WEBVTT - The Invention of Dog Biscuits 0:00:03.000 --> 0:00:06.760 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:12.760 --> 0:00:14.760 Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. My name 0:00:14.840 --> 0:00:15.400 is Robert. 0:00:15.240 --> 0:00:18.920 Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. And hey, I guess if 0:00:18.960 --> 0:00:21.959 everything is going according to plan. This is our first 0:00:22.360 --> 0:00:27.280 video episode publishing simultaneously to Netflix, though I think some 0:00:27.320 --> 0:00:29.440 of the episodes we recorded in the past few weeks 0:00:29.440 --> 0:00:32.559 are also being uploaded there. So if you are just 0:00:32.640 --> 0:00:35.560 listening to us in audio format right now, you can 0:00:35.560 --> 0:00:40.080 now find us in video podcast format on Netflix. This 0:00:40.200 --> 0:00:42.240 is brand new for us, so we kind of don't 0:00:42.280 --> 0:00:44.080 know what we're doing yet. We hope it's okay. 0:00:44.360 --> 0:00:48.040 Yeah, we're in three D to understand they had three dimensions. 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:52.040 Smell vision has also been deployed. Really, all the bells 0:00:52.040 --> 0:00:53.080 and whistles. 0:00:52.760 --> 0:00:55.080 If only we could arrange the tingler to come into 0:00:55.120 --> 0:00:55.680 all of your home. 0:00:55.760 --> 0:00:58.480 I was told the tingler option was available. Check your 0:00:58.600 --> 0:01:02.160 Netflix settings, I guess. But yeah, it's exciting here we 0:01:02.200 --> 0:01:05.480 are recording from our respective abodes. 0:01:06.240 --> 0:01:08.039 This is my dank basement. 0:01:08.920 --> 0:01:12.520 And I'm attending to you from the limitless dark void. 0:01:13.200 --> 0:01:14.000 That's where I am. 0:01:14.480 --> 0:01:15.679 Aka the guest room. 0:01:16.640 --> 0:01:19.199 Sometimes it's a guest room. Sometimes it's a limitless dark void. 0:01:19.280 --> 0:01:22.040 Yes, but hey, so we were trying to think what 0:01:22.080 --> 0:01:26.240 would be the most amazingly compelling subject matter to talk 0:01:26.240 --> 0:01:30.280 about for our first ever video format episode, and we 0:01:30.360 --> 0:01:32.000 decided to talk about dog biscuits. 0:01:32.200 --> 0:01:35.160 Yeah. I originally brought the idea up as a joke 0:01:35.240 --> 0:01:37.000 because we were like, well, can we do that's a 0:01:37.040 --> 0:01:39.920 single episode? Well, we could do an invention episode. We've 0:01:39.920 --> 0:01:42.440 done a lot of invention style episodes over the years, 0:01:42.440 --> 0:01:45.240 and we used to do an invention podcast. You can 0:01:45.240 --> 0:01:48.480 find all that wherever you get your audio podcasts. And 0:01:49.000 --> 0:01:50.680 so I was like, okay, we could do an invention 0:01:50.760 --> 0:01:52.680 and I don't know, off the cuff, I was like 0:01:52.760 --> 0:01:57.360 dog biscuits because the term is inherently funny. The actual 0:01:57.400 --> 0:02:00.760 item is, of course thoroughly mundane. But then I kept 0:02:00.760 --> 0:02:02.880 thinking about it, and then I dug into it just 0:02:02.920 --> 0:02:06.000 a tiny bit and instantly became convinced, No, this is 0:02:06.040 --> 0:02:09.079 no joke. We absolutely need to talk about dog biscuits. 0:02:09.280 --> 0:02:11.760 There is something to talk about, and hey, if you're 0:02:11.880 --> 0:02:14.480 new to our show, I guess kind of part of 0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:16.880 what we do is try to figure out what's interesting 0:02:17.040 --> 0:02:20.800 about everything, and that would everything does include dog biscuits. 0:02:20.880 --> 0:02:22.920 Yeah, we may talk about black holes one week, we 0:02:23.000 --> 0:02:27.920 may talk about you know, psychological concept or philosophical concept 0:02:27.919 --> 0:02:30.320 another week, and then it could be dog biscuits. It 0:02:30.360 --> 0:02:33.520 could be something that if you take for granted, but 0:02:33.560 --> 0:02:36.760 then when you apply a little bit of scrutiny and 0:02:36.800 --> 0:02:40.240 you dig into it, it's fascinating and is indeed mind blowing. 