Lucky Dog

[1/11/14 8:13 AM] A new show by CBS takes on a topic we'd like to see more of in network TV: shelter dogs. In Lucky Dog, airing Saturday mornings and premiering this weekend, animal trainer and behaviorist Brandon McMillan, the host, visits his local shelter to rescue "hard-to-love, out-of control, untrained, and unadoptable dogs." Then he takes the dog back to his ranch for training before finding each one a home.

This doesn't seem to be a shoddy operation. According to his bio, McMillan trained as many as 10,000 dogs for television, movies, commercials, videos, and people before he started visiting shelters to rescue dogs, train them, and find homes for them.

"Over 1.5 million dogs are euthanized every year in America because they can't find homes. I'm just doing my part," he says on the show's website.

For the show, he spends each week at a shelter, evaluating dogs before picking one for the episode. Ultimately, he'll save 22 dogs in 22 weeks during the run of the show.

"I can only take one out. That means I have to walk by 99 I can't take. All 100 are very trainable, very place-able, and just as smart as the next dog. Often the one I choose just comes down to one I make a connection with," McMillan told the AP.

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Any videos online?

Not on hulu.

Here's a promo.  And a short segment.  And more short segments from the cbs website. And a longer segment from Brandon McMillan (he trains wild animals too, like tigers, elephants, bears, etc.)  And the facebook page.

*** [9/10/14]

I see the episodes are on the CBS app on my ipad, but oddly not at cbs.com.  Wait here it is on cbsdreamteam.com.

*** [9/13/14]  Hey, I see Lucky Dog is on Hulu too.  Maybe it was there for a while, but I never took notice.  Actually now I see it's on Hulu Plus, but not on Hulu (the opposite of Good Dog!)

[10/31/24]  I believe Lucky Dog used to be on Pluto, but no longer.  I'm disappointed that Paramount+ doesn't have any episodes since the show airs on CBS.

I do have some episodes recorded on YouTube TV and now they're showing somewhat repackaged episodes with Brandon McMillan titled Lucky Dog: Reunions.

I see that some seasons (4,5,6) are now on Xumo on their XPlore channel.  But its somewhat difficult to navigate to.  Go to Xplore on the Live guide and click OK.  That plays the current show airing.  Click down, then click right to go to Network Info.  Then click OK.  From there, there's a number of On Demand shows you can access including Jack Hannah's Wild Countdown Seasons 1-5, Season 6, Season 7, Season 8; The Henry Ford's Innovation Nation Season 1, 2, 3, 4-5; Ocean Mysteries with Jeff Corwin Season 1, 2, 3, 4, 5; Journey with Dylan Dreyer Season 1, 2; Rock the Park Season 2, 3, 4, 5; Game Changers Season 1, 2, 3; Lucky Dog Season 4, 5, 6; The Voyager with Josh Garcia Season 2, 3; Ocean Treks with Jeff Corwin Season 1, 2, 3.  They're currently showing Oh Baby!, but I don't see it available On Demand.

Over on the Rovr channel on Prime Video, they were showing Lucky Dog.  But no On Demand is avaialable.  I believed they early were showing Kel Mitchell's Best Friends Fur-Ever earlier, which I wish was available On Demand somewhere. 

[2/3/25] Dabl is now playing reruns on Best Friends Fur-Ever on Sundays.

[3/25/25] Lucky Dog: Reunions is now on Paramount+.  They have it as Season 12, so apparently they regard it as a continuation of Lucky Dog.  Trakt.TV has Lucky Dog only going up to Season 10.  TMDB similarly has only 10 seasons.  IMDb has 12 seasons.  Google has it as a separate series with 2 seasons so far.

dog years

[7/5/20] Dogs do not simply age at seven times the rate of humans, scientists have found in a study that reveals young dogs might be “older” than previously thought.

The findings suggest a one-year-old puppy is actually about 30 in “human years” – an age when humans, at least, might be expected to have stopped running riot with the toilet paper.

Writing in the journal Cell Systems, researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine describe how they focused on epigenetic changes to DNA – modifications that don’t change the DNA sequence but can switch genes on or off.

In particular the team compared the way the particular molecules, called methyl groups, accumulated in certain areas of the human genome over time with how they accumulated in similar areas in the dog genome.

The results, which draw on genetic data from about a hundred labrador retrievers from puppies to elderly animals, reveal every human year is not equivalent to seven dog years.

Instead the situation is more complex, with dogs showing far more rapid accumulation of methyl groups in their genome than us within their first year or so, suggesting they age at a much faster rate. However the rate of ageing in dogs, compared with humans, slows down as the years roll by.

Indeed, the findings suggest a one-year-old dog would have a “human age” of about 30, while by the age of four they’d be about 54 in “human years” and by 14 years old they would be on a par with a human in their mid-70s.

The relationship, the team say, is described by the formula: human age = 16 ln(dog_age) + 31. In maths, ln refers to the natural logarithm of a number.

The team say the work now needs to be repeated in other breeds of dog. But, they say, for young and old dogs, the relationship seems to reflect the ages at which humans and dogs experience particular milestones.

“For instance, the epigenome translated seven weeks in dogs to nine months in humans, corresponding to the infant stage when deciduous teeth erupt in both puppies and babies,” the team wrote in a preprint of the study. “In seniors, the expected lifespan of labrador retrievers, 12 years, correctly translated to the worldwide lifetime expectancy of humans, 70 years.

Prof Lucy Asher, an expert in canine puberty at Newcastle University who was not involved in the research, welcomed the study.

“If we think about ageing in terms of how old our cells are, this new paper is really useful in matching up human and dog years,” she said, adding such biological ageing is important for medical and veterinary health.

But, Asher added, the match breaks down if ageing is considered in terms of behaviours, hormones or growth – meaning we shouldn’t be surprised at the escapades of young dogs.

“Whilst a 30-year-old human might have cells of an analogous ‘age’ to a one-year-old dog, many dogs won’t be fully grown at this time and they will still have unsettled hormones and behaviour associated with puberty,” she said, noting that one-year-old dogs act more like human teenagers.

“The development of dogs is not just a shortened version of the human development, which is why it’s difficult to find a clear match-up between a dog’s age and a human’s age.”

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[1/5/25] Is my dog ‘old’? Vets finally have the answers

Seven dog years equaling one human year is a myth.

The calculation of seven dog years to one human year is a common and persistent myth regarding dog age. According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, 15 human years is equal to the first year of a medium-sized dog’s life. The second year of life is about nine years for a person. After age two, each human year approximately five years for a dog. This more staggered year comparison and the breed-specific differences in aging, makes comparing our ages with dogs even more tricky.

In the new study, a team from the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom analyzed a database of veterinary electronic health records called the Small Animal Surveillance Network. They found that smaller breeds–such as Jack Russell terriers–tend to age more slowly. They might be considered old when they are closer to 14. Larger breeds like labrador retrievers, are considered older almost two years earlier at 12. 

The team also identified the top five health concerns that affect older dogs. The first concern was weight related issues (35 percent), including weight loss and being too heavy or underweight. Musculoskeletal problems including mobility challenges and stiffness came in second at 33 percent. Tartar buildup, periodontal disease, and other dental conditions came in at 31 percent. Skin related problems–lumps, infections, and hair loss was a concern for 28 percent of the records sampled. Finally, digestive issues such as diarrhea and vomiting were a concern for 22 percent.