Pet food taster, not a job I would relish, and yet as I discovered there are plenty of them working for pet food companies. Marks and Spencers has a senior 'food technologist' who is responsible for sampling their pet food! He is Simon Allison, and during a recent interview for the Daily Mail, he claimed not only to love his job but also to have trained his palate to 'detect the delicacies preferred by dogs and cats - and their owners!'

According to Allison, he can single out 'materials' that he will not allow in a recipe such as tripe, as pet owners 'react badly' to the smell of tripe! So what counts more, clearly for commercial purposes, is that we pet owners aren't put off by smell or appearance...nevermind the gravy, Toffee my Labrador and I don't share the same tastes...I draw the line at raw meat, and perhaps Simon has a point about smell,since I have gravitated to dry food for my dogs!

As far as the taste goes...wouldn't a pet rather than a human be better qualified to judge?! Apparently humans have more than 9,000 taste buds compared with a dog's 1,706, and a cat has only 473! We know that dogs and cats have a much greater sense of smell than humans (they probably love the smell of tripe!) and this is what they use as an indicator of what they like to eat. Dogs barely chew the food and quickly break it up with their teeth so that quantity in the stomach is more the aim than distinguishing the gourmet mix of flavours..I know the smell of chicken makes Toffee dribble, and she probably dreams of being a food taster, but surely the most important thing is that cats and dogs have very different nutritional requirements from humans, and as pet owners what we need is good nutritional advice for our pets, rather than clever human marketing!

Finally a hint in London that Spring IS here!  When the sun wasn't hiding behind huge puffy white clouds, it actually felt warm...well just! No rain, hail or thunder for a change, so hardy dog walkers were joined by a sun starved and brave throng of people with young children who clearly were getting into somewhat premature picinic mode!!

One trip around the park with Toffee at lunchtime was enough to remind me that I too must go into summer mode, and alter our walking times to avoid those overwhelming picnic temptations...How could a labrador resist?! Toffee needless to say thinks she is invited to all these food tastings on grass, and even walking her on the lead becomes a bicep increasing exercise! So it is back to early morning walks where dog meets dog as opposed to dog eats...leftovers!

Scooby Doo, the cartoon Great Dane and much loved canine detective was first seen on TV in 1969. His name was supposedly inspired by Frank Sinatra when he sang the phrase 'scooby dooby doo' in the song...Strangers in the night.

I would love to hear your 'Did you know' facts and 'Pet trivia'! Post a blog!

If Toffee our 3 year old Labrador could talk, she might have been the one to tell me this this story, but it was my young son who has more than 20 soft dog toys on his bed, all of them very real friends,  who got me thinking when he asked who invented the name Dog!!

I came accross this and thought it was a great explanation!

When God had made the earth and

 sky, the flowers and the trees.

He then made all the animals and all

  the birds and the bees.

And when His work was finished, and

  not one was quite the same

He said I'll walk this Earth of mine and

  give each one a name.

And so He travelled land and sea, and

  everywhere he went

A little creature followed Him, until its

  strength was spent.

When all were named upon the Earth,

  and in the sky and sea,

The Little creature said, Dear Lord,

  there's not one left for me.

The Father smiled and softly said,

  I've left you to the end.

I've turned my own name back to front

  and called you 'Dog', my friend.

I have just discovered a Dogstrology column! Very entertaining and if you believe in astrology you might want to know what the planets have in sore for your pet!! Let me know and we will get a monthly update going on Paws Connect for you!