0:02:40.480 --> 0:02:42.600 So you're not a dog owner, but you are a 0:02:42.639 --> 0:02:45.200 cat owner. And what I've been curious about is are 0:02:45.240 --> 0:02:46.680 there cat biscuits? 0:02:48.400 --> 0:02:50.920 I mean, not so much in my experience and my experience, 0:02:50.960 --> 0:02:53.360 you have the little cat treats, which they love, and 0:02:53.400 --> 0:02:56.760 that's the I guess, the equivalent the dessert for cats. 0:02:57.720 --> 0:03:00.760 It is hard, whereas my cat's normal food is soft 0:03:00.760 --> 0:03:04.720 and wet and or absolute liquid. She's old, she gets 0:03:04.760 --> 0:03:07.560 many different types of foods at this point, but she 0:03:07.639 --> 0:03:10.320 still loves the little hard treats. But they are they're 0:03:10.360 --> 0:03:15.160 not the big like bone shaped biscuit that the big 0:03:15.360 --> 0:03:17.919 you know, the Scooby snack, the treat that we associate 0:03:17.960 --> 0:03:21.120 with dogs. That there may be products like that on 0:03:21.160 --> 0:03:22.919 the market for cats, and I'm just not aware of them. 0:03:22.960 --> 0:03:25.320 But when you go through certainly when you go through 0:03:25.560 --> 0:03:28.720 the pet store checkout line. What I'm used to seeing 0:03:28.840 --> 0:03:32.760 is that kind of cafeteria style selection of dog treats 0:03:32.800 --> 0:03:35.400 where it's like all sorts of shapes, some of them 0:03:35.600 --> 0:03:38.120 bone shaped and so forth, but others look like an 0:03:38.120 --> 0:03:41.920 oreo cookie or some sort of you know, cookies, snacks, 0:03:41.920 --> 0:03:44.960 some sort of human dessert treat, which can be very 0:03:44.960 --> 0:03:47.080 confusing if you're going through there with like a toddler 0:03:47.120 --> 0:03:49.400 and they're like, I want some of the obvious human 0:03:49.440 --> 0:03:51.160 foods here, and you're like, no, no, no, those are 0:03:51.320 --> 0:03:52.160 just for canines. 0:03:52.600 --> 0:03:55.800 This is funny because I was thinking before we started 0:03:55.800 --> 0:03:59.920 recording about how dog treats. I mean, I guess pet 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:02.920 treats in general, but you know, dog treats are sort 0:04:02.920 --> 0:04:06.120 of the big one that people think about. They're weird 0:04:06.160 --> 0:04:10.600 because they're marketed as if they're designed to appeal to dogs. 0:04:10.720 --> 0:04:13.080 So you see the commercial for them on TV or 0:04:13.080 --> 0:04:14.760 I remember the ones when I was a kid, at least, 0:04:14.760 --> 0:04:17.799 for like, do you remember the commercials for bacon strips 0:04:18.160 --> 0:04:21.600 that are dogs. Don't no, it's not bacon, it's bacon, 0:04:21.920 --> 0:04:25.520 you remember, Yeah, Yeah, So the whole thing in the 0:04:25.560 --> 0:04:28.760 commercial is they're showing you how much dogs want this 0:04:28.920 --> 0:04:31.320 treat and how good they feel when they get it. 0:04:31.880 --> 0:04:35.440 But dogs can't buy treats. They don't have credit cards, 0:04:35.480 --> 0:04:37.720 they don't have money, so they can't go get treats 0:04:37.720 --> 0:04:41.200 for themselves. Humans do all of the buying and selling 0:04:41.360 --> 0:04:45.479 of dog treats, so dog treats are actually marketed to 0:04:45.560 --> 0:04:49.720 appeal not to dogs, but to humans. So the seller 0:04:49.760 --> 0:04:53.080 has to appeal to something you might call preference by proxy. 