0:00 well you talk about relationships and you know it is so true as in your intro there is a very strong relationship that people have with their pets uh actually called the human animal bond how do how do we deal with making sure we can take care of the responsibility of a dog number one and then the related question is would you share your thoughts about getting you know a dog from an animal shelter as opposed to say um you know a breeder or a you know whatever who are you and where are you going
0:37 what do you want together we'll find the ideal path on the way to wow show with your host kevin bemel so we have something a little bit different on this episode of the way to wow show we're going to be working in the relationship realm in the mental pillar of the three pillars of attainment but today my guest dr jeff werber is going to be talking about the relationship we have with our pets now hold on hold on i know some of you are thinking oh come on you don't have a relationship with an animal
1:13 ladies and gentlemen this is the year 2021 and as hokey as you may think it sounds for some people the closest relationship they have is with someone something that's not human and i think we just need to acknowledge that that dogs cats whatever we can actually develop a bond with them and that bond is important to us hopefully we've learned that from the whole covet experience so i'm i'm very interested to talk to dr jeff and get his thoughts about this
1:49 this particular subject but first our bartender will cutting is going to make a cocktail all right kevin well thank you again for having me back i really really appreciate it my pleasure very much excited for today's subject matter because myself as a dog owner i thought that i would base something on my own relationship with my dog so we have a thai ridgeback so i used a lot of thailand inspired items so i've got some some thai basil some lemongrass and especially to give it a nice little kick some thai chili peppers so i've already made a little concoction where i've extracted a lot of the the thai chilies and the lemongrass
2:24 and i just let it sit in basically boiling sugar water for about 10 minutes to pull those flavors out strain it so we have this here what is left so i'm gonna make two of these for you guys at the same time so i'll be doubling up the cocktail recipes and the first thing i want to do is just get these glasses chilling because we want it to be good and ready for once we're ready to have that cocktail to be already nice and cold and not water it down any more than we already won't have it so that guy going beautiful okay and now
3:00 i'm gonna be adding three quarters of my thai chili lemongrass concoction uh but since we're doubling up the recipe it's gonna be an ounce and a half for this perfect [Music] i am missing one of my shakers tins there we go oh you that came sorry i am missing the there it is i left it in the ice bucket so we're good [Laughter] sometimes your small shaker becomes your ice scoop and you just have to adapt and overcome we're gonna be fine so uh from that we're using three quarters of lime juice freshly squeezed
3:36 and again we will be doubling that up for two cocktails so we're going up to a total of an ounce and a half almost there [Music] beautiful that and then i i like to add some of my lime and spice a little bit of a funk to it and it definitely helps stretch that flavor out and kind of tie everything together so we're using luxardo mercino cherry liqueur and it is a very old recipe and it's got these beautiful cherry flavors but a lot of unique like kind of funkiness that
4:12 ties it all together and just makes something very unique and i'm only putting a quarter ounce per cocktail so it's gonna be a half ounce all together for both cocktails and that's all we're gonna need so i've got the ice in there i put in um several basil leaves in the shaker already i don't rip them up i don't mash them down all you really need to do is just wake them up a little bit and all those beautiful aromatics just come flying off of it so we just put that there in the shaker with that after we had the most important part the two ounces of our los angeles vodka i tell you i always build my cocktails
4:47 from the cheapest ingredients the most expensive so if i ever forget something often it's the alcohol so you will know right away and it's also the least expensive thing that you can mess up with so that's why i do it that way um but yes so now we've got two ounces of our los angeles vodka we have three quarters lime juice we have three quarters of the thai uh chili lemongrass and then a little and a quarter ounce of luxado for each cocktail and i guess this one is spicy like i've got some really powerful thai chilies in there so i'm going to lengthen it out just a little bit with some soda water and we've already
5:22 got those beautiful flavors in there it's not going to go anywhere it can definitely take a little bit of lengthening let me go with just a little bit more icing and it's already smelling just wonderful and delicious and all of those bright thailand flavors and aromatics are just popping beautifully off of that so a little bit of soda just to lighten it up it'll probably dampen some of that spice because i definitely like mine with a kick but you should also give it just a little a little bit of a mix to make sure those flavors are consistent throughout the drink
5:58 and then because i like it to look pretty and to smell pretty we're going to put a little bit more basil in there again we're just going to smack it just to wake it up those guys in there and then let's put a little lemongrass why not some thai chilies just for fun and a little bit of color yeah that's looking beautiful so since this one is inspired after my dog kaya the thai ridgeback i have made these which i have called my little ridgeback oh these are beautiful cheers yeah i hope you enjoy yeah thanks so much they look great i'm sure dr jeff is gonna love this i hope so my pleasure
