Oh Behave!

"I do not believe that humanity wouldn't be where we are today without animals" - Dr. Ernie Ward

Early in his career, Dr. Ward was instrumental in bringing senior pet care guidelines to general veterinary practices in 1999. In 2001, he developed and published protocols for monitoring pets receiving long term medications such as Rimadyl, Deramaxx, Previcox, Metacam, Enacard, thyroid hormone, prednisone and more. His chart for drug monitoring guidelines is found in most small animal veterinary hospitals in the U.S. and Canada. Dr. Ward was an early promoter of mandatory pre-surgical blood testing for dogs and cats, the administration of intravenous fluids throughout the procedure and pre- and post-operative pain management, even for routine surgeries such as spay (OHE) and neuter (orchiectomy). Dr. Ward was an outspoken advocate for extended vaccination protocols as early as 1999. He was an early adopter of C02 laser surgery, beginning to use surgical lasers in his practice in 1999. He gave over fifty lectures in the US, Canada and Europe on the importance reducing pet vaccinations by using extended duration vaccines and wrote and produced a veterinary staff training video and guidebook on immunology and vaccinology in 2004. In 2005, he founded the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention to help raise awareness on the dangers of excess weight in dogs and cats. He wrote "Chow Hounds: Why Our Dogs Are Getting Fatter" in 2010 and coauthored the American Animal Hospital Association's (AAHA) Weight Management Guidelines for Dogs and Cats in 2014. He is a certified personal trainer and USA Triathlon certified coach and multiple Ironman finisher.

Transcript:

 

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Announcer: It's Oh Behave with Arden Moore.

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Announcer: So get ready for the pause and applause as we unleash your Oh Behave host, America's pet edutainer, Arden Moore.

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Arden Moore: Welcome to the Oh Behave show on Pet Life Radio.

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Arden Moore: I'm your host, Arden Moore.

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Arden Moore: Now, for this episode, we're going to speed forward to the future.

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Arden Moore: I'm talking like 10,000 years.

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Arden Moore: We all know that our dogs are quite adaptable.

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Arden Moore: But how would global warming or a new ice age alter their looks?

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Arden Moore: Come on, it's time to unleash our imaginations.

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Arden Moore: And here to help us is America's pet advocate.

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Arden Moore: He's a great, great veterinarian and a good friend.

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Arden Moore: We're talking Dr.

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Arden Moore: Ernie Ward.

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Arden Moore: Welcome back to the show, Dr.

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Arden Moore: Ernie.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: Oh, gosh, Arden, thank you so much.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: Your listeners are the greatest.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: And this is really kind of an interesting topic that maybe people haven't given some thought to, you know?

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Arden Moore: I like it.

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Arden Moore: I like it.

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Arden Moore: I mean, you have teamed up with Basepaws.

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Arden Moore: This is a pet genetic company.

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Arden Moore: And you all are trying to scientifically predict how global warming or a new ice age is going to alter the appearance of many, many dog breeds.

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Arden Moore: And I think you're also hopefully going to share a little bit about what scientists speculate how dogs maybe on Mars would look like.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: That's right.

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Arden Moore: You got to admit, that's wild.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: It is.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: But Arden, these are actually serious questions that demand serious scrutiny, right?

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Dr. Ernie Ward: And we're not the first to look at this.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: I mean, Oxford researchers have looked at this over time.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: And really, what people are most concerned about is like, what changes would happen to like the plants that we eat?

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Dr. Ernie Ward: What about water and minerals and how would we live, right?

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Dr. Ernie Ward: And more importantly, if thousands of years of climate change occur in the future, how would that change our own physiology?

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Dr. Ernie Ward: And so all we did was sort of take some of that research that's in existence out there already and some very, very, you know, well, you know, researched studies.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: And they say, OK, what if we just use our imagination, as you mentioned, and applied this to dogs?

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Dr. Ernie Ward: And I'll tell you, I do believe that a lot of this stuff is going to come to fruition.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: My dear friend, Stephen Kotler, who's a very famous author, he writes all these books, Abundance, you know, and he has teamed up with a lot of futurists.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: And this goes back to a conversation Stephen and I were having 20 years ago because we were worried about the coming resource scarcity, right?

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Dr. Ernie Ward: So what that means out there to listeners is that food prices, water scarcity, all those things would impact our ability to have pets, right?