0:04:53.680 --> 0:04:56.840 It's kind of like advertising toys to kids, you know, 0:04:56.920 --> 0:04:59.800 because kids don't usually have money to spend. I mean, 0:05:00.200 --> 0:05:02.520 you know, things been their allowance or whatever. But usually 0:05:02.600 --> 0:05:04.320 if you're trying to sell a toy to a kid, 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:06.520 you have to find a way to get the parents 0:05:06.600 --> 0:05:11.080 or caregivers to buy the toy for the kid. Except 0:05:11.240 --> 0:05:14.120 there's a difference between kids and dogs. At least with kids. 0:05:14.160 --> 0:05:17.520 After a certain age, they can tell adults what they want, 0:05:17.960 --> 0:05:21.120 So there is an added layer of complexity because the 0:05:21.200 --> 0:05:24.839 purchase is gatelocked behind a secondary decision maker. You have 0:05:24.880 --> 0:05:27.679 to appeal to the kid and then also get past 0:05:27.720 --> 0:05:31.159 the approval of the money spender. So dogs are kind 0:05:31.240 --> 0:05:34.440 of like that, except you kind of skip the primary 0:05:34.520 --> 0:05:37.920 preference holder entirely because the commercial is not for the dog. 0:05:37.960 --> 0:05:41.599 Your appeal goes straight to the buyer, and it's like, human, 0:05:41.960 --> 0:05:44.479 imagine what kind of treat you would want if you 0:05:44.560 --> 0:05:47.919 were a dog. You will almost certainly not be tasting 0:05:47.960 --> 0:05:50.960 this yourself, So you're never gonna know. You know, you 0:05:51.080 --> 0:05:53.520 just think, like, wow, my dog really liked that. But 0:05:53.720 --> 0:05:56.360 in my experience, dogs like all food that you give them, 0:05:56.440 --> 0:05:58.080 So how can you really tell. 0:05:58.640 --> 0:06:02.160 Yeah, yeah, a kid and a dog may have an 0:06:02.200 --> 0:06:05.440 actual desire for something, especially something to eat that is 0:06:05.520 --> 0:06:08.960 actually kind of gross or rather gross sometimes in the 0:06:09.000 --> 0:06:12.400 case of dogs, you know. But yeah, like you're saying 0:06:12.440 --> 0:06:15.120 it's marketed towards the human beings, and you said that 0:06:15.200 --> 0:06:18.320 humans will probably not taste it. But on the other hand, 0:06:18.520 --> 0:06:22.279 humans will generally almost taste it because humans will smell 0:06:22.360 --> 0:06:24.320 the dog food. And that's a whole point. Yeah, that's 0:06:24.320 --> 0:06:27.040 a whole important aspect of dog food design. I'm to 0:06:27.160 --> 0:06:30.400 understand is that humans do have to on some level 0:06:30.880 --> 0:06:32.960 want to eat the dog food or the cat food, 0:06:33.000 --> 0:06:34.680 or whatever the child may be. I guess it breaks 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:36.279 down a bit when you get into lizard food and 0:06:36.279 --> 0:06:39.000 so forth, but with cats and dogs, it's certainly the case. 0:06:39.279 --> 0:06:41.840 Well in the same way that the toy that is 0:06:42.040 --> 0:06:45.880 most viscerally appealing to a child may not actually pass 0:06:46.000 --> 0:06:49.520 the adult buyer test because like a lot of such 0:06:49.560 --> 0:06:52.680 toys would be extremely dangerous or detrimental to a child's 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:55.640 health or something, you know, like the child wants the 0:06:55.640 --> 0:06:59.200 bebe gun or whatever, so like you can't do that. 0:06:59.480 --> 0:07:03.200 In the same I think, what is most viscerally appealing 0:07:03.240 --> 0:07:06.440 to a dog may well not pass the human smell test. 0:07:06.920 --> 0:07:11.200 That's right, But again the humans have to buy it. Yeah, 0:07:11.960 --> 0:07:14.560 so this will all be important stuff to keep in 0:07:14.600 --> 0:07:19.480 mind as we take this journey through ultimately the deep 0:07:19.640 --> 0:07:22.520 history of dog snacks. I'd say that this was the 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:25.040 big surprise for me, not knowing anything about the history 0:07:25.080 --> 0:07:28.840 of dog treats dog biscuits, is that I really just 0:07:28.880 --> 0:07:32.680 assumed that it was a fairly recent invention. Like if 0:07:32.680 --> 0:07:34.160 you were to just quiz me on the street, I 0:07:34.160 --> 0:07:38.400 would say like, oh, I don't know, nineteen forties, nineteen fifties, 0:07:38.400 --> 0:07:42.480 something like that. But ultimately the roots go far deeper. 0:07:42.400 --> 0:07:45.240 Goes way back. Are you ready for me to talk 0:07:45.240 --> 0:07:47.080 a little bit about this paper I looked up about 0:07:47.320 --> 0:07:48.680 the science of dog snacks. 