"sanitary clip"

Also known as:

Potty Strip
Poopie Path
Hygenic Strip

Some cats need 'em, too!

I think the dogs in restaurants thing is more of a stink/training thing. If you start letting some dogs in, it because difficult to keep others out. And while that well-groomed, sweet-smelling, down-stay dog is fine, how many client do you have with dogs that haven't seen the business end of a bath in months, are questionably housebroken, and liable to help themselves to the goods... potentially from someone other than the owners? Fleas, potty messes, unbathed dogs, shedding, paws on the table... These may not be true health issues, but they are enough to gross people out big time. I'm down with letting well-behaved dogs on the patios of restaurants, but I totally support keeping them out of the dining room. Granted, I feel the same about the loud, snotty, sneezing, whining, poorly-trained children as I do about their canine counterparts...

Some dogs do shed a lot of hair though, other restaurant goers would not be impressed with hair in their food (including me tbh). And those dogs that perpetually beg food would be annoying in a restaurant, not to mention other behaviour problems. I'm happy to keep restaurants a dog-free zone (although I wouldn't mind them in more casual situations, especially on patios etc) but I'd also love to get away with them being a child-free zone too (or at least the under-5s).

That gooey, sticky substance coming from a dog's (or cat's) mouth is not slobber, drool or any such substance--it is liquified love (so my son told me when he was 9). Because our furkids love so strongly, it has to be thick because the love is so abundant--and it has to be sticky so it stays with us and let's us know how much they love us :-)

Okay, another mystery solved!

How, could any-one say no ? to this Pet-Kid...LOL..Thank-you, Doctor Khuly, for your answers, to the odd-ball question. But still would like to know, Why our Maxwell Drools at his meal time ? Hope someone knows.

Then why do poodles and schnauzers have hairy ears?

My Havanese has to have the hair pulled from her ears. I do it bi weekly and the groomer does it every 6 weeks. Not a cold weather dog by any means :-)

Srsly...

1. Saliva is "slippery" because of glycoproteins created by the mucous cells of the salivary glands.

3. Yeast, shmeast. Healthy dog feet smell like corn chips, natch.

4. Dewclaws are arguably not "in the process of being evolutionarily rejected" (front dewclaws, anyways). It's surmised that the dewclaw is what is left of a larger fifth digit that has been slowly devolving - but says who? Perhaps the digit evolved into the dewclaw because the dewclaw provides and evolutionary advantage? Just because something gets smaller doesn't mean it's on the way out. After all, modern humans have smaller brains than neanderthals, but this doesn't mean that our brains are devolving any more than it suggests we should just hurry up and remove them at birth.

http://netpet.batw.net/articles/dewclaws.html

http://www.helium.com/items/1704020-mammalsdogsclawsnailscaremedicalsurgicaldewvestigialitycharacterwildlife

Do loose or poorly structured dewclaws present a danger to active or sporting dogs? Potentially. But this is about artificial selection, not evolution. Wolves have lost their rear toes/dewclaws, and yet they retain their front ones. If the dewclaw was not evolutionarily advantageous, or worse, posed a potential danger to the wolf, one would assume that the wolf would have long ago shed the digit.

9. http://books.google.ca/books?id=pqJRCIXAFSgC&pg=PA70&dq=why+don%27t+dogs+have+nostrils&hl=en&ei=85eMTfK3E8u2twe7pfi3DQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=why%20don%27t%20dogs%20have%20nostrils&f=false

Dog's noses are shaped that way for a very important reason - click the above link for a brief description.

See #16 below for a reply to your comment.

The frito or popcorn smell from sleepy dog's feet is wonderful, almost as good as puppy breath. It can't just be yeast.

I raise Havanese, the national dog of Cuba (a HOT climate), and Havanese have hair in their ears. The darker the coat color, the more hair...... hmmmmmm..... ?????? If not plucked out regularly, horribly smelly ear infections must be tended to.

In some breeds, the rear dew claws are still used. And, are kept on----and are "double dew claws".

Most of the breeds that keep them are French Herding/Guardian breeds. Beauceron,Briard, Pyrenes....a few...

The dogs use them in the rocky terrain of France, to grasp rocks with for climbing the hills.

Also, Dew Claws are left on European bred Rotties. I have watched my Rotties, grasp things, such as bones with their dew claws on the front, for better grip when chewing!

Call me crazy, but I am a little bit in love with my Labrador's big paws. They always smell to me like popcorn. Not that I put my nose to them so often... :-)

p.s. Wish my feet smelled so good after a run through the woods! Not so much... :-)

Dogs usually lift their tails just enough to let the poop clear. How do I know this? Because I had a bulldog who took a year to figure it out. For more than a year, we had to grab her on the way into the house and clean her butt, because there would be a wad of dog poop stuck under her tail. Then, one day, I guess a light bulb went on over her head and she figured out how to "clear the path" and we never had to wipe her butt again except if she had runny poo that dribbled down.

My two dogs now both lift their tails and we have no problems.

Alexandra Horowitz in "Inside of a Dog" agrees with your analysis about our dogs staring into your eyes. They've figured out it is a way to get information and goodies from us. But I would still think twice about staring into a strange dog's eyes.

The enzyme amylase is found in saliva, it starts the breakdown of carbohydrates in the mouth. This enzyme is a protein molecule, a very large molecule, so when it dissolves in water it makes the solution more viscous than plain water. Sort of like egg whites BEFORE cooking, they are full of protein molecules dissolved in water.

yup, Pavlov realized this hence the need to increase saliva production to test digestion.

My dog is a real slobberer ( think hooch from the movie).
If he drinks from his bowl what is left is a viscous mess of saliva resembling the texture off egg whites.

Dogs don't have any to very little amylase in their saliva. If your dog eats kibble, saliva is serous (watery), if they eat meat, it's got more mucus.

Salivary glands and saliva:
http://www.vivo.colostate.edu/hbooks/pathphys/digestion/pregastric/salivary.html

Well, you blew it on dew claws. Sighthounds (and probably others) use them on tight turns.

On some breeds, I'd call them 'vestigial', they are not even connected.

Yes yeast! Every spring my dog has infected paws. Sometimes yeast, sometimes (like now) staph, sometimes both.

He also uses his dew claws for extra purchase on steep, slippery slopes and to "grasp" his Kong.

This was supposed to be a reply to #7, babysweet

Oh for crying out loud. I wasn't suggesting that your dog couldn't possibly have yeast in his feet.

I was STATING that dogs feet naturally smell like corn chips (or doritos, or popcorn depending on who you ask) and that is their natural smell. (although why, I don't know. I suppose that's like asking why corn chips smell like corn chips?)

IF you smell your dog's feet and they smell different than normal, by all means see your veterinarian.

If, however, you're sitting at home reading this and have the urge to smell your dog's feet - well, don't go rushing to the vet just because they smell like every other dog's feet. Just sayin'.

I don't know about the staph, but too much carb in a diet might well result in yeast infections. I'd think it more likely to show up in ears, but who knows?

I'd look at the % of corn in the ration I was feeding, and try to find something with a much lower protein-from-grain content. That's any grain, really.

Good luck with it! That's got to be uncomfortable for the dog.

Personally I've always wondered if they smell like corn, well, because they're eating corn!

Sure sounds reasonable to me!

I'd always heard that if a dog's feet smelled like Fritos, it meant that he/she was allergic to the corn in his/her dog food. People claim that when they switched to a non-corn containing dog good, the Frito odor went away. Go figure...

Glycoproteins. This is why it is important not to sleep during cell bio in case you have to explain things like this. It's also the same reason fish are so slippery.