Aniseed Drives Dogs Mad

[razorblimp]

I grew up in Lancashire, in a delightful little new town just south of Wigan. Where I live now there's a sweet shop on the hill, an old fashioned one where the man behind the counter gets a jar on the shelf and weighs the sweets out according to how much you want to spend. My daughter, who is five, of course loves going there to spend some of her hard earned pocket money.

Anyway, at our last visit, my wife bought a quarter of aniseed balls, and happily munched on them on the way home. When we arrived back in the house, the dog, smelling the aniseed, got overly excited and wouldn't calm down until he'd been allowed to partake of the booty.

It made me remember a myth fromwhen I was a kid, that giving aniseed to a dog would in fact drive him mad. Not just mad for the sweets, but stark-raving-bonkers-chew-your-face-off mad. I'd quite forgotten about it until I saw the dog quite happily eating one of the aniseed balls without frothing from the mouth.

It was one of those things that Everyone Knew, and if you ate it around a dog, people, regardless of age would warn you to keep it away from nearby dogs.

Anyone else heard of this?

 

[Anonymous]

I never heard it driving dogs mad. I just knew it was catnip for dogs. Allegedly, it's what hunt saboteurs would use to render the hounds useless for hunting. And I think it's what drag hunts use.

 

[Jerry_B]

They seem to find aniseed very distracting, hence it's use in sabbing. Why it appeals to them so much is anyone's guess!

 

[Anonymous]

Oooh. Now that you mention it, a memory drifts up from the depths.
Years ago, as Cub Scouts, we'd occasionally engage in Wide Games. That is to say, a kind of tag/ hide-and-seek malarkey, but in the dark, in a wood, in the pissing wet. Rumours abounded about the much harder version a local Scout troop would play, in which you hid in the wood with aniseed sewn into your pockets, and dogs, who could smell aniseed from miles away and were attracted to the scent would be set loose to flush you out...

 

[badotaku]

I see a possible avenue for former fox hunters!

What kind of reaction have other dogs had to it? Does it have different effects in different dogs, from people's observations?

Is it cruel?

Do guinea pigs have a substance of choice?

 

[Anonymous]

They seem to find aniseed very distracting, hence it's use in sabbing. Why it appeals to them so much is anyone's guess!

maybe its smells like another dogs bums...any volenteers?

 

[escargot]

Where's Buttock when you need him?

 

[Ringo]

Escargot, Is that what I hope it's not? :shock:

 

[liveinabin]

I understood that aniseed is what is used in drag hunting.
Bag of aniseed draged aross the country, hounds chase it, horses chase hounds everyone is happy.

 

[jarmaniac]

The version I heard was that gypsies intent on stealing a dog would put aniseed in their trouser turnups (the gypsies' trousers, that is, not the dog's) and stroll past the house where the dog was kept. The dog would then follow the smell of aniseed...

The mention of trouser turnups probably dates this one; I heard it from my Dad (b. 1927). I have no idea if it's true. It seems like a weird substance to attract a dog.

He also told me that horses love to eat tobacco (which I'm more inclined to believe, in that he served in a cavalry regiment and knew about horses). Whether they get some sort of hit off it or whether it just tastes nice (to a horse) I have no idea.

 

[Graylien]

I believe some rodents are fond of tobacco too. I used to have a pet rat who would go through people's pockets and steal their baccy. He used to run off with packets of Rizlas too. Fortunately he never got his paws on a lighter!

 

[Leaferne]

I've known horses who liked beer.

I wonder what a dog would do if you used this on him or her?

Aniseed Dog Breath Spray

Guess it would make a dog REALLY interesting to other pooches. Canine Binaca!

I'll just fetch my hat

 

[Yithian]

Oooh. Now that you mention it, a memory drifts up from the depths.
Years ago, as Cub Scouts, we'd occasionally engage in Wide Games. That is to say, a kind of tag/ hide-and-seek malarkey, but in the dark, in a wood, in the pissing wet.

Brilliant! Oh, the memories...

 

[razorblimp]

*heh*

No-one ever saw mobs of rampant canines running over the hills of seventies Lancashire fuelled by aniseed then?