0:07:48.800 --> 0:07:51.200 Yeah, let's get into it, so I dug up a. 0:07:51.200 --> 0:07:54.360 Paper that was published in twenty twenty four in Frontiers 0:07:54.360 --> 0:07:57.920 and Animal Science called the Science of Snacks a Review 0:07:58.080 --> 0:08:04.600 of Dog Treats to review. The authors are Bogden, Alexandru Callencia, 0:08:04.960 --> 0:08:10.040 Sarana Diina, and Adrian Makri. And in this paper, the 0:08:10.080 --> 0:08:13.440 authors are doing kind of a general overview of research 0:08:13.600 --> 0:08:16.920 on the market for dog treats and associated trends in 0:08:16.960 --> 0:08:20.000 pet ownership. So they cover things like nutrition and safety 0:08:20.080 --> 0:08:23.120 in the treat sector, but also more relevant to me, 0:08:24.040 --> 0:08:28.240 they talk a bit about changes in dog owner's psychology 0:08:28.360 --> 0:08:31.440 and how that relates to the history of treat giving behavior. 0:08:32.440 --> 0:08:34.720 So just to mention a few interesting things. In their 0:08:34.760 --> 0:08:39.680 background section, they talk about how the population of companion animals, 0:08:39.679 --> 0:08:44.600 including dogs, is increasing worldwide and treats account for about 0:08:44.720 --> 0:08:47.400 fifteen percent of the total value of the US pet 0:08:47.400 --> 0:08:50.880 food market. The pet food market has grown in recent years, 0:08:50.920 --> 0:08:53.480 and the greatest sector of growth within it has been 0:08:53.559 --> 0:08:56.400 snacks and treats. So pet treats are on the come 0:08:56.480 --> 0:09:02.400 up and this reflects, they say, an evolving relationship between 0:09:02.840 --> 0:09:07.560 humans and dogs in recent decades, where dog owners of 0:09:07.559 --> 0:09:12.239 today are more likely than dog owners of previous generations 0:09:12.280 --> 0:09:17.920 to report having deep bonds and emotional relationships with their animals. 0:09:18.960 --> 0:09:21.120 And this isn't to say that you know, nobody ever 0:09:21.160 --> 0:09:24.160 had a deep feeling of companionship with the dog before today, 0:09:24.200 --> 0:09:27.640 but that more people report those kinds of feelings as 0:09:27.640 --> 0:09:30.440 time goes on, and people also reflect differences across the 0:09:30.480 --> 0:09:34.040 span of their lives, like adults now talk about their 0:09:34.120 --> 0:09:36.800 dog being a part of the family or feeling closer 0:09:36.840 --> 0:09:39.439 to their dogs now than they remember from when they 0:09:39.480 --> 0:09:43.320 were children. So it seems to be like an increasing 0:09:43.360 --> 0:09:48.080 cultural trend to have these deeper attachments to our companion animals. 0:09:48.640 --> 0:09:52.240 And this deeper attachment manifests in feeding behavior, where dog 0:09:52.280 --> 0:09:56.719 owners express their love by giving food and especially by 0:09:56.760 --> 0:09:59.960 giving treats, because food, you know that might be viewed 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:03.120 as functional or nutritional, treats are more like a gift. 0:10:03.200 --> 0:10:05.240 That's how you just really show your love that the 0:10:05.280 --> 0:10:08.280 dog's love language is, you know, bagan strips or whatever. 0:10:08.880 --> 0:10:13.040 And the authors mention one study that found that dog 0:10:13.080 --> 0:10:16.960 owners tended to believe that not giving their dogs treats 0:10:17.160 --> 0:10:21.319 was similar to not giving their children toys and believed 0:10:21.400 --> 0:10:24.400 that dog owners believed the giving of treats to be 0:10:24.480 --> 0:10:29.359 a necessary part of the human's relationship with a dog. Also, 0:10:29.440 --> 0:10:32.960 you can just notice that dog owners describe taking care 0:10:33.000 --> 0:10:35.959 of their dogs today in many of the same terms 0:10:35.960 --> 0:10:38.880 that parents use to describe caring for their kids. 0:10:40.200 --> 0:10:42.719 Now, you'll have to speak to this more since you 0:10:43.880 --> 0:10:46.000 have been a dog owner in your adult life and 0:10:46.040 --> 0:10:48.640 I have not. But treats are also an important part 0:10:48.640 --> 0:10:52.079 of just the behavior of the dog, right, and training 0:10:52.160 --> 0:10:53.840 to some extent the dog, right. 