us as humans. This study was done by someone called, well, it's actually a couple
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  who have their own dogs and their own dogs are involved in the study,
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  which is really, really sweet. Laura Coya, I hope I say the name right,
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  and her husband Raul Hernandez Perez.
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  They did the study and the full findings are published in iScience
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  and we'll put the link in the bio if everybody wants to see and read
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  more about that. So it's basically saying we can reward our dogs with treats,
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  but you can also reward them with happiness. So just a smile, even at
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  the random dogs, can make a day for the doggy. How lovely is that?
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  Oh, that's so sweet. So it's like kindness costs nothing.
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  You can just smile and your dog will feel really,
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  really good. I love that. Oh yeah, I love that.
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  Like you say, you don't need to do anything. We don't need to, you know,
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  we could just make a dog's day better by being kind and smiling. Yes.
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  Yeah. Oh, when I see Betty tonight, I'm gonna give her big
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  smile and a big hug. I mean, I always smile when I see
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  dogs, when they're approaching me on the street. I always give them a little smile
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  and they always look at me and I sort of, they do respond. Yeah.
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  And the tails start going, don't they? I smile at a dog from miles away
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  and the tail's a little wagging when you go, hey baby, hello. And they,
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  yeah, like we, our eyes lock and I smile and
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  yeah. I wonder if they then associate that with thinking that they're
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  gonna get something as well. I don't know, I can't remember. I'll have to have
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  a little bit more into it, but I'm pretty, yeah, that does ring a bell.
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  There may be something that it's been sort of developed that there is a treat
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  coming or some kind of like other reward,
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  but the smile's enough to light up that little area in their brain.
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  Yeah. And they're still getting that hit, which is cute. Yeah. And you know,
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  good for them for staying still in the study, 'cause it can't be easy if
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  you're going through a scanner as a dog to stay really,
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  really still. I don't know how they did it, to be honest. It's hard
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  for a human. I like the way they, their own dogs got involved.
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  Yeah. They get involved in all of their studies. There are a couple who do
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  quite a lot of canine studies apparently. So we'll have to keep an eye out
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  for them, see what else they're doing. Ah, yeah, definitely. And I wonder if the
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  same applies to cats or maybe not. Oh my God. Keeping a
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  bloody cat still to even check their brain would be the worst
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  thing ever. I hope so. I like to think when I smile at my cat,
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  they get a little internal glow. I think so. You can
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  read emotions on cats. I feel like as a cat owner, I can sense,
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  I'm in tune with my cats and I think I can sense when they're happy
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  or sad or a little bit grumpy. But maybe, I don't know,
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  maybe that's just me. And just, is purring associated with happiness
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  in cats? It is, but it also can be a
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  stress. Okay. This is where cats,
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  yeah. Like stress attacks.
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  That's what I quite like about them though, to be fair. Yeah, no, they can
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  do it if they're stressed. So like, I've taken mine to the vet before and
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  they've started purring and thinking they like the vet, but it can be a self-soothing
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  thing. Not always, not always. It's like the same as like with dogs,
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  you get a waggy tail, you know, they're happy. Cats' tails are flipping confusing as
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  well. Can someone work out cats, please? Yeah, please tell us. I mean,
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  you're right, Betty's tail, when it drops down, you know she's not in
• 18:11
  a happy place. Although bless her now because of her myelopathy,
• 18:15
  her sort of tail hangs down a lot more anyway, and that's nothing to
• 18:19
  do with her sort of emotional state. It's just because of what
• 18:22
  she's dealing with. So, and it impacts her tail as well.
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  But yeah, it's nice to see a happy wagging tail. Let's all go
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  out there smiling. Yeah. Thank you so much. And, uh, we'll be
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  back in touch soon because we'll have another episode after a
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  short pause. So keep on listening, keep on following, give us a like,
• 18:41
  Tell us in the comments if you want us to cover any particular topic,
• 18:45
  or if you've got any ideas or feedback or places to stay,
• 18:49
  share that in the comments. That's always helpful for others as well. But yeah,
• 18:53
  get in touch with us. Yep. And happy holidays. If you haven't already
• 18:57
  taken a break this summer, then enjoy. And yeah, tell us about
• 19:01
  the dog-friendly or cat-friendly places that you've been to.
• 19:05
  See you next time. See you next time now. Bye!