Walking The Dog with Emily Dean - Niall Harbison (Part Two)

Episode Date: May 14, 2025

We’re back in Green Park with the wonderful Niall Harbison!In this part of our chat, Niall tells us how he went from feeding dogs on the side of the road, to eventually rehoming a rescue dog to Liam Gallagher! Niall also tells us all about his special connection with Tina - a dog who was found on a chain, after having been used for breeding all her life. Niall’s new book Tina: The Dog Who Changed The World tells her inspiring story and the incredible legacy that she has left. You can get your copy here!Follow @niall.harbison on Instagram Read more about Happy Doggo’s work to fix the world’s street dog problem at https://www.happydoggo.com/Follow Emily: Instagram - @emilyrebeccadeanX - @divine_miss_emWalking The Dog is produced by Faye LawrenceMusic: Rich Jarman Artwork: Alice LudlamPhotography: Karla Gowlett  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to part two of Walking the Dog with the incredible street dog rescuer Nile Harbison. Do go back and listen to Part 1 if you haven't already and do buy a copy of his beautiful book, Tina the Dog, who changed the world, because you'll be helping him to continue his amazing work saving street dogs. I'd also love it if you gave us a like and a follow so you can catch walking the dog every week. Here's Nile and Ray Ray. It's so interesting your story and how this one dog lucky kind of kicks. started it all. Yeah. And then this became not just, it's almost not my choice. It was you had found, I feel like you found your calling that I need to go and see more dogs today. Yeah, definitely.

It just, it felt so good. It felt just, I suppose all paths were, you know, leading towards that. If you take a step back and think about, yeah, the abandonment and the drinking and no purpose and all that, it's obvious. But in the time, at the moment, I was just like jumping on my bike. and go and to feed dogs and it felt amazing. You know, like, very lucky again that I had some savings from the business. Like, you know, I could have had to go and get a job and face the way. I was, you know, driving around on a moped, which was nice. But I needed that after so many years of torturing myself.

And then you kept coming across dogs, didn't you, who needed, who didn't just need a bit of kibble? They needed proper medical attention. Yeah, even lucky, actually. See, I just didn't know anything. Like, I knew basics of, you know, looking after a dog, but Lucky just got a bit weaker. She just wasn't looking right.

And then I said, I'll take her to the vets. And, I mean, it was very hard. I had to borrow a car from a guy I knew. And then I had to, like, catch her because she wasn't the... And then she hated the car. Like, it was all new to me. So I took her to the vets.

And then, like, I now could nearly give her the medicine myself without going to the vets. But back then, they were like, oh, she's got blood power. sites and anemia and I was like oh my god this is you know like I was so opened up a whole new world and then like they showed me that she had a tattoo in her ear which meant that she was already sterilized and yeah it was I quickly realized like that they would actually find food they wouldn't die from lack of food they did always

scavenge something but the medicine and stuff like that was what I quickly realized So it was parasites, ticks. Then you get into like broken legs from the traffic and snake bites and torture. You were also finding dogs as well. Waka is one of the most famous dogs you found who is rehomed and everyone loves Waka. And you called Waka Waka Waka. Why? He's a brilliant dog.

It was very early. Basically I got a call for, I don't know how she had my number. Some crazy Russian woman, not crazy, normal Russian woman, but she was crazy on the fact. and she was like, you have to come here. That is a door. And I was like, okay, okay, I'm coming. I don't know who you are, but like I drove to the pin she sent me. And I rode there and Wacker's head was just like split open. You could see into his brains, like literally.

I mean, the videos are online. You could literally see into his brains. And I was like, oh my gosh, I just picked them up and like flagged down a truck and they took me to the vet. And then, yeah, the woman was like, the first thing they do when you go into the vet is like, your dog's name you know and I was like oh I don't know she was like I need a name I need a name and I was like so I just wrote down whack because he'd been whacked on the head

and she's like Thai she's like okay whack and then I was like on the way home I was like I'll call him whacker that sounds sounds it was temporary but then people message me online and they were like that's a brilliant name a couple of people actually message and they were like you can't call him that that's traumatic for him and I was like he can't read his own name Also, I would argue that he's reowning the trawl. He's taking ownership, saying, well, look at me now. But then he had a cone on and he sort of, like your dog, it was sort of a very regal walk.

So I called him Kingwacker then. And now he's Kingwacker of Scotland. So it's like, you know, nicknames. They always evolve for our dogs. Well, you had Beyonce? Yeah, she's still there. He's still there. Yonze and her seven puppies.

