A Shocking Bee-Killing Stat

SPEAKER_00 0:00

One spot-on treatment that you give a large dog can kill up to 25 million bees. So this dose that you're giving a retriever or a labrador that you're putting on the back of their neck, that volume of toxin will kill 25 million bees.

Tick Season And A Natural Routine

Why We Avoid Spot-On Chemicals

SPEAKER_02 0:22

Welcome to the Absolute Dog Sex in a Squirrel podcast. I'm Lauren Langman. I'm one of the world's leading dog trainers, and it's my mission to help owners become their dog's top priority. In each episode, you'll discover how to gain trust and communicate with your dog like never before, creating unbreakable bonds that make you the most exciting part of their world. Okay, we're talking bug, and this is the time of year for bug because for me, what I've really noticed is you know what, I dropped off using my bug powder. Not because I I just kind of have been using shroom and I've been using Flexi and I've been using some other bits, and oh my goodness, I saw the difference. I saw way more ticks. We've suddenly become a little bit warm or warmer. Uh the UK is heating up. I've upped my bug treatment. I use AOKine bug, I use my bug canine spray, and I do use tick twisters if I ever do get any ticks. I use my bug balm and I also use probio and shroom. Now, why are we taking a natural route instead of maybe going down the spot-on treatment? Because I know you do the same, I do the same. We certainly avoid, and especially for me, the bug powder in their food is just such a great smell. But why are we doing it? What's it actually about? What are we trying to not do?

SPEAKER_00 1:38

Basically, we're trying to not put chemicals into our animals. So these spot-on treatments, the tablets that the vets give you to put into your dogs, they're basically the tick, the flea, it has to attach to the dog to actually get killed. And what bug does is it stops your dog from even being attractive to those things. So it's a preventative, it's going to stop it from actually getting on there.

SPEAKER_02 2:02

And what's the reason for not wanting to use maybe a tick treatment or a tablet that your dog ingests, maybe like one of the um Ceresto collars. Why would you not use those personally?

SPEAKER_00 2:13

So I wouldn't use them personally because they're chemicals basically that you're putting into your dog. And chemicals, like the two of the active ingredients in these spot-on treatments in the tablets, they're banned in the agricultural industry. So they won't allow them to be put on produce that we would eat, our fruit and veg. Yet it's in these chemicals that we're putting onto our dogs. And I was researching this and I was absolutely shocked. Because when you use a spot-on treatment, those ones that you put on the back of your dog's neck, there's all these warnings, wash your hands, etc. 28 days after you've used one of those, even after washing your hands and taking showers and doing dishes, that is still on your skin.

SPEAKER_02 2:54

And the scary thing is your skin, I was looking, your skin, obviously, your biggest organ or biggest organ of the human body, potentially actually infiltrated by all of these really toxic, harmful chemicals, and then living in your body for however long it takes to get out and secrete out. For me, that's quite scary information because a lot of this we don't want in our body. Now, let alone we don't want in our body, we're putting it on our dog's skin. Yes. So actually, by putting it on our dog's skin, not only are we putting it in potentially our man's best friend, we're also, and it's meant to effectively make their blood toxic, and it's effectively meant to make them very, very effectively not wanting to be bitten by fleas and ticks and other things, but actually making their blood that toxic that it really isn't isn't a good space to be. But equally, they rub along your furniture, they get into the water streams, they potentially roll in the field next to the bees. What else is this potentially doing?

SPEAKER_00 3:51

So the what happens with these treatments is it gets into the bloodstream of your dog and then the tick or the flea bites into your dog's skin and ingests the blood and then dies. So, and it it's a tick can, in order for these to take effect, the tick needs to be on your dog's body for 24 to 48 hours before it dies. So it's already attached, and there's diseases in these ticks. Lyme disease, deer, sheep carry them. Whereas bug, what bug does is it makes it unappealing for them even to attach onto your dog. So these chemicals are designed to kill the tick. It's in your dog's blood. What is it doing to them? Is it affecting them? And there's lots of studies out there that are showing that there's neurological issues, there's all these health warnings to it, like your dog can become nauseous, it can look like they're drunk. So wow.

