Latest news with #tennisballs
Daily Mail
30-05-2025
- General
- Daily Mail
Dr Chris Brown warns dog owners to NEVER play fetch with tennis balls
Australian vet Dr Chris Brown has issued a grave warning to dog owners about playing fetch with tennis balls. The Bondi Vet revealed things he would never do as a pet owner - including a popular game thousands of Aussies play with their dogs. Appearing on Sunrise, hosts Natalie Barr and Matt Shirvington asked the animal expert why he's against letting dogs chase tennis balls, as this seemingly innocuous park activity can come with long-term health risks. 'This is a big one so a lot of dogs are absolutely ball obsessed, ball is life... they'd chase a ball but that puts a lot of stress on their joints,' Brown explained. 'You'll see border collies down in the park just chasing ball after ball. They generally get early onset arthritis in the hips and in their knees from the forces on their joints.' It wasn't the only concern the Channel Seven TV host had about dogs playing with tennis balls. Interestingly, the vet explained that the materials and construction of tennis balls are not designed with a dog's mouth in mind. 'The fur on a tennis ball is highly abrasive because it needs to withstand hard courts when you're playing tennis,' Brown said. As a result, the vet noted that dogs who constantly chew on tennis balls are prone to tooth erosion. 'Ball obsessed dogs often have worn down teeth,' he said, adding that this can become a problematic health issue for dogs as they get older. Elsewhere in the interview, Brown explained why pet owners should never feed their dogs more than once a day. 'This is an interesting one,' the vet said. 'Similar to human intermittent fasting, there's genuine research around the fact that if you feed your dog once a day, they will live longer and have a lower risk of cognitive decline-like doggy dementia - compared to feeding them two to three times a day. 'So (feeding once a day) helps to regulate their blood flow, sugar, insulin release and actually means their brain stays younger for longer.' Surprisingly, many pet owners agreed with the vet's advice to avoid using tennis balls when playing with dogs. 'Completely agree with the ball thing as someone who worked in the dog industry,' one said. 'My adult dogs are fed once a day in the afternoon. Always have. And agree with the tennis ball... been there, done that,' another shared. 'The ball theory is true' 'The ball theory is true - my dog just recovered from ball injury and now back to square one with new injury,' one revealed. While another was stunned be the advice, saying: 'Can't believe a border collie can't chase a ball as it effects its joints. These dogs run for miles zipping in and out of sheep - surely a thrown ball can't do more damage?' When one person questioned why ball chasing games would be an issue for herding dogs - which are built for long stretches of running - another person helpfully pointed out that the two activities are quite different. 'The sudden jolting stop to get the ball can tear their ligaments', they responded. '[When they are] herding sheep they are not doing sudden jolting stops close to the ground.' Brown's segment also called out cat owners for a common habit. The TV vet recommended that a cat should never be left alone for extended periods of time - and certainly no longer than 24 hours. 'All the research is now showing that cats actually experience a level of cortisol increase when we leave the house or leave them alone,' he explained, adding that this can result in them experiencing 'more separation anxiety than dogs do'. The revelation stunned Barr, who said she'd always had the impression that cats seemed unfussed about whether people were around or not. 'It's probably a surprise for a lot of people,' Brown agreed. 'A lot of people think that cats are very independent and sometimes a bit aloof. 'They like to give the impression that they don't need you.' The vet said the tell-tale signs of a cat experiencing stress or separation anxiety included a 'sneaky' vomit, weight loss, or 'licking themselves a lot'. Brown said that all these signs pointed towards a cat who is 'actually quite stressed and experiencing extreme separation anxiety'. The animal expert concluded that '24 hours alone is the absolute limit' for a cat to be left alone. 'Don't go away for the weekend and leave them without any sort of care or attention,' he added.