6:33 you guys enjoy thanks well absolutely [Music] so our bartender will cutting made this he calls it my little ridgeback because he has a thai ridgeback i guess that's a breed of dog right right you would know better than me right so i don't you want to let's give it a try here cheers oh it has that bite oh yeah perfect for a veterinarian i not only i get it from the four-legged animals i get it from the drink the cocktail as well yeah that's great oh but it's good it sure is yeah i like that yum yum okay
7:11 dogs dogs cats animals yes i'm going to read a short biography about you so people so people know who you are i'm going to you know try not to embarrass you okay well i mean a little bit a little bit maybe okay so dr jeff werber has been a veterinarian for over 35 years pushed in 38 pretty soon 38 and there you go he is also a host and segment writer for pet care television network as well as for ask the vets with dr jeff his weekly syndicated radio show on iheart's pet life radio in december of 1997 jeff became the pet
7:46 expert for c uh cbs news in los angeles where he was awarded an emmy for his pet reporting and that's pretty cool that's pretty impressive yeah he is currently a frequent contributor to cnn entertainment cbs kcal los angeles ktla and inside edition and uh you are a native los angeles well we came here in 1962 because interestingly my dad was an actor oh okay well so you live here in los angeles with your wife you have three grown children three grandchildren four grandchildren
8:21 and one on the way another one on the way and uh nine pets at last ten ten ten pets yeah wow kind of crazy huh yeah well it's hard for a veterinarian to say no when you're you know you do i do a lot of rescue work and when they you see that cute little dog or cat come in and needs a home how do you say no to that well so this is this is the problem when i was stationed in okinawa with the navy um my wife got involved with a local animal rescue organization i never knew what i was going to be encountering when i got home from work that we must have fostered i think 10 or 15 pets the best
8:56 but it was you know she really enjoyed it it gave a lot of meaning well you talk about relationships and you know it is so true as in your intro there is a very strong relationship that people have with their pets uh we actually called the human animal bond and sometimes that bond is even stronger you know times people have told me as they're they're signing out from that day's visit they go you know bowser i spend more on you than i spent on my kids uh it is true it's because we have this that unconditional love and you know there is so much now science about as a coin a friend of mine
9:32 coined the healing power of pets so when you think about the relationship it's what what they do for us and it's so interesting what i find is pets can read us way better than we can read them and they read our emotions they can tell whether we're happy you know because you know i we we underestimate the ability of pets who have a sense of smell that is 50 times ours we have about four to five million or you know nasal receptors in our noses
10:07 okay and they have about 250 million wow wow so and so through their their sense of smell they detect emotion of course and now that's why they're detecting cancer they're detecting kovid they can actually in some sports arenas as they were beginning to open up they actually had dogs there that were trained to pick up the scent of covet wow and the dogs did better than the blood testing or the saliva testing oh that's that's it's just unbelievable it is unbelievable and
10:43 that's and that's you know why they become so much of a part of our daily being i often joke that if i had a bed bigger than a california king i could get more pets our sleep episode would say no no no but i understand my dog our dog sleeps in you know in the bed with my wife and me yeah uh so you know it's it's it's uh you know i to hear this as a veterinarian i i love it in fact i i have rolled down my window if i see someone driving and this is folks don't do this at home but you know when you're driving with your
11:18 pet they should be you know confined to either a harness or a carrier but i've seen people driving and their pet is on their lap and as they're driving that pet is licking them in the face and i and i want to pull down when i say i said you you that makes my heart so happy you know because i'm a veterinarian when i see that that makes me very happy so let's kind of get into some of the the nitty-gritty of it right there's there's i don't know hundreds of let's focus on dogs for now hundreds of breeds of dogs or thousands i don't know whatever the number is certainly hundreds a couple of three hundred or something so how do we know
11:55 what is the right pet for us you know there's so many criteria that i asked people to look for number one is you have to look at your lifestyle how much time we really truly have for the pet how much room do you have for a pet um and uh do you have children uh do you are you allergic do you mind if the pets you know are in your home all day do you have an outdoor area for your pets so the first thing you have to do is it does it shed is it allergenic is it very active am i going to have the time can i groom it on a regular basis you know brushing it on a regular basis
12:30 i mean it's a responsibility there's no doubt about it that it's a privilege to have a pet and share your home with a pet but it's also a responsibility are you going to get help from your kids or typically the scenario is the kids oh god this grandma we're going to get a puppy yeah yeah yeah you know they don't do a darn thing with that right you end up doing all the walks all the cleanup so so it's such his life um but but they the the the joy that they bring to a household is great now there are studies now that show that kids that grow up in a household with pets score higher on the iq test and get better grades and are focused so