SPEAKER_02 4:41

Yeah, like neurological. What I've seen with dogs is when they go neurological and almost look a little bit, yeah, like wobbly. So they they they look um spinal almost, but actually those neurological symptoms are often licked linked to the flea treatments, the tick treatments, the brevecto, the um advantics, the um spot-on treatments, the um toresto collars. Yes. Linked to all of those. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 5:05

And also when you're giving these treatments as well, the dosage is really tricky to get right. I've got a new dog, a little 2.6 kilo papillon. I mean, he'd be easily overdosed by giving a tablet because you've got to. I mean, how do you get that dosage exactly? And spot on.

SPEAKER_02 5:20

I mean, spot on is it's it's meant to deal with five. Well, he's 2.2, so he's only half of that size, and yet you're giving him the same amount as you're giving a five kilo dog. And for me, this is where we're at now. I haven't used a spot on for so many years, and that I feel really good about.

What’s In Bug Canine

SPEAKER_00 5:36

How about you? Oh, I feel amazing about that because it's all natural. Like what we're putting into our dogs in bug, there's ginger, there's fennel stuff. Well, let's have a look. You brought some of them, haven't you? Oh, I did. Let's grab them up here.

SPEAKER_02 5:47

Let's have a look. Let's lift the box. This is my favourite.

SPEAKER_00 5:49

Lift the box. The whole box. It's gonna be the whole box.

SPEAKER_02 5:52

My shopping box is this.

SPEAKER_00 5:53

So this is fennel, and it's got like an aniseed flavour to it, like licorice, and I absolutely love it. But that's naturally gonna deter worms, it's gonna deter things like yardia, ticks and fleas. It's it's just makes it unappealing.

SPEAKER_02 6:08

We've got pumpkin seeds, and again, they're so known for this, aren't they? So pumpkin seeds again, naturally occurring to prevent, um not naturally occurring, naturally we're putting them in to prevent the the fact that we do not want these ticks, we do not want these fleas, we do not want these worms. Yeah, and yet they're so um appealing. My dogs eat them in their in their food in addition to. So I'll use my bug, and I'll often throw a handful of these in too.

SPEAKER_00 6:32

Yeah, one of my students was saying that she scatterfeeds pumpkin seeds in her garden for her dogs. They love it. Yeah, ginger. I love ginger. I love ginger. Oh yeah. It's a natural anti-inflammatory, and that's just gonna your dog's gonna ingest it. It's gonna get into their bloodstream, it's gonna get into the stin, and it's about keeping your dog really healthy. We've got in here fenugreek. So fenugreek seeds. There is cinnamon, and I'm cinnamon smells amazing.

SPEAKER_02 6:57

I've always loved the cinnamon. I wish we could send a smell to everybody. I know it smells so, so, so it's just good.

Gut Health As Parasite Prevention

SPEAKER_00 7:04

It's a great smell. Nigella seeds, which is black cumin seed, and this apparently is supposed to be absolutely magic for medicinal purposes, a natural remedy. We've got we've got the fennel there, there's peppermint in there as well. There, it's just, it's all about, and also what I couldn't show on here in my box is the pre and probiotics that are contained in bug. And what that's gonna do to your dog's digestive system is we want to keep your dog's digestive system so healthy that Gyardia, worms, anything like that, there's really nowhere for it to take out resonance in your dog's digestive system. So we want to keep those probiotics that are living in your dog's gut already. We want to feed them with prebiotics, and we also want to make sure that they're they're they're taking out residence, they're staying in there. Because if your dog's gut is really healthy, there's nowhere for the worms to attach, there's nowhere for them to live. What these wormers do is when your vet gives you the tablet to give your dog to kill the worms, it it basically is broad brushed. It doesn't just go to the body.

SPEAKER_02 8:07

It's like using a bomb to kill an ant's nest. Yes. And and to be honest, the ant's nest often isn't even there.