Telegraph
08-05-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
‘I'm 94 and work seven days a week. I'm addicted to it'
Have you taken early retirement? We want to hear how you did it – and what you do now. Get in touch at money@ Your 70s are the new 50s, according to the International Monetary Fund. It argued that someone aged 70 in 2022 had the same cognitive function as the average 53-year-old in 2000 – so they should keep working later in life. And if you follow the IMF's thinking, then working into your 90s must also be the new 70s. That's the case for Derek Price. He is 94, but doesn't feel it – and refuses to put his feet up. He loves working so much that he says he couldn't think of anything worse than packing it in – even taking off the weekends is a no-no. 'You've got to have a reason to get up and about each day, and what's better than knowing I can help the business in the future when I am no longer around.' He is chairman of Price of Bath, the UK's only manufacturer of tennis, racket and squash balls, and works seven days a week because he wants to. He drives the mile commute to the factory in Box, just outside Bath, or on a sunny day he walks. Price joined the business in 1947 growing operations in both rubber balls and rubber components, and now he oversees everything from the machine manufacturing to all operations. 'I'm currently taking readings of our ball compression machine,' he says. He no longer collects a salary, but does it because giving up would be settling for a far less thrilling life. 'I enjoy the challenges of solving problems,' he adds. 'Some people do crosswords – I like the chemistry of making all kinds of rubber balls and the engineering challenges that brings.' Inventions are part of the pull and what sparks his curiosity. In the 1980s, he helped develop the manufacture of rubber cladding for the Ministry of Defence to interrupt sonar signals underwater, ensuring that British submarines wouldn't be detected. It's something he is very proud of. Price didn't even stop working during Covid. When staff were furloughed, he spent lockdown developing a machine to produce tennis balls from recycled ones. He has just had a UK patent granted with his daughter Louise for his invention. 'I'm on a lifetime's pursuit of the perfect ball,' he says. His wife, he adds, is very understanding and now that he also works with Louise, Sunday lunches with the family are a case of strategy planning over roast potatoes. 'I live, eat and sleep the business,' he says. 'I'm addicted to it.' '90pc of my customers are younger than me' Many older workers can't give up work. For them it's not the money – they're addicted to their jobs. It gives them purpose and social connection. In 2019, Peter Duncombe had a heart operation leaving him with heart stents, but despite the severity of such a procedure, he hasn't questioned going back to work. ' I'll never give it up – it's my life's pleasure, ' he says. Family and friends did ask him to take it easy following the surgery, but he ignored their advice: 'I just carried on as I had before the operation.' He left school when he was 19, and after a brief spell working elsewhere, he has spent the last 50 years dedicated to a family-run timber merchant, W Hanson Group. 'I have a two-and-a-half hour round trip to the office three days a week from my home in Surrey to Southall, west London, but I love it,' he says. 'I work in sales and now 90pc of my customers are younger than me.' Now aged 79, it means he currently works for two brothers, Rob and Simon Gorringe, who are around 28 years his junior, and he also worked for their father and grandfather. This age gap, however, makes no difference to him: 'I've watched them grow up – the age difference doesn't even cross my mind.' His job doesn't feel like a chore to him, and the thrill of the sale gives him joy. 'I feel disappointed if I don't do a deal,' he says. A large part of what keeps him there is talking to clients he has known for years and meeting new ones. Even on holiday, he finds himself checking emails. Work, in his mind, is not something that he switches off from, because he doesn't want to. 'Work is a big part of my life,' he says. 'My family comes first but I would say I keep doing it because of the buzz, it's like an addiction that I can't give up.' 'I simply feel more alive when I am doing something' For Laurelie Walter, 'retirement' is akin to a swear word in her house. Aged 78, she says that giving up work for her is a terrifying thought, and not one that she is prepared to entertain. Walter was forced to retire at 70 from her role on the First-tier Tribunal Property Chamber, which deals with disputes, due to stipulations around age. This is a point of resentment because she feels it loses people at the peak of their experience and knowledge. So she took her talent elsewhere: 'I applied to other tribunals which did not have that cut-off date and became a panel member of several others on large infrastructure projects in the UK which I still work for.' In addition, she runs an interior design business and has a holiday let on the Suffolk coast. Walter spent her early life working as a journalist both in the UK and in Dubai. She has what she describes as a portfolio career, and does a lot of multi-tasking. While the money is welcome, it's not the entire purpose – she doesn't relish the thought of giving up work to sit and twiddle her thumbs. 'I simply feel more alive when I am doing something, and I love working with young people too,' she says. 'I don't try to be their age, but I would rather die in a ditch then go on a cruise to be surrounded by lots of retired folk which is what a lot of people my age do most of the time!' Walter says that work keeps her sharp. 'I'm moving between drawing up a lighting plan for a six-bedroom house in Wiltshire to running my Airbnb, while keeping up with technology – CAD drawing skills are a learning curve.' She steers away from conversations with her peers about their various ailments. 'A lot of our age group spend their time talking about their health and I don't want to do that – work gives me a different topic to discuss.' She adds: 'It's the 'organ recital' I want to steer away from. Having too much time to think is not good for you but working and reading to learn more keeps the doctor at bay and enforces living in the present.'