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Dr. Ernie Ward: Because that becomes kind of a luxury whenever you can barely feed and provide water for your family.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: So Stephen and I have been running these thought experiments for 20 or more years amongst ourselves and some of our close friends.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: But it was really fun to put it into action and then actually generate some interesting images using AI.

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Arden Moore: Oh, yeah.

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Arden Moore: And we hopefully are going to be showing those images with a link to this episode.

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Arden Moore: So everybody, you're going to get a look at what a beagle might look like or a great dane and things like that.

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Arden Moore: So, I mean, Dr.

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Arden Moore: Ernie, there's different three scenarios.

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Arden Moore: So let's go to global warming for 200, please.

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Arden Moore: So how could our dogs adapt to global warming?

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Arden Moore: And I think the fur is gone.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: Yeah, right.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: Because heat is going to be the biggest enemy of us, right?

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Dr. Ernie Ward: And so obviously, preserving hydration, that's going to be also paramount to survival.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: And one of the things too, we were talking to some journalists and one of the skeptics said, well, oh, you're just assuming that these changes occur on their own.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: But remember, when it comes to dogs, we select the traits that make sense.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: So in the future, these changes will be accelerated by human breeding and interactions, right?

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Dr. Ernie Ward: I mean, just like we've seen a preponderance of mixed breed dogs, all the doodles out there, if you will.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: Like we're doing that.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: The reason that doodles are popular is because they meet a need, a current need of current urban society, right?

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Dr. Ernie Ward: We wanted dogs that were a little smaller, a little more trainable, you know.

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Arden Moore: And not hairy.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: Right, right.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: Exactly.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: So I believe that that will all these changes will be accelerated.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: So we're looking at thinner coats, obviously, right?

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Dr. Ernie Ward: We're probably looking at some dispersal of heat, which would be like maybe larger ears, right?

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Arden Moore: Oh, really?

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Arden Moore: Oh, my dog, Kona, has big ears.

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Arden Moore: She's looking.

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Arden Moore: She's happy about that.

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Arden Moore: I want your big ear dogs.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: And maybe even the appendages would be either shorter or longer.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: And there's a couple of scenarios that could impact that, right?

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Dr. Ernie Ward: Because obviously it depends on really what we breed them for.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: For my guess, I surmise that we'll build smaller dogs, if you will, because they require less energy.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: And that means, of course, less heat to dissipate.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: Also, it requires less water and it enables them to preserve it.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: Also, coloration, Arden, right?

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Dr. Ernie Ward: I mean, so we're probably going to see lighter colors to help reflect back UV rays to also keep them cool.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: So, you know, these are just some fun things that we're looking at.

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Arden Moore: All the little dogs in the world right now are clapping their paws because they're being branded as Purse My Ride dogs, but they may be the dogs in a global warming 10,000 year scenario.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: Without a doubt.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: And one of the things too, if we look at sort of how human physiology and our own morphology, our body shapes and sizes change, remember that if you look at people that live around the equator of the planet, right?

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Dr. Ernie Ward: So the warmest regions around the center of the earth, those people tend to be smaller in stature, okay?

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Dr. Ernie Ward: And this is because again, to preserve, you know, hydration and use less resources and all that sort of stuff.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: It wasn't really until humans began going into colder climates of northern latitudes that we started seeing increases in size.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: And there's a lot of reasons for this, including preservation of heat, right?

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Dr. Ernie Ward: To warm up and actually to be able to store extra food because, you know, we might have some intervals between.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: So again, just some all speculation, but 10,000 years into the future, I think that today's dogs will look largely the same, but there will be some significant changes.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: The other thing is we don't know what's happening underneath the fur, right?

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Dr. Ernie Ward: That's where I think the real adaptations are going to occur.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: I think these dogs are going to, again, improve their kidney functions to conserve water and electrolytes more efficiently.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: I also believe that hormonally, they're going to change probably the way their reproductive patterns are, because right with if we see climate change.

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Arden Moore: Not have as many puppies?

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Dr. Ernie Ward: Not have as many, exactly.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: And maybe only once a year instead of multiple times a year, right?

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Dr. Ernie Ward: So, you know, for most dogs, they go through two heat cycles currently, and maybe that gets reduced to one again, just because of resource scarcity and survivability and so forth.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: So I think that we're going to see some of those physiological changes.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: You know, one of the things we were talking about also, as we were brainstorming around this is like, what adaptations can you make physiologically to protect yourself against radiation injury, right?