0:10:53.880 --> 0:10:57.480 I mean, I think this is a shift somewhat that 0:10:57.559 --> 0:11:03.040 treats used to be seen more as as functional rewards, 0:11:03.080 --> 0:11:05.520 as something that you would use to to you know, 0:11:05.600 --> 0:11:08.600 provide a motive or incentive to the dog to pay 0:11:08.640 --> 0:11:13.960 attention and you know, repeat good behaviors during training, and 0:11:14.080 --> 0:11:16.880 probably in past you know years, they would they would 0:11:16.960 --> 0:11:20.719 use more negative incentives as well, but more and more 0:11:20.720 --> 0:11:23.040 all the time, it seems like treats are for bonding. 0:11:23.160 --> 0:11:25.760 They are a gift given out of love to show 0:11:25.840 --> 0:11:28.280 the bond between the human and the animal and to 0:11:28.360 --> 0:11:29.520 make the animal happy. 0:11:30.280 --> 0:11:30.640 Gotcha. 0:11:31.800 --> 0:11:34.880 So the authors of this paper, they list they or 0:11:34.920 --> 0:11:37.600 they at least cite another paper that mentioned six major 0:11:37.679 --> 0:11:41.080 categories of dog treats. I love. Somebody's made the taxonomy here, 0:11:41.400 --> 0:11:47.400 so you got biscuit, bone, chew, dental meat product, and 0:11:47.559 --> 0:11:51.480 raw hide. And of biscuits specifically, they had a few notes. 0:11:51.679 --> 0:11:55.079 They say, usually made from wheat flour, baked and dried 0:11:55.160 --> 0:11:58.000 slowly in an oven, and it creates this crunchy texture. 0:11:58.360 --> 0:12:00.880 A lot of dog treats on the market today advertise 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:04.120 dental health benefits, you know, they say, like the crunching 0:12:05.040 --> 0:12:07.720 will you know? It is of such a texture that 0:12:07.800 --> 0:12:10.080 it may help clean the dog's teeth, or at least 0:12:10.120 --> 0:12:14.240 it's advertised to do that. And as of a twenty 0:12:14.280 --> 0:12:17.640 sixteen study by White at All biscuits were the most 0:12:17.720 --> 0:12:20.480 popular type of treats given to dogs in the US, 0:12:20.520 --> 0:12:23.280 accounting for seventy seven percent of all treats. So it's 0:12:23.320 --> 0:12:28.000 biscuits by a mile, and that they actually have multiple benefits, 0:12:28.040 --> 0:12:31.400 not just in what people think their dogs might want 0:12:31.440 --> 0:12:34.679 to eat, probably also in affordability compared to some other 0:12:34.720 --> 0:12:37.680 types of treats, but also dog biscuits tend to have 0:12:37.679 --> 0:12:40.720 a long shelf life because of their low moisture content. 0:12:40.800 --> 0:12:42.599 It's kind of like hard tack that you'd give to 0:12:42.640 --> 0:12:43.680 an army on the road. 0:12:44.200 --> 0:12:47.480 Have you, in fact, ever in your life attempted to 0:12:47.520 --> 0:12:48.960 take a little nibble off of a dog treat. 0:12:49.240 --> 0:12:52.280 No, I never have, because I did as a child. 0:12:52.320 --> 0:12:54.160 Really we did, even without a dog. 0:12:54.360 --> 0:12:55.960 No. No, we had a dog when I was a kid. 0:12:56.000 --> 0:12:57.600 But we were a kid. Okay, yeah, what is that? 0:12:57.720 --> 0:12:59.920 A different era of dog ownership? You know, this is 0:13:00.320 --> 0:13:02.720 the dog that lived outdoors and we lived in the country. 0:13:03.400 --> 0:13:05.840 But I at some point just had to sort of like, 0:13:06.040 --> 0:13:08.240 you know, at least stick my tongue to it and see, like, 0:13:08.960 --> 0:13:10.840 is this something that a human could eat? No, they 0:13:10.880 --> 0:13:14.720 could not, but I think you could. You can understand 0:13:14.840 --> 0:13:18.880 why someone might be tempted. In part, I blame Scooby 0:13:18.880 --> 0:13:22.760 Doo because Shaggy would eat Scooby snacks as well for 0:13:22.800 --> 0:13:25.040 some reason, right, but also. 0:13:25.320 --> 0:13:28.000 For some reason, And what was that reason. 