NZ Folksong * At the Dog-dosing Strip at Dunsandel

Sheep dogs used to get tapeworms from sheep and could pass the

tapeworm eggs on to farmers, giving them the serious disease of hydatids.
As all the dog-owners had to wait around while the vet treated their dogs,

the dog-dosing days were great social occasions.

	By the dog dosin' strip at Dunsandel I fell in love with you My dog was a bit hard ter handle and yours was a bit that way too. I bought in me terrier to get him fixed up And the more was the merrier when you bought your pup. By the dog dosin' strip at Dunsandel I fell in love with you. ___________ By the dog dosin' strip at Dunsandel I fell in love with you By the same liddle strip at Dunsandel the dogs were so romantic too. I knew at a glance it was canine romance when the terrier’s breath came in very short pants. By the dog dosin' strip at Dunsandel I fell in love with you.

	By the dog dosin' strip at Dunsandel I’m goin' to make you mine. By the dog dosin' strip at Dunsandel we’ll be tastin' the sweet bread and wine. 'Cause the dogs gave a lead just fuh you and fuh me, when they both started singin' a chained melody. By the dog dosin' strip at Dunsandel your pedigree was true An' I fell in love with you An' I fell in love with you.

Dog Dosing Strips

There used to be an actual dog dosing strip at Dunsandel. It was located to the south of the town on a strip of grass between SH1 and the railway, and it was clearly marked as a dog dosing strip. This was in the late 1950's, early 1960's.
But after hydatids was eliminated all the dog dosing strips disappeared.

Amonst other diseases, New Zealand sheep dogs were at risk from tapeworms, where the dog and the sheep (or sheep farmer!) are intermediate hosts..

Hydatids is caused by tapeworm larvae that live in the gut of dogs. The tapeworm’s life cycle also involves an intermediate host, such as sheep or human. The host dogs do not show clinical signs, so it is difficult to determine whether they are infected. Hydatids used to cause New Zealanders serious illness, through contact with infected dogs. It was estimated that one in seven cases proved fatal, with the disease killing more than 140 people between 1946 and 1956.

So starting in the late 1950s, sheep dogs were dosed with an anan-thel-mintic to make them pass the tapeworms out onto the ground. The strip of land used for dosing was disinfected afterward so that the tapeworms were all killed. It took a prolonged programme of dog dosing to eliminate the disease.

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