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Dr. Ernie Ward: So there might be some different cells that would become more abundant, if you will, to help protect us.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: And again, just what would we look at as far as like the DNA, like the telomeres, which is the end of it, which kind of is that biological time clock, you know, that we talk about a lot.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: So the length of telomeres indicates lifespan.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: So would that change?

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Arden Moore: You said something, you all, and this is fascinating.

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Arden Moore: I mean, I've known you for many years and you are my man.

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Arden Moore: You started the Association for the Prevention of Pet Obesity.

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Arden Moore: You did a great book called Chowhounds.

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Arden Moore: You're amazing guy.

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Arden Moore: You got to say this was kind of a cool little opportunity for you to peek into the future.

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Arden Moore: Take a furry canine globe and shake it and say what's going to be happening, right?

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Dr. Ernie Ward: Oh, yeah.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: And again, you know, Basepaws by Zoetis, which Zoetis is the world's largest animal health company.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: They're looking at these things.

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Arden Moore: Yeah, these are big players.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: Yeah, they're imagining, you know, the future in 100 and 300 years, right?

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Dr. Ernie Ward: I mean, these are companies that are going to be around for a long time and they have been around for a long time.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: And so, you know, for us, it's just a fun way to kind of take genetics and say what kind of changes might be accelerated or adaptations might, you know, be generated by climate change.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: So the first scenario, of course, is the most likely based on the current science, and that is a warming planet.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: But we also looked at a few other scenarios.

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Arden Moore: And before we go to the side of it, what about the eyes of dogs?

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Arden Moore: If we are in fact going to global warming, how is that going to alter their look or their function?

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Dr. Ernie Ward: Yeah, one of the things that I proposed was that we'd see more hooded lenses.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: So we're actually going to see probably an elongation of the actual eyelids.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: And more importantly, the eyes would become more sunken into the skull, because again, this abundance of UV radiation is really what's going to tell us.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: Also, I think probably the iris is going to adapt to become smaller, because right now dogs are excellent in low light.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: But in the future, especially if we see longer days or less protection in the atmosphere from UV radiation, they may want to constrict further, similar to cats, perhaps.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: That's a slightly different issue.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: But for us, we're looking at, I think the eyes will be also one of those things.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: But the biggest take home that I think we should all realize is that as our lives change, as it becomes hotter, as water becomes a prized commodity, as food becomes more expensive in the future, and I hope none of this happens, but if it does, then we're going to have to adapt our pets to coincide with that.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: And so that means that maybe feeding 150 pound dog and giving them water and shelter and cooling them might be an economic challenge, a burden for us.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: So we might say instead of 150 pound dogs, all dogs start to look more like their 10 or 20 pound dogs.

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Arden Moore: Yeah, that's interesting.

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Arden Moore: Hey, we're speaking with Dr.

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Arden Moore: Ernie Ward.

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Arden Moore: Everybody knows him.

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Arden Moore: He's America's Pet Advocate.

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Arden Moore: He's teamed up with Basepaws.

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Arden Moore: And I love this episode.

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Arden Moore: We are the longest running pet podcast on the planet.

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Arden Moore: We've been on since 07.

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Arden Moore: Maybe we'll be on in 10,000 years if we figure out how to make my producer, Mark Winter and I live forever.

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Arden Moore: That could be possible because this is the kind of episode we're covering.

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Arden Moore: But hey, everybody, when we come back, we're going to flip it.

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Arden Moore: What would happen if we get into a new ice age and how would our dogs look and act?

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Arden Moore: So stick around, sit, stay.

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Arden Moore: We'll be right back.

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Announcer: Time for a walk on the red carpet, of course.

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Announcer: Oh Behave will be back in a flash right after these messages.

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Paul Shaffer: This is Paul Scaffer from the Late Show with David Letterman.

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Victoria Shaffer: And his daughter, Victoria Shaffer.

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This is Paul Scaffer from the Late Show with David Letterman.
And you are listening to Arden Moore on the Oh Behave Show.

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Announcer: The letter box that is.

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Announcer: Now back to Oh Behave.

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Announcer: Here's Arden.