0:13:28.240 --> 0:13:30.120 Because I don't know he liked he just liked him. 0:13:30.120 --> 0:13:32.520 I don't know it was their incentive for solving crimes. 0:13:33.320 --> 0:13:37.080 But I think the thing to drive home here, and 0:13:37.120 --> 0:13:40.200 you touched on this already talking about the composition of 0:13:40.240 --> 0:13:43.520 the dog treats is that they are bread. They are 0:13:43.600 --> 0:13:47.600 a bread product, and bread is for humans. So like 0:13:47.679 --> 0:13:49.760 we can't help but think we recognize it on some 0:13:49.920 --> 0:13:53.160 level as being human food, even though it is so 0:13:53.320 --> 0:13:58.720 incredibly hard that it is not, among other reasons inadvisable 0:13:58.760 --> 0:14:00.000 that we attempt to consume it. 0:14:00.320 --> 0:14:04.520 Yeah, not suited to human taste. So I have never 0:14:04.600 --> 0:14:08.760 tried a dog treat or dog food. But I was 0:14:08.800 --> 0:14:11.679 actually just talking to my wife Rachel before we recorded today, 0:14:11.679 --> 0:14:15.040 and it came up. We're like, did you ever try 0:14:15.040 --> 0:14:17.400 a dog treat? And she has. She did it actually 0:14:17.480 --> 0:14:21.760 when she was a kid. She proposed to her little sister. 0:14:22.240 --> 0:14:24.480 She said, hey, will you give me fifty cents if 0:14:24.520 --> 0:14:27.320 I eat this? Actually I don't remember. She said it 0:14:27.360 --> 0:14:29.200 was a piece of dog kibble or a dog treat. 0:14:29.360 --> 0:14:32.880 It was one or the other. And her sister was like, okay, 0:14:32.920 --> 0:14:36.280 I guess I will. And so she started to eat it, 0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:38.280 but it was so disgusting she couldn't finish it. But 0:14:38.360 --> 0:14:40.640 she ate half of it. So she made her little 0:14:40.640 --> 0:14:43.200 sister pay her twenty five cents. Oh wow, it seems 0:14:43.240 --> 0:14:44.000 only fair. 0:14:46.480 --> 0:14:48.520 That one could have. Really, that could have become tied 0:14:48.600 --> 0:14:51.040 up in legal proceedings there, like it technically didn't eat 0:14:51.040 --> 0:14:53.160 the whole treat or the whole kibble. But no, okay, 0:14:53.240 --> 0:14:54.160 everyone left happy. 0:14:54.400 --> 0:14:56.840 This is why you get everything in writing before do 0:14:57.000 --> 0:15:10.280 deals like this, you know. So thinking about these changes 0:15:10.480 --> 0:15:15.240 in dog treats and pet treats generally, it brought me 0:15:15.280 --> 0:15:18.200 to another thing. So I was reading more generally about 0:15:18.240 --> 0:15:21.600 how there is research on growing trends in the pet 0:15:21.640 --> 0:15:28.080 food market that point out this increasing trend toward anthropomorphization 0:15:28.440 --> 0:15:30.800 in dog treats. Or maybe that's not the right word. 0:15:31.080 --> 0:15:33.400 That might imply the dog treats are taking human form. 0:15:33.440 --> 0:15:37.080 But dog treats, instead of taking human form, taking the 0:15:37.120 --> 0:15:41.240 form of human food. So you would have treats with 0:15:41.440 --> 0:15:46.440 visual design, naming, and supposedly flavor. But who's going to know, 0:15:47.640 --> 0:15:50.600 I guess unless you try it yourself. You know, supposedly 0:15:50.640 --> 0:15:54.760 flavor that is said to mimic human foods, so you 0:15:54.800 --> 0:15:57.640 can think of little doggy pizza bites. I was looking 0:15:57.640 --> 0:16:00.200 some of these up before we started. You know, it's 0:16:00.240 --> 0:16:03.160 not gonna be like human pizza. Instead, it's some kind 0:16:03.160 --> 0:16:06.800 of biscuit like thing that looks like human pizza. I 0:16:06.840 --> 0:16:11.680 found one that was advertising something called a Margurrita flavor, 0:16:12.960 --> 0:16:17.160 and you know, little doggy tacos and little doggy hamburgers 0:16:17.240 --> 0:16:19.680 and all that kind of stuff. And then so that's 0:16:19.720 --> 0:16:23.320 like dog treats made out of normal dog treat stuff 0:16:23.480 --> 0:16:26.720 shaped and made to look like human foods. And then 0:16:26.760 --> 0:16:30.680 you can also think about these dog friendly versions of 0:16:31.080 --> 0:16:35.200 human treats, like dog ice cream. Obviously it's a different 0:16:35.240 --> 0:16:37.920 formula here. You know, dogs do not need that much sugar. 