Test First For Giardia

SPEAKER_00 8:13

Yep. So it's going to kill all the good stuff in there as well. Whereas what we're trying to do is support and prevent the worms in the yard from even getting in there. I know I speak to quite a few clients and they've got behavioral issues with their dogs. One of the recommendations I make, we we talk about things like, Pooh, how is your dog doing with his digestion? Because digestion is really symptomatic of how your dog's health is. And if we've got a dog that's consistently having up and down stool issues, one of the recommendations I give is to get them to get their dog tested for gyardia. And I think that is so much of a better approach than just giving treatments. Why don't we test our dog's poo? Why don't we check that there's something there? And a lot of these dogs with behavioural issues, they're finding that they have gyardia.

How Treatments Pollute Waterways

SPEAKER_02 9:41

And actually, a lot of the dogs that we've tested have had nothing at all. And I think the thing is that actually bug is really helping there. Because I would say in all the dogs I've tested over seven or eight years, we have had one come back with lung worm. One. And that is it, nothing else. Like nothing else. And so for me, it's a really cool space to be, knowing that actually I can be using bug canine. I use bug canine probio and shroom. Yes. As my sort of triple whammy to make sure I'm looking after that immune system, looking after everything I can to help that gut. And for me, that feels like a good like bar like triple like approach. And and for me, I really feel good about what I'm doing for the environment. Now, how about the bees, Michelle? Because we talked about the bees and the waterways, like the water streams.

SPEAKER_00 10:32

Let's let's think about those. So there's more research out, and a lot of this research is much more current. So in the last couple of years, one spot-on treatment that you give a large dog can kill up to 25 million bees. So this dose that you're giving a retriever, a labrador, that you're putting on the back of their neck, that volume of toxin will kill 25 million bees.

SPEAKER_02 10:53

Now, the scary thing is, like, like the guy that we were talking to, yeah, we were chatting way to one of the training students here at the training center, and he said, Well, hang on a second, how does that get anywhere near bees? Because my dog's in the field here. How does that get anywhere near bees? His dog was just training in the field.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

So when you put a spot-on treatment onto your dog or you give them a wormer, the spot-on treatment's gonna stay on the skin, the back of the neck. It's gonna then get absorbed. The the fl tablet you give your dog, it's gonna come out in the stool. So your dog goes for a swim in a stream, you rinse them off, they roll around in your sheets if your dog sleeps in your bed.

SPEAKER_02 11:27

They roll around on the grass, they roll around outdoors, they dig holes and they take a roll in it. They roll in fox poo, sheep poo, and all the other poo. And the other thing is, like like Michelle said, they they're gonna excrete it. So when they go for a wee, when they go for a poo, they are it's coming out of the water.

SPEAKER_00 11:44

Yep, and then it rains, and that gets into waterways. The bees land to take a drink and they ingest that toxin. And there was some research done on waterways, and they're saying that 98% of the water that was tested, they found trace traces of these toxins.

SPEAKER_02 12:01

Which is I mean, that's crazy. That is absolutely crazy. So by not using these, are we helping the environment?

SPEAKER_00 12:09

Oh, absolutely. Definitely. We're helping ourselves and most importantly, we're helping our dogs stay much, much healthier.

SPEAKER_02 12:16

So ourselves, our dogs, the environment, the bees, and now ultimately, I mean, they really do make the world go round. Yeah. So we really need to be considering things like this. Okay, any other fun facts that you've come across or any other bits of information, because you jumped in here like, oh my god, I've got to share this with the world.

Side Effects And Worm Resistance

SPEAKER_00 12:34

Well, I guess that the one that really stood out with me was the length of time that these toxins are sitting around for. I was absolutely shocked at that. I mean, I'm thinking you wash stuff off of your hands. For that to stay on your skin for that length of time is absolutely frightening.

SPEAKER_02 12:49

And remember, it's designed to because if you put a spot on your dog, it's meant to protect your dog from ticks and fleas and all the other things effectively making their blood toxic for that length of time. So obviously, that makes sense. It's trying to stay on for a long time or in for a long time, or it's trying to give a long amount of cover. But the problem is, what is the side effect? And it's not a happy side effect. And I think that's really important. Like sometimes you get a happy side effect, do this, and you get a happy side effect of that. This is not a happy side effect. No. This is like quite a scary side effect.

