I watched an article this morning on breakfast TV which said that researchers had discovered that you can contract a deadly disease from stroking a dog, this disease causes paralysis and somtimes death.

I think some people in this country are determined to make it a nation of anti dog people!!

It is a well known fact that stroking a dog relaxes a person and even lowers the blood pressure. What will become of the PAT dogs if this causes a scare??

Contract a deadly disease:o In one of the dog mag's this month there's an article stating that owning dogs actually strengthens the immune system- and kids who own dogs have less time off scholl with illnesses etc! Don't quote any of that word for word though- I haven't got the mag in front of me- it's defignately something along those lines though:)

Stacey x x x

What ever next:( are they going to say. It costs me like other good owners pounds and pounds
to keep my dog wormed free from flees and well groomed .why don't they leave the dog's alone
Pat xx

I saw this,too. Considering all the stroking and patting that's been going on for thousands of years, it's amazing there's any humans left.

LOL @Joyce :D
And just think of all those human faces that have been licked and slobbered over, (definatley an E.L.E !)

I read about this in the paper today; they claim that the campylobacter bug is caused by dogs - and warn parents that kids must alwasy wash hands after touching a dog.

Apparently the campylobacter incidents are growing, and they don't seem to have a huge amount of evidnece, but are putting it all down to dogs.....how many of us have had it after handling dogs for most of our lives!!!

Lindsay

Well my Daughter who will be 4 in November has been stroking the dogs since she was able and she has never caught anything yet from them and she dosen't wash her hands everytime she strokes them if she did she would spend the whole day at the sink.

Now if my sister in law reads this in the paper will have her saying told you dogs are filth and mess ( she is not a doglover )

Karen

Unfortunately because of the lack of common sense in the minority dog lovers yet again are going to suffer.

My children don't always wash their hands after they've stroked Holly only if they're about to eat but I discourage them from allowing Holly to lick their faces. Afterall, she licks her bum with that tongue :D :D :D

There will always be those people who are anti dog, you only have to look at the number of parks that are dog free zones now and the restrictions on public beaches.

Fiona
x x x

Fiona,

What can I say my dogs lick my Daughters face even so I know they been licking there bits but I have a Lab and choc around the chops on my Daughter is to much for a Lab to resist also Daughter dosen't help matters as she finds it funny to be washed by the dog.

Karen

Well I've got 2 teenage daughters 18 & 16, bought up with dogs, one even used to share the dogs food and they rarely had time off school, and seem much more resistant to illness then friends who don't have pets.
Does this mean PAT dogs will become a thing of the past too ? Ingrid

One of the reasons I got my first dog was so that my children could grow up with a dog in the house, learn to respect it, and other animals, and not be scared. We are not manic over making the children wash after touching the dogs. And as a family we are hardly ever ill, I don't even have colds very often. Now it seems they are a danger to our health - another way the anti dog brigade will try to deny us the pleasure of our most faithful friends.
I firmly believe that we damage our lives by trying to be too clean. Yes, hygiene is important, I would never deny that, but there is apparently evidence that all the antibacterial cleaning products now available are actually undermining our immune systems' ability to do what it should. We all need to be exposed to bugs that are very common place to boost our immune system.
It is worrying that this report could have an effect on the wonderful work the PAT dogs do.
sas

Could not agree with you more SAS. I've said on here before that we are killing both our selves and our dogs by creating serile conditions. As you say, we have no immunity to the kind of things which were common place just a few years ago.

Regards, John

I agree with you both. Today we have had our first appointment with the Asthma nurse following my son's near death experience two weeks a go (yes we've been to see the GP following the emergency treatment) for an assessment on him and on how to manage it. For this we had to answer a variety of questions. One of which included 'do you have any pets' well all 3 of us laughed (we have a few:D) Of course the dog was mentioned, well you'd think I had a murdering axeman living here;). Now don't get me wrong I have the deepest symapthy for children/people who are alergic. But my son has lived with this dog since he was 15 months (son that is not the dog:) ) he has had one (very serious I grant you) attack and all of a sudden she making 'implications' that the dog won't help etc. OK I know allergies can appear at any age (it did for my brother) BUT there is no indication what so ever that our problem is to do with the dog (pollen on the other hand has a lot to answer for:D) but imagine if I were a reactionary type Mum what would be happening now????
Anita

Reefer

Have had similar experiences with Asthma clinicians and I'm afraid they got short shrift from this Asthma sufferer.

They implied that 'all my animals were a major trigger' neither myself or my daughters had any health problems before a misdiagnosed chest infection in 97 the Asthma started then. I was told I HAD to rid my house of all feathered and furry beasties to which I said NO.

After 40 plus years around animals of many shapes and sizes and another 25 plus handrearing and incubating parrots and the whole of their lives for the girls around all of the above, including sharing meals with dogs, cats, birds etc, I am sure if they were related to the Asthma we'd all have been sick a lot earlier!

A couple of weeks ago my GP did comment on the fact that my eldest daughter was no a lot worse since she left home and went to Uni! Sort of made a mockery of their theory as she's not allowed any animals in the block or rooms. In her first year she's had 5 lots of tonsilitus (sp), 6 Asthma attacks that have warranted hospital treatment and 4 chest infections!

There is a similar scare with cats 'causing' toxoplasmosis which can damage a fetus in utero. In fact research shows that the majority of toxoplasmosis is caught from infected meat or other risk factors but still most pregnant women worry more about contact with cats than from meat.

There's also the ancient myth of a cat sucking a infant or child's breath away whilst sleeping that still is bandied about today :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

did that old myth not come from an old film .Cat on the bed near a small child taking the childs
breath ?? :)I remember the film well had a little devil creature in the film that wanted the childs breath !!
so the cat killed it and then the cat had the breath ????

PAT XX

Oh I remember that film!! Quite scary, the nasty little creature came out of the skirting board I think, and the cat killed it by whacking it into a fan that was switched on. Don't remember the bit about the cat taking the child's breath - thought the cat was the hero?? It's a film with 'short stories' on a cat theme.
sas

Myth first -- Movie second. :rolleyes: Seriously, I think it was in the bunch of ancient stories that the Grimm brothers collected.

There is the same myth about weasels in Ireland Sara

Read your post with interest!!
My son is asthamtic but his has become almost non-existent since we have had dogs.
I developed an allergy to the dogs after about a month of having them but hey whats an anti-histamine to take every day??? when I also get hayfever.
I have a thyroid condition so itmakes no odds to me to take another tablet.
I find it all rubbish!! We are becoming a nation of neurotic hypochondriacs.

TD