Ryan Gosling. one of them. And we obviously need to talk about Tina. Oh yeah, Tina. Who you've written your second book about. Yeah. Tina the dog who changed the world. Yeah. I'm not going to lie. I mean, I know I'm a crier, but for God's sake, Nile, I've never been in such a state. I was all, you know, all of us who are familiar with your work will be familiar with your relationship with her. Yeah. What an incredible bond it was. And you've written about it in this beautiful book because you come across dogs all the time and Tina was it a fairly typical situation when you found out her or was it well you've probably seen the first

picture of her yeah and I think that's what I saw first on my phone so no I don't think it was typical because when you see that first picture it's just the saddest looking dog you've ever seen I think you know like she just had this big long face and she just looked miserable and that's what I saw first on my phone again I think was a tourist sent it to me. And I saw that and I was just, did I see it the night before or the morning? I can't remember, but I think it was the morning actually and I was like, let's go immediately. You know, drop everything.

Let's go get this dog. And I just remember driving up there with my friends and I was like, whatever happens, that dog's coming with us. You know, like she's so, well, I thought it was a he at first. Because I don't know why I always presume, I just always make these assumptions on dogs. You're always like he or she. So I thought he was a he. But then got up there and she was just on a chain. She'd been used for breeding.

We could see like her teeth, you know, like you could just tell. I didn't even know what the signs were, but you could tell that she'd been. And then started talking to the owners. She had owners incredibly, even though she was living in her own like poop. And they just, they had some big long story about she'd been hit by a car, broken ribs. they always have a story, you know, to try and not lose face.

And there's a big, am I right in thinking that shame is quite a big cultural thing there? They call it losing face, so you're not, if you lose, you have to kind of talk around the subject. You can't be like, you've mistreated this dog, can we take it? It's kind of like, oh, you know, she's a nice dog. I think we could probably do something for her. Would you let us take her into the vet? You know, you have to actually be nice instead of being like, You know, in England or Ireland you'd probably be a bit more brunt, I guess.

But I've learned that, yeah. So got her out of there anyway and rebuilt her. But, yeah, she was just... She came back to... Well, I nearly killed her first, genuinely. I thought she was thin. I was like, well, get her a good meal into her, you know? But she was so thin that there's a thing called re-feeding syndrome,

where if you put too much food into the belly, it sort of can explode. and it nearly did with her. She ballooned up. So that meal I gave her nearly killed her because I didn't know what I was doing, you know. So they had to actually puncture the stomach and it just like the gas came out of her stomach but she nearly died.

But then you rebuilt her back up and she became an amazing dog. Meanwhile, your work is just expanding and expanding, isn't it? And you realise you have people working with you now and then it starts being called the Happy Doggo. Yeah. You were known in the air. Yeah, yeah. There's the Irish guy, let's call him. Yeah. If you see Australia abandoned dog.

Yeah. And Tina, it feels like, who you called Tina, do you want to tell us why? Oh, after Tina Turner, because she was, she was beside me nearly died. The night after she'd nearly died, she was still coming. She's, you know, in a terrible state. And she just had a big tuft of, like, blonde, sticky upy hair. And I was just like, she looked like Tina Turner. So that was, uh... I'm very appropriate, because when you think in some ways, Tina Turner didn't get. great treatment. No, she did her very, but I didn't, I didn't, I didn't, you know what I mean? I got lucky with that because I didn't know that when I called. Really? It kind of fed into the story brilliantly, but I just, it was just the hair.

That was like, and then I later found out that she'd had a terrible life herself, yeah. There are certain other dogs you take in, aren't there? Yeah. How do you make that choice, Nile, about which dogs you keep with you? I try and keep very few with me because what I realized was, there's a lot of people who sort of hoard dogs and they'll end up with 15 dogs and what it does is then it's great for those 15 dogs but you spend your whole life just looking after 15 dogs like even walking 15 dogs is you know like so i just decided i'm not i'm only just going to have my own dogs one or two and then we'll

set up the thing properly to look after that like that's just and why was that because you wanted to help dogs more on a bigger scale yeah i saw seen as suffering and i was just like how can we fix this You know, because I kept just seeing the same problems over and over again, breeding and cruelty. So I figured out pretty quickly, I visited a couple other charities and I saw that sterilising was the only solution, like, so which is neutering or spaying. And that's, otherwise you're just like mopping up the mess, whereas if you can do that, you can maybe cut the problem off at the source. So that was, that's the thinking still to this day, actually. How many stray dogs do you reckon they are in Thailand? It's a hard thing to put a number on.