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Arden Moore: Welcome back to the Oh Behave Show on Pet Life Radio.

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Arden Moore: I'm your host, Arden Moore.

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Arden Moore: I'm yappin, yappin with Dr.

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Arden Moore: Ernie Ward.

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Arden Moore: And he has teamed up with Basepaws.

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Arden Moore: And they are talking about some interesting scenarios.

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Arden Moore: And I know you are a major advocate of Mother Earth and dogs and cats.

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Arden Moore: And I guess you like people too.

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Arden Moore: So let's flip the scenario.

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Arden Moore: We're in a new ice age.

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Arden Moore: What happens?

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Arden Moore: How are dogs going to adapt?

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Dr. Ernie Ward: Yeah, and you know, I know all the talk is about a hot planet, but it wasn't that long ago that scientists were speculating we could be entering into a new ice age.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: So, you know, these are again, the climate is very complex.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: And so, you know, we're looking at lots of different scenarios.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: So what happens in the future if suddenly everything is frostbitten, right?

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Dr. Ernie Ward: If suddenly, you know, we've got icicles hanging from our dens at dinner time, you know, we have to sit around a big fire to keep warm.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: And so, you know, again, as we mentioned with climate change in a hot environment, we also realize that people are going to breed and select dog traits that are beneficial in a colder climate.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: And so this really kind of goes into some of the common sense things you'd think about.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: I do want to talk about the physiological changes that we speculate.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: But number one, we're going to see thicker fur coats, right?

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Dr. Ernie Ward: So more dense coats.

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Dr. Ernie Ward: Just imagine a dog needing to protect itself.

00:13:25.600 --> 00:13:28.260
Dr. Ernie Ward: They need their own fur coat to insulate against that.

00:13:28.260 --> 00:13:34.260
Dr. Ernie Ward: So that's going to be one thing that we would definitely see longer, thicker fur coats, just like you would associate today.

00:13:34.580 --> 00:13:35.500
Arden Moore: I got to step in here.

00:13:35.560 --> 00:13:40.120
Arden Moore: All the Bernese Mountain Dogs listening right now are going, yeah, doctor, rejoice.

00:13:40.140 --> 00:13:42.320
Dr. Ernie Ward: We told you that's right.

00:13:42.720 --> 00:13:46.720
Dr. Ernie Ward: Even though they're in North Carolina or South Carolina, we're preparing for the future.

00:13:47.240 --> 00:13:49.620
Dr. Ernie Ward: The other thing, too, is going to be body fat, right?

00:13:49.640 --> 00:13:52.900
Dr. Ernie Ward: Because that is the biggest insulator we have against the cold.

00:13:52.920 --> 00:14:02.640
Dr. Ernie Ward: And honestly, as humans migrated north and northern latitudes, you know, thousands and thousands of years ago, we also saw people get larger, as we mentioned in the last segment.

00:14:02.800 --> 00:14:05.500
Dr. Ernie Ward: And so one of the things they did was store more body fat.

00:14:05.520 --> 00:14:08.300
Dr. Ernie Ward: And that wasn't just for energy, but also for insulation.

00:14:08.320 --> 00:14:15.860
Dr. Ernie Ward: So I expect to see larger dogs with more body fat, especially, you know, when we look at where the body fat is distributed.

00:14:16.160 --> 00:14:22.580
Dr. Ernie Ward: And there's two different types, and those of you that have followed me in my fight against obesity all these years know I talk about the two different types of fats.

00:14:22.600 --> 00:14:27.400
Dr. Ernie Ward: And the one fat we talk about so often, which is the more harmful fat, is the white fat.

00:14:27.420 --> 00:14:32.240
Dr. Ernie Ward: Okay, so this is the belly fat, if you will, you know, people when they think of harmful effects, we do that.

00:14:32.500 --> 00:14:40.100
Dr. Ernie Ward: But remember, there's another type of fat that we all have as mammals called brown fat, which actually is physiologically active in different ways.

00:14:40.120 --> 00:14:43.840
Dr. Ernie Ward: Okay, it's a better source of energy whenever we need to store it up.

00:14:44.040 --> 00:14:46.480
Dr. Ernie Ward: But more importantly, it's also a better insulator.

00:14:46.500 --> 00:14:53.000
Dr. Ernie Ward: And so this is why you tend to see brown fat in animals stored along their backs, okay, and their sides.