SPEAKER_00 13:22

Yeah, and it's it's it's you basically it's a poison. So we're poisoning ourselves, we're poisoning our dogs by using it. And it's a very reactive approach to it. We're assuming that there is something there that needs to be taken care of when there actually may not be anything there in the first place. So the other, I mean, when you think of evolution as well, we're putting these worm tablets into our dogs, it doesn't kill all the worms. So you're ending up with worms that are actually resistant to the things that we're using to try and kill them. At what point are we going to end up with a problem where there is nothing that will kill these worms?

SPEAKER_02 13:55

The other thing I was thinking about this, like with our horses, I know since I've had horses, we have never done a broad brush approach. No. And that's not me, that's actually the vet. Yes. So the vet, when they come, um, and I have a good relationship with our vets. The vets are fantastic. The horse vets are particularly good. Yeah. We actually have a very good vet team, don't we? Tony is amazing, and then Brian is amazing. So we've got like a very, very strong, good vet team who they both remind me of each other, actually, in a male and female version. But they're just both very good people. Both very good people. Anyway, our lovely vet, when when she comes here or he comes, comes here, particularly Tony, he'll say, When did you last do a worm count? But he has never asked me when I last wormed. Yes. He always asked me the worm count because they're going from fact from information. They're actually taking the right info. Like that is amazing.

SPEAKER_00 14:45

It definitely, and I know when I was a kid, many years ago, we wormed the horses. We always switched wormers. It's completely changed now. That is not what you do. You worm count, and if worms are found, then you treat. And I think that's such good information. If worms are found, then you treat. Definitely. And I know the horses that you've got, you do regular worm counts. Have we had to treat the horses like literally like never.

Flea Panic And How To Check

SPEAKER_02 15:11

Sometimes I'll say very low count. Yeah. And what they do with a very low count is like we might up, for example, some of these things into their food. Yeah. And so we'll actually look at what horses can have and then juggle it and jiggle it and wake it, make it work. But we actually only would use a toxic chemical wormer if there was a worm apparent and effectively an infestation, which there isn't. Now, so many of our owners, and I know we were doing this today out there with the students, the or yesterday, the immediate panic is oh my dog, my dog's gonna get fleas. My dog's gonna get fleas. And I think people are so scared of fleas. So, how about fleas? Number one, how do we know if we've got fleas? Well, for me, a flea comb and you'll see like little black spots. That those black spots put them on a tissue, uh a wet tissue, and they'll go red. So that for me is flea dirt and then blood. So effectively, and I've definitely seen fleas over the last 15 years. We have cats and I definitely know exactly what fleas look like. However, I've never had them on the dogs. Nope. And I think the reason we haven't had them on the dogs, we use that real combo approach. One, we always know the dogs are clean and checked. Yes. Two, our dogs are fed bug canine in every meal, and we feed it, I personally feed it throughout the year. I might go down a little bit over the winter and then up a bit through the summer. I'm in the upper bit stage because I went down a little bit and noticed a couple of ticks, so I've gone up a little bit, and and that therefore we we just don't want those ticks.

SPEAKER_00 16:27

And the what I love with bug as well is that you can do that. It's a powder. So you get a little scoop that you put into your dog's food, and I was like, And you can up to double dose. So you can double dose. So you can you can do morning, evening, or you can double dose just this time of year. Yeah. We have a client in Scotland and she's got a lot of deer around her, and she noticed a couple ticks on her dog. She feeds bug regularly, and she just upped the dose a bit, and she messaged last night and she was saying everything is so much better because of it, which I think is fantastic. But what makes me really feel even better about bug is the ingredients that are in bug, it's not just gonna help with fleas and tick. They're it's really good for your dog overall. So there's ingredients in there that are gonna help with gut health, they're gonna help with their eyes, it's gonna help with the coat and their skin. So I'm feeding something that's got really natural ingredients that, yes, my my primary goal is to help stop ticks and fleas and worms, but it's just got so many other health benefits there as well. I feel really good about that. I mean, I try to eat, uh, I've tried to push out of my diet as much as is humanly possible ultra-processed foods. So why why not do the same for my dogs? That's a healthy food.