Eight to ten million. So yeah, that's, which is like the population of London basically in stray dogs. Yeah. So it's incomprehensible for Western people or, you know, somebody walking around here who's never been in that part of the world. Because they'll always say to me like, oh, would you not just take it home or, oh, can you? And I'm like, if you knew what, you know, the scale of it. So if we were in, you live in the jungle. a jungle at Kosamui.

If we were, I know we're in Green Park now, it's hard to imagine, but let's say we were in the sort of, you know, jungle area here, would you expect to see a number of stray dogs

walking past all the time? Yeah, definitely. It's a feature of life there. They have their sort of locations, but like, I mean, the Ritz, the corridor up there. There would be, you know,

six or eight of them hanging around there, which doesn't really sound right outside the Ritz. Can I tell you, if there was, we know Ray would be one of them that was hanging around outside the Ritz. They all have their own little spots and that, you know, there'd be three, what else is they're in here?

There's probably like, you know, the cafe, there'd be six down at the cafe. There'd be somebody who feeds them in a certain spot. And yeah, there'd be, in Green Park, there'd probably be, you know, a thousand dogs. Yeah. So, and these dogs, Narl, and I was fascinated, why I really want people to read your book is what's so interesting is just, it kind of was so educational for me as well, as being very moving. because I guess it's interesting that through Western eyes, of course, I'm looking at this in a very naive way like, oh, let's take them all off the street. And of course, no, that's not practical. And what you're trying to do, a vast majority of the time is make their lives manageable on the street.

And that's through sterilisation. Vaccines. Yeah. Treating any serious illnesses. Yeah. But then that doesn't, you know, that definitely helps. but there's still so many that it's where they interact with humans is the problems. Cars, trucks, cruelty, just, yeah, there's just too many dogs.

Like if you put a million street dogs on the streets of London, there'd be all sorts of problems as well. You know, it's not that Thai people are especially cruel or anything, but you don't want to wake up in your nice house. Even if you're a dog lover, you probably don't want to wake up and have 10 street dogs fighting each other outside your front door or ripping up your rubbish or biting somebody. You know like it's

not, you can see why people would not want them there. But it's interesting how those dogs you have to make a call that when you're taking animals in you can tell that for example if you had Ray if he was on the street I assume

you'd think he's not really cut out for street life. Yeah definitely And the good thing, like, you would get him adopted in about three and a half minutes. I want to go back briefly to your story with Tina, just because it's the most heartbreaking thing. If you haven't been on Instagram and you want to have a cry, which I, by the way, you think it's quite a healthy, catholic thing to do. I recommend it. You need to see Nile saying goodbye to his dog, Tina, who is this beautiful, we think she's part retriever, don't we? I think she's nearly all retriever, yeah, yeah, nearly.

And you knew that her time had come. It had. She was like she'd follow me everywhere and we knew she was on the countdown. But she, we took her up to the, first she came back to my house, which was like a hospice sort of set up and we were giving her drips and all that. But then at the end she just slowed down and it was her last day. And everybody sort of came to visit her because she was friendly with everybody, not just me, everybody loved her.

And then we just, she sat. It was so weird. Just the time was up. You could just tell. the time was up and I just sat in a hammock with her and we were just listening to like Van Morrison

days like this and it was just I can't I'm crying really I knew I would it's so embarrassing I'm sorry no it was just a beautiful moment but like I don't think of it as too much of a sad moment obviously it was sad but the alternative was

she would have died on her own on the chain and never knowing that happiness so I think what makes me sad and I am crying and I'm so embarrassed this is your dog and I'm crying sorry no not the only one I do plenty to other people cry when they talk about Tina yeah I don't know what it is about her but she really got everybody it was when you played tiny dancer yeah that just was so unfair yeah she was a real but I'm telling you she she died the happiest dog ever because she didn't have any pain she was listening to the music, she was in her

hammock. With her da-da. Yes, it was really the happiest. She didn't even notice that she was dying. She was what would have been sadder was her dying on her own in the chain which she was about a week away from. You gave her that incredible life and all these things you did for her like when you

release, because she loved tennis balls and you released 100 tennis balls out of the tree for her to chase. But we do that like and then we took her on scooters and every, like she just loved any adventure. But I do those things nearly as much for myself and the other people because it's so hard what we do. But everybody has those memories.

Sometimes I think they're looking at me. They're like, what the hell is he doing up a tree with like a bucket full of tennis balls? Like we've got dogs to fix here and stuff. But I think those things are important. It can all be like, you know, misery and... Do you know when I read that, Nile, I wanted to tell you, it completely inspired me. because when I read that, and this is why I think everyone should read this book, I mean, whether you've got a dog or not,

but particularly if you have a dog, I think, when I read you doing all that stuff, that you got this diagnosis with Tina, and you knew she had kidney failure and it wasn't going to last long. Yeah, yeah. And what you did was say, I'm going to make every day special. Yeah. And do you know what?