00:14:53.220 --> 00:15:00.700
Dr. Ernie Ward: So I think you'll probably see physiologically an adaptation there to go towards more brown fat, again, for energy and insulation.

00:15:01.040 --> 00:15:06.860
Dr. Ernie Ward: We also expect to see things, you know, again, like these are dogs that may have to scavenge more, right?

00:15:06.880 --> 00:15:10.580
Dr. Ernie Ward: So they may be, you know, in a cold climate having to go and hunt.

00:15:10.620 --> 00:15:22.520
Dr. Ernie Ward: And so I do expect them to be a little more wolf like, or we wind up breeding as we did with climate change in the warm environment to make smaller dogs to be able to keep inside, you know, to keep warm and so forth.

00:15:22.540 --> 00:15:26.540
Arden Moore: But again, you know, chihuahuas are not really happy about this scenario.

00:15:26.540 --> 00:15:27.040
Dr. Ernie Ward: Oh, yeah.

00:15:27.160 --> 00:15:28.120
Dr. Ernie Ward: No, no, no, no, no.

00:15:28.140 --> 00:15:30.720
Dr. Ernie Ward: But long haired Dotson say, hey, we told you so.

00:15:31.620 --> 00:15:32.420
Dr. Ernie Ward: That's right.

00:15:32.740 --> 00:15:33.760
Dr. Ernie Ward: So it is fun.

00:15:33.940 --> 00:15:34.600
Dr. Ernie Ward: It is fun.

00:15:34.740 --> 00:15:42.080
Dr. Ernie Ward: And so what we did to is we took a lot of these different morphological or body shape and characteristics and we put them into an AI generator.

00:15:42.100 --> 00:15:43.960
Dr. Ernie Ward: And we said, OK, here's what Dr.

00:15:43.980 --> 00:15:44.700
Dr. Ernie Ward: Ward is saying.

00:15:44.720 --> 00:15:46.360
Dr. Ernie Ward: And here's what some of our geneticists are saying.

00:15:46.380 --> 00:15:48.000
Dr. Ernie Ward: You know, what would this look like?

00:15:48.020 --> 00:15:49.840
Dr. Ernie Ward: And so that was really a fun part of it.

00:15:49.860 --> 00:15:53.380
Dr. Ernie Ward: So there are some sophisticated AI image generators out there.

00:15:53.400 --> 00:15:56.960
Dr. Ernie Ward: So you take it and you say, what would this look like over the next 10,000 years?

00:15:56.980 --> 00:16:02.180
Dr. Ernie Ward: And I hope everybody that's listening can go check out those images because they're well, at first, you know, they're comical.

00:16:02.280 --> 00:16:04.240
Dr. Ernie Ward: I'll be the first to admit, you know, they're like, OK.

00:16:04.400 --> 00:16:08.220
Dr. Ernie Ward: But then you start to realize, wow, this could actually happen.

00:16:08.240 --> 00:16:10.300
Dr. Ernie Ward: You know, I get where they're going with this stuff.

00:16:10.320 --> 00:16:23.420
Dr. Ernie Ward: But again, I think with hot climates, you know, Arden, the bigger changes are going to be underneath the fur, the physiological adaptations, how we burn fat, how we store energy, you know, what processes for proteins and minerals and so forth.

00:16:23.440 --> 00:16:30.340
Dr. Ernie Ward: I think I think really for me, I always go back to nutrition and how do we survive physiologically.

00:16:30.360 --> 00:16:40.960
Dr. Ernie Ward: And I think that, again, you know, we're going to conserve water, we're going to have to do more with less food or calories, and we're going to need to store that in a way that actually benefits us from a heat standpoint.

00:16:41.120 --> 00:16:42.600
Arden Moore: And we may have to go to Mars.

00:16:42.840 --> 00:16:44.380
Dr. Ernie Ward: Yep, that was actually the most fun.

00:16:44.400 --> 00:16:58.040
Dr. Ernie Ward: And I'll tell you, Arden, in my last book, The Clean Pet Food Revolution, I actually talked about this, talked about, you know, because right now and several years ago, I was invited to talk to a group of folks who were talking about space colonization.

00:16:58.160 --> 00:17:03.100
Dr. Ernie Ward: And at that time, they were really looking more towards the International Space Station and so forth.