0:16:38.360 --> 0:16:40.200 I mean, I guess humans don't either, but you know, 0:16:40.320 --> 0:16:42.920 dogs really shouldn't need that much sugar, so you know, 0:16:43.000 --> 0:16:45.320 you don't give them human ice cream. There's like a 0:16:45.320 --> 0:16:48.360 special dog ice cream. And then the pop cup phenomenon. 0:16:48.400 --> 0:16:49.160 Have you heard about this? 0:16:49.440 --> 0:16:50.400 No, what's a pop cup? 0:16:50.680 --> 0:16:52.760 I think it's like I've never gotten one of these, 0:16:52.800 --> 0:16:55.480 but I've heard of them. It's like certain places do 0:16:55.560 --> 0:16:57.960 drive throughs. I think maybe Starbucks would do this where 0:16:58.120 --> 0:17:01.560 they will create it's like a whip cream type treat 0:17:01.560 --> 0:17:03.520 in a cup that you get for your dog that's 0:17:03.560 --> 0:17:05.960 riding in the car with you, and you give it 0:17:05.960 --> 0:17:08.520 to them and they lick up all the cream. And 0:17:09.080 --> 0:17:12.520 even the best thing I came across while doing this 0:17:12.680 --> 0:17:16.719 was dog beer. All right, people don't feed your dog's 0:17:16.800 --> 0:17:20.000 real beer. It's not good for dogs. They shouldn't have alcohol. 0:17:20.840 --> 0:17:25.480 But there are fully marketed dog beers sold in cans 0:17:25.560 --> 0:17:29.680 that look like beer cans. For example, Bush Dog Brew. 0:17:30.320 --> 0:17:33.280 It's not beer, there's no alcohol in it. Instead, it's 0:17:33.359 --> 0:17:36.160 like a meat broth thing with such you know, this 0:17:36.240 --> 0:17:39.440 is like turkey broth with sweet potatoes in it or something. 0:17:40.680 --> 0:17:45.680 And I think stuff like this appeals to people because 0:17:45.680 --> 0:17:47.840 it allows you to bring the dog in. You know, 0:17:48.160 --> 0:17:51.400 these are not just like things we consume for nutrition. 0:17:51.680 --> 0:17:54.639 You're not going out for ice cream or drinking beer 0:17:54.680 --> 0:17:58.040 for nutritional value. It's like a social ritual that you 0:17:58.119 --> 0:18:00.359 do with friends or that you do with family. And 0:18:00.400 --> 0:18:04.159 because people increasingly see their dogs as a friend or 0:18:04.200 --> 0:18:06.800 as part of the family, you feel like you need 0:18:06.840 --> 0:18:11.720 to include them in these, you know, consume consumptive social rituals. 0:18:12.119 --> 0:18:15.000 Yeah. Absolutely. Another big one I'm to understand is if 0:18:15.000 --> 0:18:17.360 you have a birthday party for a dog, you want 0:18:17.440 --> 0:18:20.040 a dog birthday cake. Like, just a mile and a 0:18:20.080 --> 0:18:23.320 half from me, there is a dedicated dog bakery. I've 0:18:23.359 --> 0:18:25.760 driven past it a million times, but I had to 0:18:25.800 --> 0:18:27.560 look at their website for the first time, and sure enough, 0:18:27.600 --> 0:18:31.080 you can just straight up birthday cakes for dogs. Dog 0:18:31.119 --> 0:18:34.679 friendly birthday cakes, as you pointed out, but still like 0:18:34.800 --> 0:18:37.879 full blown birthday cakes. And as I was researching this episode, 0:18:37.880 --> 0:18:39.960 I was just seeing like dog biscuits and fancy dog 0:18:40.000 --> 0:18:42.120 treats everywhere. Like I went into a coffee shop and 0:18:42.359 --> 0:18:44.000 I was like, oh, man, there are as many dog 0:18:44.040 --> 0:18:47.280 treats in here as there are human treats. Yeah, I 0:18:47.320 --> 0:18:49.040 mean I assume they were human treats. Maybe those are 0:18:49.080 --> 0:18:52.840 dog treats too, Maybe I was in the wrong establishment. 0:18:53.840 --> 0:18:57.520 But my espresso did not taste of turkey broths, so 0:18:57.560 --> 0:18:58.439 I guess it was all right. 