SPEAKER_02 17:32

It makes it makes complete sense. And when I read out the ingredients, we've got inulin, we've got pumpkin seed, we've got black cumin seed, we've got fennel, we've got ginger, we've got cinnamon, we've got fennagreek, peppermint, zinc, selenium, vitamin A, and then probiotic. I mean, it's just lovely ingredient. Like everything about it is is and it smells great.

SPEAKER_00 17:49

How does it smell? It smells like a curry. And I honestly can't say that I've ever smelt a flea or tick treatment that smelled nice.

SPEAKER_02 17:55

Yeah.

Easy Ways To Feed Bug

SPEAKER_00 17:55

They just don't. And this, I want to eat a curry after I've mixed it up with my dogs. And one of the questions I get a lot is how do you what do you do with bug? How do you feed it to your dogs? I did a live last night on the AO canine page, and what I did was a really quick and easy way to feed it to my dogs. I took some kefir, kefir, I mixed in, I had a beet, cooked beet that was floating around in the fridge, I did a little smoothie with it, I mixed in my bug canine, and then I put it into little ice cubes. So this morning when I got up, the dogs went outside for a toilet. As they came back in the house, they each got an ice cube. So they've got their dug dose of bug. And I quite like doing that because it makes sure that I remember it's really easy, it's all prepared ahead of time. I batch prepare. You could put it in your bone broth.

Toxins In Your Home And Bed

SPEAKER_02 18:40

You could put it in your for me, I often put it in my Kong mix or my bone mix or my trachea mix. So my dogs get it in something. And I I think it's just a really important part of our dog's world now. Yes. That we wouldn't be without it. I think one of the other things that's really worth noting is that when you subscribe and you save to it, you effectively always have it just arrive. And that's something I've fallen foul of lots of times. Yes. Like don't cancel your subscription. Keep your subscription because I even even us who who use it and love it and and um take a big um sort of pride with the AOK9 company, it's so easy to forget that we need it. So for me, I need I I realised what when I had a tick, and I was like, Why did I didn't have a tick myself? But I mean it's possible. Um but for me it was that moment of oh Lauren, you know better. Like, come on, just keep up the dose. Keep up the dose. Yeah. I put it in my squeezy tubes for my dogs, I put it in loads of different things. Now, when it comes to your household and the chemical toxic sort of treatments, I think that was another wake-up call for me. Your dogs roll on your carpet, yes, they rub along your sofas, they lie in their beds, and then their beds go in your washing machine, sometimes along with your stuff too. Yes. Um, and these, like, I suppose remnants of chemical toxins, they're gonna be there.

SPEAKER_00 19:57

Absolutely. I I get asked all the time, do you dogs sleep in your bed? Mine actually don't, because I like my sleep far too much and I feel bad if everybody can't sleep in the bed. But a lot of my clients, their dogs sleep in their bed, it gets in the sheets. The dogs rub up against them at night and it gets onto their skin. It so it's getting on you, and then it's getting into the water and it's affecting fish, it's affecting wildlife. That's just frightening.

A Yorkie’s Eye Issue Clue

SPEAKER_02 20:21

And I think the thing is, like, as much as we don't want to be affected ourselves, we also really have to consider hang on, the whole reason you're putting this on your dog is because you love your dog and you want to protect your dog. Let's not protect them like this. This is like a horrible protection.

SPEAKER_00 20:35

Yeah, and we had a client that she's got Yorkies, and she had this issue with dry eye. And she was going to the bets, they did allergy testing, they were gonna flush out tear ducts, they were trying to figure out what was going on with eyes. And she started record keeping and tracking when the eye issues were occurring. And what she found is it was happening after she was doing the monthly subscription to her bets for the flea tick and worm treatment. It was always occurring right after she had those done. And when she questioned the vet, the bet said, Oh yeah, neurological issues can be a side effect. So she switched to bug, she stopped the treatments. Her little Yorkie's eyes are perfect.