00:17:03.100 --> 00:17:06.100
Dr. Ernie Ward: And further colonization may be on the moon and Mars.

00:17:06.120 --> 00:17:13.200
Dr. Ernie Ward: And as I was talking to these folks, it was glaringly obvious that they had omitted any type of companion animal.

00:17:13.480 --> 00:17:21.660
Dr. Ernie Ward: Now life on another planet, life in space without any animal compatriot, I think is missing the human element.

00:17:21.680 --> 00:17:23.620
Dr. Ernie Ward: Like I think that's not even the human existence.

00:17:23.760 --> 00:17:30.140
Dr. Ernie Ward: And I made this argument, I said, I don't think that humans, we didn't evolve in the absence of all other animal life.

00:17:30.760 --> 00:17:36.940
Dr. Ernie Ward: So I think you're taking a big part of humanity away if you don't try to incorporate animals into space.

00:17:36.980 --> 00:17:39.780
Dr. Ernie Ward: And so one of the things we did look at was what would that look like?

00:17:39.800 --> 00:17:52.500
Dr. Ernie Ward: And again, this is something that myself, Stephen Kotler and others, we've been brainstorming around this for a while because we really are encouraging folks, if you're listening and you're involved with some of the Mars colonization, remember, I mean, that guy who's been talking about it for years.

00:17:52.520 --> 00:17:55.420
Arden Moore: Who let their dogs out in Mars?

00:17:55.540 --> 00:17:56.120
Dr. Ernie Ward: Right, right.

00:17:56.140 --> 00:17:58.720
Dr. Ernie Ward: But I think it's just an important part of being a human being.

00:17:59.540 --> 00:18:01.500
Dr. Ernie Ward: And so we started looking at what would that look like?

00:18:01.680 --> 00:18:03.600
Dr. Ernie Ward: A, they have to be small dogs, right?

00:18:03.620 --> 00:18:10.100
Dr. Ernie Ward: Because on space, you know, you've got a couple of things, but the key element that we have to conserve is oxygen.

00:18:10.120 --> 00:18:13.020
Dr. Ernie Ward: So you've got to have a dog or cat.

00:18:13.040 --> 00:18:15.800
Dr. Ernie Ward: And look, I'll say I'll take any mammal.

00:18:15.880 --> 00:18:19.960
Dr. Ernie Ward: In fact, we did talk about, you know, like gerbils and hamsters and small mammals, right?

00:18:19.980 --> 00:18:26.200
Dr. Ernie Ward: Because I think that humans just need something else other than a plant or a fungi to take care of in space.

00:18:26.220 --> 00:18:28.360
Arden Moore: It's where the Chihuahuas are now back to loving you.

00:18:28.580 --> 00:18:29.320
Dr. Ernie Ward: They are back.

00:18:29.340 --> 00:18:29.680
Dr. Ernie Ward: Yeah.

00:18:29.940 --> 00:18:30.340
Dr. Ernie Ward: Oh, man.

00:18:30.340 --> 00:18:33.880
Dr. Ernie Ward: Any of the toy breeds are probably listening right now a little more attentively.

00:18:34.100 --> 00:18:42.980
Dr. Ernie Ward: And so we do know that small to conserve oxygen, I do think that there are some ways physiologically to adapt them to low oxygen environments.

00:18:43.180 --> 00:18:45.620
Dr. Ernie Ward: And so I think that we can actually enhance that for sure.

00:18:45.760 --> 00:18:51.700
Dr. Ernie Ward: And this has to do with red blood cells, of course, so density of red blood cells, numbers, you know, per liter.

00:18:51.740 --> 00:19:02.880
Dr. Ernie Ward: So I think that there's some ways that we could even sort of quickly adapt dogs to do better in a lower oxygen environment, to conserve oxygen for humans, of course, and plants, because we got to eat up there.

00:19:03.060 --> 00:19:08.180
Dr. Ernie Ward: And so I think that we would do that small, they would have probably less hair than now.

00:19:08.180 --> 00:19:13.660
Dr. Ernie Ward: And this is really, you know, one of the things that we were brainstorming early on was this is probably just a hygienic issue, right?

00:19:13.680 --> 00:19:21.940
Dr. Ernie Ward: I mean, because if you've got fur flying on a space station or on an enclosed colonization on Mars, then that's going to maybe plug up air purifiers.