0:18:59.520 --> 0:19:03.159 Before our dog passed away a few years ago, you know, 0:19:03.200 --> 0:19:05.360 he was like many dogs and that he would eat 0:19:05.400 --> 0:19:09.280 basically anything, so it was sometimes hard to distinguish, like 0:19:09.359 --> 0:19:12.760 what the really highly desired foods are, because it's all 0:19:12.840 --> 0:19:16.000 highly desired unless it's I remember, I guess one time 0:19:16.040 --> 0:19:18.320 I dropped a klipino pepper on the floor and he 0:19:18.600 --> 0:19:20.600 picked it up in his mouth and took a bite 0:19:20.680 --> 0:19:22.640 and then just kind of dropped it. So he never 0:19:22.680 --> 0:19:25.840 wanted that. But you eat almost anything else, I mean, 0:19:25.920 --> 0:19:28.280 whatever he found out on a walk, you know, to 0:19:28.560 --> 0:19:32.200 discarded chicken bones, that's delicious, of course, But he really 0:19:32.280 --> 0:19:33.000 loved carrots. 0:19:33.840 --> 0:19:38.960 Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, Well we'll get into the really 0:19:39.000 --> 0:19:45.040 fascinating history of the changing dietary habits of the domesticated dog. 0:19:45.119 --> 0:19:49.560 But I guess we should again point out what is 0:19:49.560 --> 0:19:51.880 a biscuit a dog biscuit in the modern sense. Again, 0:19:51.920 --> 0:19:55.200 we're talking about a dry, hard, generally flower based biscuit, 0:19:55.640 --> 0:19:57.600 and we should point out that we're, of course, when 0:19:57.600 --> 0:20:01.800 we say biscuit, we're really lean more towards the the 0:20:02.000 --> 0:20:05.160 British use of the term biscuit, which is like a cookie, 0:20:06.200 --> 0:20:10.280 as opposed to biscuits in the US and parts of Canada, 0:20:10.320 --> 0:20:14.840 where it is like a fluffier quick bread. Though if 0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:16.800 you ask dogs they'll be like, give me the fluffy 0:20:16.840 --> 0:20:20.320 quick bread. I will also eat that. Now, as we've 0:20:20.359 --> 0:20:24.080 been pointing out, the dog biscuit is generally not considered 0:20:24.080 --> 0:20:27.200 the primary food source. It's an extra, it's the dessert, 0:20:27.960 --> 0:20:30.639 like to your point, part of the bonding process between 0:20:30.680 --> 0:20:37.560 a contemporary dog person and their dog. It's not altogether necessary. 0:20:37.640 --> 0:20:42.320 The domestic dog is a meat leaning, opportunistic omnivore. They 0:20:42.400 --> 0:20:45.120 lean meat eater and meat scavenger. But due to their 0:20:45.160 --> 0:20:49.840 long association with human beings, the human beings that domesticated them, 0:20:49.960 --> 0:20:54.359 they've acquired the genes necessary for increased starch consumption. So 0:20:54.400 --> 0:20:58.120 in other words, they've adapted to eat human scraps, human 0:20:58.160 --> 0:21:02.160 table scraps, they've come to cast off bits of vegetables, 0:21:02.480 --> 0:21:07.200 especially things like lagoons, grains, and of course that towering 0:21:07.560 --> 0:21:11.879 human food technology bread. A reminder here, we've talked about 0:21:12.080 --> 0:21:13.800 bread plenty of times on the show before. In the 0:21:13.800 --> 0:21:19.040 invention of bread, if you will, bread actually predates human agriculture. 0:21:19.280 --> 0:21:22.159 One hundred gatherers made bread in the neighborhood of like 0:21:22.200 --> 0:21:26.439 fourteen thousand years ago. Dog domestication is even older than this, 0:21:27.040 --> 0:21:29.639 dating back depending on how you're crunching the numbers, what 0:21:29.680 --> 0:21:32.879 twenty thousand to forty thousand years. And of course this 0:21:32.960 --> 0:21:36.000 is another reason that the idea of the invention of 0:21:36.040 --> 0:21:39.600 the dog biscuit, or really any dedicated dog chow might 0:21:39.640 --> 0:21:43.600 seem like something without anything besides twentieth century roots, right, 0:21:43.680 --> 0:21:48.080 because these are creatures that have adapted over time to 0:21:48.200 --> 0:21:50.560 just eat what we are eating, or eat what we 0:21:50.760 --> 0:21:55.320 didn't eat. But along the way these treats emerge for 0:21:56.320 --> 0:21:59.360