Hands-On Checks And Better Questions

SPEAKER_02 21:15

It's insane, isn't it? So actually, those little subtle changes. And just flicking through our um our fact sheet, and actually there are so many things that we we could consider that maybe we haven't considered. Yes. So one of those, just a simple preventative, is always check your dogs. Yeah. Like keep your hands on your dogs. Hands on dogs, feel your dogs, look at your dogs, like look for my friend was trying to tick tweezer, she she uses bug, actually. She thought she had a tick, but actually it was skin tag. And I was like, how long have the skin tag been there? But she was trying to take the skin tag off with a tick remover, and I did correct her quite quickly on that one. Should the tick's not coming off? I said, It looks like a skin tag. Yeah. So do know what they look like. Armpits, groin, between toes, round ears, back of neck. We typically see them there if we're gonna see them. Probably a level of education. Why do we want people to share this podcast?

SPEAKER_00 22:05

Gosh, we've got to get it out there because one in third one in three households has a dog. At least one dog. And that's a huge number. There's so many dogs in the UK during lockdown. Dog ownership boomed. So let's educate our owners because almost half of dog owners, they're they're not even keeping up with tick treatment. Like they don't even know, but they don't even know what they what they are.

SPEAKER_02 22:29

Right. They don't even know what they are. No. So I I think that's really as in that they wouldn't even know what the risks are. They wouldn't even know what the risks are. And then ticks carry limes, I can never say it, babesiosis, loads of. Other tick-borne diseases. Yes. Like loads of tick-borne diseases. So actually, and and babesiosis has been confirmed in the UK. Yes. So actually, these are things that we need to consider and get on top of because there are so many sort of dangers if we're not looking after it. So for me, bug canine, probio, shroom, those are my triple, triple, triple like go at it and look after the immune system. So what about worm resistance? Actually, we know that that's a problem.

SPEAKER_00 23:10

It's increasing. Worms are becoming more and more resistant. And when you look at a parasite like Gyardia, there's very few treatments for it. You can't just take an average worm treatment.

SPEAKER_02 23:21

And it's really hard to get rid of. The really sad thing for me is that the vets don't carry things like bug canine. The vets carry things like I can't remember the name of the Simparica, I think it is. Yes. And Nextcard and Advantix and Drontal and all of the nasties. All the things I just really wouldn't give my dogs. Like I really would you couldn't pay me to give them to my dogs. No. And we know that bug canine repels, we know that it doesn't sort of have the nasties there, and we know that it works to repel, needs to be used consistently and is one of your daily actions. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 23:53

So uh use bug canine and then worm count. Yeah. And check your dog to see if they've got fleas and ticks. And then if they do, speak to your bet. But go in there educated and knowing exactly what you're doing to your dog and how you're impacting your dog.

SPEAKER_02 24:06

So things we can be doing on a daily basis to improve our dog's sort of overall well-being, health and gut and everything else. So for me, my bug canine, my shroom, my probio, my hands on my dogs, my running my hands over them, my check, my checking them and knowing what they maybe do or don't have. What else could we be doing?

SPEAKER_00 24:25

Healthy diet is really good, really important, like making sure we're feeding them good, healthy food, making sure that you educate yourself as well. So, like share this podcast so that other dog owners know about the impact that they're having on their dog. What boggles my mind a little bit, I just don't quite understand it. Your vet is the same vet that gives you the recommendation on the horses to worm count. It's the same vet that's telling you that you should put chemicals in your dog for worms. And that's prevent worms.

SPEAKER_02 24:53

If you have a really good vet, I think sometimes they're questioning it now too. Yes. My vet Jamie, he really questions it. Yes. So Jamie's like, I would go down the worm count route. And I love that now that actually he's starting to like like acknowledge it. Yeah. But he is a he is a small animal and a horse vet and a and a sheep vet. He does a bit of everything.

SPEAKER_00 25:11

He's seeing the worm resistance, he's seeing all of that happening.

Subscribe And Share The Message

SPEAKER_02 25:14

I like that because you're starting to bew them. So, Michelle, all in all, we're telling people subscribe to Bug K9. Yes. Get your percentage off. Enjoy the fact that you're doing a good thing by the environment, your dog, and ultimately looking after yourself too.

SPEAKER_00 25:28

Yeah, and it's everything in it is natural. It's all really good for your dog. So not only is it going to help with fleas, ticks, worms, it's just going to be overall, it's going to help your dog be healthier and live longer.

SPEAKER_02 25:39

Bug K9, AOK9, share it with your friends. It's a bug podcast. Fleas ticks worms go away.