00:19:21.960 --> 00:19:25.320
Dr. Ernie Ward: And so we realized that we need things that don't shed a lot, you know.

00:19:25.760 --> 00:19:28.020
Dr. Ernie Ward: So early on, we recognized that that could be a thing.

00:19:28.060 --> 00:19:31.120
Dr. Ernie Ward: Also, we talked about hypoallergenicity, right?

00:19:31.140 --> 00:19:39.220
Dr. Ernie Ward: And while you can't truly design a hypoallergenic dog, although I think with some of the genetic interventions that are coming, we may be able to.

00:19:39.340 --> 00:19:50.420
Dr. Ernie Ward: But I think that's something we've got to consider because, again, people in a very enclosed space sharing recycled air, we don't want to also recycle any allergens that could then cause a problem for humans.

00:19:50.440 --> 00:19:52.980
Dr. Ernie Ward: So I think all these things really come into play.

00:19:53.120 --> 00:20:01.800
Dr. Ernie Ward: The other thing that really, you know, we didn't talk about so much in this thing, but something that my friends and I have talked about is how do we reclaim waste more efficiently, right?

00:20:01.820 --> 00:20:03.640
Dr. Ernie Ward: Because so dogs that urinate and defecate.

00:20:03.820 --> 00:20:11.640
Dr. Ernie Ward: And so I think there are ways to transfer that into energy and to, you know, nutrients, for example, for the plants that might maybe were growing or the fungi that were growing up there in space.

00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:13.720
Dr. Ernie Ward: So again, being very smart about it.

00:20:13.720 --> 00:20:27.040
Dr. Ernie Ward: But I'll say too to the listeners, the main point I want to make is that when we talk about colonization of space for humans, let's not forget the important role that animals have played in getting us to where we are today.

00:20:27.060 --> 00:20:32.460
Dr. Ernie Ward: I do not believe that humanity wouldn't be where we are today without animals, right?

00:20:32.480 --> 00:20:37.380
Dr. Ernie Ward: And so I know that a lot of my colleagues say, Oh, but Ernie, we've we've transcended that.

00:20:37.980 --> 00:20:41.260
Dr. Ernie Ward: No, no, I think it's a humanity, right?

00:20:41.560 --> 00:20:42.700
Dr. Ernie Ward: I do think there's difference.

00:20:42.800 --> 00:20:46.480
Dr. Ernie Ward: And I don't think that we can find this in an AI computer simulation.

00:20:46.480 --> 00:20:52.460
Dr. Ernie Ward: I think that if humans are going to colonize space, I want it to be I'd love to see a dog by my side.

00:20:52.680 --> 00:20:56.860
Arden Moore: And speaking of that, who's the dog by your side these days?

00:20:57.180 --> 00:21:07.700
Dr. Ernie Ward: Still border terriers, you know, we kind of got into those that we have a border terrier rescue now, Jenny, and she has a she has a little physical issue, but she does really, really well.

00:21:08.060 --> 00:21:11.200
Dr. Ernie Ward: And, you know, so I'm a big fan of border terriers, small dogs.

00:21:11.260 --> 00:21:15.940
Dr. Ernie Ward: So hey, we're preparing for climate change here on the coast of North Carolina already.

00:21:16.000 --> 00:21:17.920
Dr. Ernie Ward: So we keep her nice and short.

00:21:18.100 --> 00:21:24.180
Arden Moore: My terrier mix, Kona is loving you even more now because she's like, yeah, terriers rock, terriers rock.

00:21:24.200 --> 00:21:27.700
Dr. Ernie Ward: And you know, and we describe border terriers as a plucky breed.

00:21:27.720 --> 00:21:29.040
Dr. Ernie Ward: And so if you know, you know.

00:21:30.660 --> 00:21:42.800
Dr. Ernie Ward: But but also the temperament when we do look in the future, I mean, the temperament is going to be really essential, right, because we've got to have dogs that really can coexist with us maybe in some challenging times.

00:21:43.400 --> 00:21:43.780
Arden Moore: Wow.

00:21:44.020 --> 00:21:49.180
Arden Moore: You've got to admit this has been a fascinating dive into what could be in 10,000 years.

00:21:49.500 --> 00:21:52.420
Arden Moore: None of us will be around right now to prove it or disprove it.

