Things you've always wondered about, but were ashamed to ask

[The Seeker]

Who Cleans Up After Seeing Eye Dogs?

Dog turds are stealth weapons. People with 20/20 vision often fail to notice them until they appear hours later, on the bottom of a shoe. How the heck is someone who can’t see supposed to track down and eliminate these sidewalk scourges, then?

First off, not everyone who is legally blind or has a guide dog is completely without vision. Some still have some vision and can pick up their dog’s mess just fine.

Whether the dog’s handler can see anything or not, you have to keep in mind that these dogs are pros. They guide their handlers through some very complex environments and make sure they don’t fall over obstacles or walk into oncoming traffic. This, of course, requires a lot of training. And part of that training involves special bathroom etiquette.

When the dogs start their training as puppies, they’re taught to associate a specific verbal command with the green light to go ahead and squat. The dogs only go on command. (These commands vary among trainers — some I’ve heard are “busy busy,” “do your business” and “go time.”) The dogs are also conditioned to not freak out when they get touched while doing their business.

With a well-trained dog, a blind handler can give the command to go, and pet the dog once it has found a spot and started to go. Dogs go into different stances depending on whether they’re peeing or pooping, and by running a hand down the dog’s back, the handler can figure out what’s going on. If the dog’s back is flat, it’s peeing — male guide dogs are trained to not lift their leg when peeing; they utilize the same “lean forward” pee stances that females use — and no cleanup if needed. If the dog’s back is rounded, handlers know some cleanup will be required. By feeling their way down the dog’s back to its butt and tail, they have a pretty good idea of where the poop is going to wind up.

Once the dog is finished, the handler just leans down with their plastic bag and can find the poop pretty easily.

Now you know!

 

[devo]

now I know why I was afraid to ask

 

[keystiger]

uhm.................well there you have it then.

 

[The Seeker]

Ok then.....


Why Does Bottled Water Have an Expiration Date?

Our very own Jason English is wondering why his Poland Spring water has a “drink by” date on it when common sense dictates that water doesn’t go bad. To him I say, “It’s your own damn fault.”

Well, not personally his fault, but the fault of his home state of New Jersey. A 1987 NJ state law required all food products sold there to display an expiration date of two years or less from the date of manufacture. Labeling, separating and shipping batches of expiration-dated water to the Garden State seemed a little inefficient to bottled water producers, so most of them simply started giving every bottle a two-year expiration date, no matter where it was going. Now, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has never established or suggested a limitation on the shelf life of bottled water as long as it’s produced in accordance with regulations and the bottle remains properly sealed. Makes sense, because it’s, you know…water. Even Dirty Jerz caught on to this fact and amended the law a few years ago. But the expiration date has been an industry norm for so long that many producers have just kept it on there.


Better WIth Age?

While “expired” unopened bottled water isn’t going to do you any harm, it isn’t going to get better with age, either. The plastic that water is packaged in — usually polyethylene terephthalate (PET) for retail bottles and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) for water cooler jugs –- is slightly porous, so the water can pick up smells and tastes from the outside world. Keep a case of bottled water in the basement for a year or so and it’s going to pick up some interesting flavors. There’s nothing better on a hot summer day than a 2007 Evian, with hints of dust and a crisp kitty litter finish!

 

[DaveM]