13:07 i as i always say you're better off getting the terrier than the tutor um because you know and then how about our health you think about the the the again the healing power that brings down cholesterol it decreases our blood pressure just petting a pet a dog or a cat just petting it just petting it so not even taking it out for walks petting it will lower your blood pressure and of course if you then start taking a walk so again you know i think is get the labrador instead of the lipitor because you know you anything that you can do that's gonna actually help um and uh and of course when it comes to
13:42 anxiety uh and and people dealing with stress and you know in your position as you know a lot of stress is going on especially with covet especially in families and it's not easy raising kids and um that they show that the one of the best anxiety relievers is a pet so get that poodle instead of the prozac i mean it's a you know so when you think about all these great things they they really do bring so much into our homes and i can't imagine when i see and i'll talk to people with family you know if family says give me
14:17 pets when they hear my veterinarian the first question i would ask they go no i said how do you you need to get a pet it it'll change the whole dynamic of the family for positive and uh you know i think it's it's those that don't have it i believe are missing out yeah i mean so my wife brought two dogs to our marriage um and we've had at least one dog sometimes a lot more our whole marriage except for a short period between when our two dogs died and we had to mourn for them frankly for a little while and then and then get you know another dog
14:52 um but even then she fostered a few dogs and you know um so you talked about the responsibility of of a pet and and this is where i have some concern because it seems like so many pets people will just go and and they'll get a dog and then and then you know the dog is too much work and then they and we saw this in okinawa a lot people were getting sent back to say they just kicked the dog out the door right so how do how do we deal with
15:27 making sure we can take care of the responsibility of a dog number one and then the related question is would you share your thoughts about getting you know a dog from an animal shelter as opposed to say um you know a breeder or you know whatever so um the answer is that first of all it's all about preparation um knowledge so it's very important to to read up on on the basics of pet care so you know the the the those certain things that you're just gonna have to do you have to feed it you have to save some money for veterinary care um you need to take them out for the walks um it's that bonding time uh
16:04 maybe on a sunday take them to the dog park i mean there are things that you can do which again if you can you know get to a park yourself and start throwing that frisbee or the tennis ball or you know that's good for your health as well as as a dog's health and well-being um so i think preparation and is and knowledge is is paramount when it comes to that um then don't think that there's nothing in life that's perfect so you know you are going to have challenges uh we have challenges with our kids we don't return our kids sometimes you might think about it but don't don't go there and um
16:39 at least with grandkids you can't send them back home right oh my god that's great grandkids are seeking revenge on your children so um but uh you know so when it comes to this relinquishing these animals i think it's in a way to cop out however interestingly when you're dealing with rescue dogs as opposed to shelter dogs you basically sign something it says if it doesn't work out then then you bring it back to us oh okay because they don't want you taking that pet and bringing it to a shelter you see i didn't realize there you know
17:15 the difference between a rescue dog and a shelter dog i mean i probably should my wife you know she's gonna how do you not know that kind of thing um but then you also mention dog breeders so what are the sort of advantages or disadvantages of these different sources for getting a pet so when you well first of all price uh you go to a breeder i mean you know you're a cute little frenchie right seven thousand dollars oh yeah it's they're very expensive but at least with a pure breed dog you kind of know what you're getting you can see the parents hopefully now as a just as a precaution there are a lot
17:51 of breeders now that are using brokers and so you can get a dog from a broker where they've done all the leg work they've gotten the dog they get the paperwork they get all the info but you don't get to see the parents you don't get to go to the house and see the backyard and see how the how the puppies are raised so it's a bit more of a risk uh if you get a legitimate breeder then then it might be worth the money because you get to really see and you know what you're getting now one thing about the the rescue dog it's usually some sort of mutt uh though i have seen some really pure rescues too but typically it's a mutt
18:26 and maybe with that mixture of the genes you're not going to get as many of those normal typical breed related problems the hip dysplasias the dermatologist you know the the skin allergies things like that so there may be an advantage to these dogs but then there's also the disadvantage of not being able to necessarily predict their behavior so you know you you that's why when you if you get from a shelter which again i encourage people to to find that dog go to the shelter take your kids if they're old enough to interact with a dog make sure the chemistry is there and then see what kind of guarantee they have
