Doggy Doo is Good For You?

Well maybe not quite.
I heard on the radio this morning that dogs can inoculate babies against respiratory illness and ear infections.
A recent study in Finland of 400 babies in their first year showed that if a pet is present particularly a dog and one that lives both inside and outside it can expose children to bacteria that they may not normally have around. Our houses are disinfected too much and hygiene is a bit overboard in todays homes. Children are also less likely to be outside in the dirt as they once were.
The study will be continued in the US on a wide age group.
So let's not worry too much on our pooch wiping their paws before they come inside and we can also be let off on some of that house cleaning.

 

No, I don't think we should start letting our dogs into the house with muddy paws. There should be enough bacteria taking a piggy-back ride on their furs. Also, there is no research to show that dog poop is good for human consumption.

 

The poop thing was just a throw away tag to get attention.
Living in the bush we feel our dirt is not as bad as the muck the city can stick on your shoes. I could never now walk bare foot myself in the city but I have no problem walking around here.

 

You are very brave then. I used to walk around in the jungle and I still wear my boots all the time. There are such things as hook worms and tape worms lurking in the underbush where I used to live. Leeches, too, of course.

 

We are very fortunate here as the climate is temperate and those kind of nasties are not about. We have leeches and ticks but not a huge problem. My theory is if you live in the temperature of a refrigerator you should be preserved for quite a long time. The temperature at my home lately is lucky to rise higher than 7C during the day and at the moment at 10.00am it's 3C. I gather if you lay down on the jungle floor in those hotter humid places you will start to decompose rather fast.

 

Of course, I will decompose rather fast if I am already dead. In hot humid places, the eggs of many parasites also hatch faster. I have seen Blue Bottle flies lay eggs in an animal carcass and in just a few days, the maggots have completely consumed the entire carcass.

 

I think it might be a really good thing to grow up in dogs company. I didn't have any dogs around me when I was a child - nor other animals - and I suffered from allergies for most of my childhood. Any exaggeration isn't good in my opinion though.

 

Same here. I was an asthmatic all my young life and I had no pets at home. When I did leave home I started having dogs as pets and my asthma is no longer anywhere what it was like. Our house is dusty with dog fur and it's no problem at all. What does affect me still is cigarette smoke.

 

First of all that was a disgusting subject, but then it did get my attention, so I guess it served its purpose. Anyway I won't deny that its probably true that humans need a certain amount of germs and dirt around them to keep them healthy, as strange as that may sound. However, do I think its a good idea to carry it to extremes in other words live around filth to a great degree. I still think its important to make sure that your dogs don't track mud through the home and to also vacuum after a dog leaves to get most of the fur off the rug.

 

I think that no one here is trying to convince anyone that dirt is good. Personally, I hate when my house is in a mess, I like cleaning up. But dogs are animals, they don't take a bath every day, they roll in the grass - when you pet your dog or let it sit on your lap, you are exposed to different kinds of bacterias - it's probably not enough to hurt you, but it's enough to improve your immune system.

 

I live in a rural area where bringing in dirt is so easy.We have chickens ranging outside and native wild animals which graze around the house at night dropping their doo doo's everywhere. We take boots and shoes off at the door but my furry friend comes in and out so often that our floors need to be swept regularly. With the dirt, is lots of dog fluff. I guess we have lived with it for so long that we now really don't care too much.The only illness I ever get are colds and flu which comes from when I visit my rural town. More nasty germs live away from my home.

 

I think there's a little merit to this, but not so much to let the dog come in covered in dog mess and the like; what comes in on their fur WITHOUT them rolling in the mud, is more likely to be the sort of thing that can build up immunity. Living in a sterile environment only serves to keep people away from bugs and such, however it doesn't do much to build their immune system.