Page 12 - IAV Digital Magazine #424

iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
Things to Know on Dog Farting Awareness Day
By Julie Hecht
Even before the chil- dren’s book Walter the Farting Dog hit bookstores in 2001, the youngest mem- bers of society have known the truth. Dogs fart. They pass gas. The science- minded among us might refer to fart gas as‘flatus’ (not to be confused with flautas, which might or might not give you flatus). Whatever you call it, dog farts can be silent but deadly, outrageously loud and stinky, even synchronized with a sneeze. In other words, dogs fart like us.
While Walter the Farting Dog delivers on fiction—it is Walter’s flatulence that thwarts rob- bers—recent studies provide actual data on dog farts, their composition and how to make them less stinky. In 2001, researchers at the Waltham Center for Pet Nutrition in the UK published a study detailing a noninvasive tech- nique to investigate dog flatulence in real-time. A special doggie jumpsuit with a tail-hole. A dog fart suit.
Capturing flatus is
not to be taken light- ly. In a section titled, ‘Collection and analysis of rectal gases,’ the researchers describe the outfit they rigged up to assess the farts. The main component is a jacket that looks
like something com- panion dogs might wear in the rain, although this jacket comes with a sulfur gas detecting pump near the dog’s butt. To complete the suit, dogs wear dispos- able paper under- pants to “protect the sampling device from external inter- ference and help maintain proximity of the tubing to the anus.” Like I said, sort of like a rain jacket but with more farting.
dog fart science
But what makes dog farts stink? The researchers took their cue from human flatus, which contains “the atmos- pheric gases nitro- gen and oxygen plus the non-atmospheric gases carbon diox- ide, hydrogen, and methane, also referred to as fer- mentation gases.” Sulfur gases, partic- ularly hydrogen sul- fide, are behind our visceral response of, “EWWWWW! Who did THAT?” This dis- tasteful smell is commonly associat- ed with sulfur-rich foods like cauliflower or broccoli.
To explore the com- position of stinky dog farts, the
researchers took a two-pronged approach. First, the fart suit measured what the dogs were dishing out, specifi- cally hydrogen sul- fide concentrations in parts per million. Second, an Odor Judge joined the team. Yes, someone was assigned to assess the odor of dog farts (and although the study does not spell it out, I presume the job was assigned using the highly advanced method of Who Was Out Of The Room When The Decision Was Made). The Odor Judge (who I hope wore a special sash or top hat) whiffed “each flatu- lence episode and rated the episode on a 1 to 5 scale,
where 5 represented an unbearable odor and 1 was noise- only with no odor. A rating of 2 repre- sented a slightly noticeable odor, 3 was a mildly unpleasant odor, and 4 was a bad odor.” I give you sci- ence.
The Odor Judge’s assessments were then matched to real-time readings from the dog fart suit to uncover the com- position of the most distasteful farts. As in humans, dog farts rated as more unbearable con- tained significantly more hydrogen sul- fide than farts rated as less-noxious.
Can we decrease the stink in dog
farts?
Identification of the stink is merely a first step. Dog fart suit in hand, the researchers set out to investigate which compounds, if any, could render dog farts benign.
In a study of human farts (where subjects first consumed pinto beans “to ensure fla- tus output” – you can’t make this stuff up), charcoal and zinc acetate reduced fart stinkiness. Another study found that Yucca schidig- era reduced stink- inducing hydrogen sulfide concentra- tions in dog poop. While those sub- stances are avail-
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