00:21:52.880 --> 00:21:55.760
Arden Moore: But it really does work your brain muscles too, doesn't it?

00:21:55.840 --> 00:21:56.700
Arden Moore: In a different way.

00:21:56.960 --> 00:21:57.660
Dr. Ernie Ward: It really does.

00:21:57.680 --> 00:22:01.640
Dr. Ernie Ward: And again, we didn't even touch on what if we could manipulate the DNA, right?

00:22:01.660 --> 00:22:09.940
Dr. Ernie Ward: Because I think that actually a lot of cool stuff could happen that way as far as preventing disease, you know, enhancing physiological mechanisms and systems.

00:22:10.060 --> 00:22:15.400
Dr. Ernie Ward: So I mean, there's a lot more that could be done, but, you know, let's just kind of look at it in current day lens and kind of move forward.

00:22:15.420 --> 00:22:18.820
Dr. Ernie Ward: But if you get a chance, check out some of those images because I think they're quite fascinating.

00:22:18.960 --> 00:22:21.280
Arden Moore: Now there's two places I want people to dash off to.

00:22:21.340 --> 00:22:22.460
Arden Moore: Let's go to Dr.

00:22:22.460 --> 00:22:27.440
Arden Moore: Ernie Ward, correct.com, and basepaws.com.

00:22:27.460 --> 00:22:28.300
Arden Moore: Did I get that right?

00:22:28.420 --> 00:22:29.200
Dr. Ernie Ward: You got it right.

00:22:29.500 --> 00:22:30.100
Arden Moore: Oh my gosh.

00:22:30.480 --> 00:22:42.960
Arden Moore: Any parting message, we just got a couple of minutes that you want to say to all the people out there, because you are the man that is trying to keep our pets from getting too fat and trying to save our planet, looking at plant-based proteins.

00:22:43.400 --> 00:22:47.300
Arden Moore: I mean, what a mission you have carved out for yourself.

00:22:47.500 --> 00:22:49.080
Dr. Ernie Ward: Well, you know, I'm optimistic.

00:22:49.100 --> 00:22:52.240
Dr. Ernie Ward: I'm one of those people that continues to see the glass half full.

00:22:52.280 --> 00:22:58.960
Dr. Ernie Ward: I know there's a lot of challenges ahead of us, but I see a bright future 10,000 years into the future, whether it's hot or cold or on Mars.

00:22:59.200 --> 00:23:04.240
Dr. Ernie Ward: I think that it's going to be really fulfilling and I hope to see our companions next to us.

00:23:04.580 --> 00:23:06.300
Arden Moore: And I hope that they deliver pizza.

00:23:06.400 --> 00:23:08.380
Arden Moore: That's just my humble wish.

00:23:09.300 --> 00:23:10.280
Dr. Ernie Ward: I'm with you on that.

00:23:10.300 --> 00:23:11.240
Dr. Ernie Ward: I am with you on that.

00:23:11.400 --> 00:23:12.140
Arden Moore: Hey, everybody.

00:23:12.160 --> 00:23:14.660
Arden Moore: We've been speaking with America's Pet Advocate.

00:23:14.680 --> 00:23:15.860
Arden Moore: He is Dr.

00:23:15.940 --> 00:23:19.960
Arden Moore: Ernie Ward and I have so much enjoyed this episode.

00:23:20.320 --> 00:23:20.800
Arden Moore: Wow.

00:23:21.020 --> 00:23:22.040
Arden Moore: Make that bow wow.

00:23:22.400 --> 00:23:25.820
Arden Moore: I also want to give a shout out to my producer, Mark Winter.

00:23:26.140 --> 00:23:35.020
Arden Moore: He is the executive producer of Pet Life Radio, the largest, oldest pet radio network on the planet and maybe someday, someday Mars.

00:23:35.460 --> 00:23:36.820
Arden Moore: Hey, please check me out.

00:23:36.960 --> 00:23:49.560
Arden Moore: Subscribe to my YouTube, Easy Arden Moore and until next time, this is your flea-free host Arden Moore delivering just two words to all you two, three and four legged out there.

00:23:49.900 --> 00:23:50.540
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00:23:51.440 --> 00:23:55.660
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00:23:55.760 --> 00:24:02.980
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00:24:03.500 --> 00:24:11.340
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00:24:11.680 --> 00:24:19.900
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