19:01 all right rescues as i said the rest of the guarantee is if it doesn't work out we understand it's not every dog is perfect for every situation and the relationship may not be there and of course we're getting those dogs because we want that relationship and we know how important that relationship is but if it's if the relationship benefits they're not being fulfilled then it's time to maybe return that dog and another dog might help so this may be a difficult question um you know when when when i had my dog jiggers he's a jack russell terrier he he several times needed um
19:37 you know pretty tough operations and you know we were fortunate we were able to you know afford the the vet bills and all of that what does a family do if their dog really requires expensive veterinary care and and they really you know they can't they can't afford it you're right it is a difficult difficult question you know um certainly there are some organizations that help there are people now that get going through gofundme and they're getting help um one thing about because of our relationship with pets it's very easy to
20:12 tug those purse strings from people that you see the sad story you go online you do a little short video on instagram or tick tock and you just win those hearts and uh and then you might be able to you know get a little help unfortunately like in los angeles there's no aspc hospital but there are hospitals out there that can and are willing to work in many many municipalities they do have the aspca type hospital that can give you know a major break they're also third party payers oh that could help that that you can
20:49 apply for if your credit is decent uh you can get the loan sure it's a short-term loan might be up to 18 months to two years and pay at a very very nominal interest so there are some solutions that you can and then every now and then you know there are young veterinarians that might be willing to on their time off do a procedure oh right because they need the more the practice and it might be wise because it's better than doing nothing and they do with supervision and um you know look i i i do a lot of more intricate surgery
21:25 now but you don't graduate from veterinary school being able to do that you got to practice you got to do it and so you know there are it is tough and i've there are times when you have to look at the disease itself or the condition itself how debilitating what it's doing to the quality of life of that pet and if that is not feasible to fix then you have to weigh what you can do and one of the one of our jobs is to alleviate animal suffering and sometimes if i get a situation where for whatever reason the dog is way too old the risks of the procedure are way
22:00 too great or the ability for the owners to afford a procedure that it could be life-saving but if it's if it's you know if it's a 15 chance they may elect you know what let's let's let them go peacefully so i i don't want to in the interview on on this kind of somber note so um what would what would you say to people as you know this is the number one reason why you should have uh a pet in your life i would say again for me there are about a hundred but you
22:35 know one of the main ones was underseeing the benefits to having a pet what it does for people what it does for their psyche what it does for their health what it does for their kids their kids success their kids focus you know there there are so many positives the the few negatives which would be the expense the the time commitment uh uh the the um the feeding so it that's that's minimal compared to the benefits and i can only say to many people i've
23:10 had so many people i hear this all the time there was a particular family member typically one of the spouses that didn't have a pet and was very much against the pet there's something about pets that they know who in the family didn't want them and they go after that and they they literally suck up to the that member and before you know it who is the most important of the household it's that family member and that pet so i always say you see i told you so yeah i've seen that happen myself oh of course and uh so you know i i can't imagine i look i've never been without a pet even my
23:46 high school graduation president when i went away to college i went away to berkeley in the early 70s and my pet my dog came up with me wow and he's going to class with me and and uh you know he was all over campus people knew him and i i've never been i grew up into a household with pets i've had them ever since now i have 10. my kids have never been without pets all my kids have pets and now my grandkids wow so it's great fantastic dr jeff thanks so much kevin thanks for having me this is great i think i could have spent another hour
24:22 with dr jeff talking about dogs i really need to get my wife in to talk to him she she could have probably done an even better job but i think it's it's good for us to remember in this relationship realm that's within the mental pillar not every relationship has to be person and person there are tremendous benefits to having a pet in our lives physical benefits emotional benefits maybe even spiritual benefits so i i encourage you to think about what dr jeff said take his encouragement and if you're if
24:58 you don't have a pet maybe give some do some research and see perhaps there's a dog out there for you or some other kind of animal i know our production manager sierra she has a she has a rabbit i know to me you know rabbit is food but you know not literally because they're not kosher but they always seem like you know haas and pfeffer right for all of you who watch bugs bunny cartoons uh-oh sarah's giving me attitude now too well rick we're standing home in that same boat friends if if you think you would make a great guess for
25:33 the show or you know someone who would be a great guest for the show we we have a few more time slots open for the second season not a lot but a few so drop us a line through our website the waywowshow.com and let us know courage at all times my friends marie you dog lover you you are still my bell [Music]
26:28 [Music] you