When I read that, it's really weird. I was really motivated. I thought, Ray, we're going to go to your special part today. Yeah. Not the rubbish one that Mommy likes because it's just down there. the road and it's easy. I'm going to get in the car and drive to your snooty park that you like because it's smart and then the grass is all nice and I fed and I bought him chicken and what I'm saying is if you read Niles Burke you will spend a fortune on your talk and you're really

spoiling. But it's good to remember like it's not as if I'm out there doing those things every day like my life is sometimes I get home and Hank who I've got at the moment I'm like oh for God's sake where have you got all this energy do you know what I'm like I'm some sort of angel that you know, gives him the... Like, life is hard, you know. Like, sometimes Hank is huge, the dog I've got at the moment. And Hank you found, again, was obviously a street door. Where did you find Hank?

He'd been abandoned a few times and he... Can you just want to say what Ray did? He just ran away from me and jumped into Nile's arms. He's... Yeah, Hank's a huge big... A big hole in his neck full of maggots and stuff, but... How was it?

He just... What I was saying is just that it's... yeah you do have to do those special things you have to remind yourself but dogs are great like that like even we're out here walking and I know it's a podcast and that's what you do but like they force you to go and do things like even if it's just a walk in the morning

like who was I was listening to Rory's book you know Sophie from Romania he was he came on my podcast do you know Ray and Sophie actually got on oh did they yeah well we were nervous and Rory had said I just want to he's very responsible now I think you'd really like him because he had said

look we need to take it easy he's thinking of Sophie and Ray's used to meeting dogs but Sophie's a bit nervous so he was very good we got there and we didn't take Ray past the gate it's all that stuff you'll understand it's territory but Sophie really like Ray I think because Ray is frankly he's used to me

being very fragile and bursting in his ears all the time they'd probably pick up on it but yeah you lost Tina, but what an incredible legacy that she has left. Because ever since she died, you decided you're going

to sort of almost expand the work you're doing in her name. You almost made a pledge to her, didn't you? Yeah, well, I was doing all of it already, but when she died, I was just like live like Tina, like don't be scared of anything. Because I was always scared of like, oh, like even raising

money, you know, like you raise some money and you're like, okay, we've enough to do six months and I'll put a bit aside in case you know I was just like just go bigger like just this is such a big problem you have to fix it like what would Tina you know like she just lived in the moment as if you know there was no tomorrow and so I tried to yeah I just I just said right let's let's just go very big and so yeah we sterilized now 80,000 dogs since she died which is amazing because it means that like that's probably

800,000 puppies that won't come in. We've got the hospital now. I've just, I've got pictures on my phone. They're like doing stuff on the... So are you building and you wanted to build this hospital? Yeah, so they're building that in the background and we've got a field hospital just beside it which is like...

It's nearly like a proper hospital but... You're using it until the... Yeah, until the ones built because I just got so frustrated. But we've got all the machines... It's almost like you're quite an impatient person now. Yeah, you can pick it up on that, yeah. But if you saw the suffering that they yeah yeah you would want to do something immediately yourself so it's yeah we're treating dogs

there's a dog in there at the moment chance she's getting her operation all done at the moment and and there's some very flashy New York architects who contacted you and said we'd like to do the plans yeah there's amazing people are so kind like they I don't know what their normal price would be but like they're designing stuff like you know like the shard in New York or like the top end stuff. They just message and said, look, and we love Tina. We want to do this for Tina. It was a lovely man, Danny, and he's, I think he was an alcoholic as well.

Yeah. Yeah, it's incredible. And one thing that I love is that Tina is going to be at the center of that building. She is at the moment. She's literally buried right beside, and then the whole thing's going to be built around her. Yeah, so she's got an unbelievable legacy. So I've done it, like, I did the sterilized. in the hospital and the book so she's got a good old send off but more

importantly is she kind of keeps me going like in terms of there's definitely times where I would have not given up but like just being like it's so hard I would have been like she anytime I struggle with I'm just like I'm just picture her face and I'm like push on and so she's a good motivator in that respect you must see that connection that you're you're giving those dogs love and you're helping those dogs in the way that you would have helped your mum but you couldn't. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's right. I mean, it's, yeah, definitely. I never really, you know, you don't write down on a piece of paper and draw arrows that that's what it is. But I mean,

when you say it like that, I think it's pretty obvious, isn't it? It's like, yeah, trying to just dedicate my life to helping them, yeah. And I'm interested that also. Also, we all know people who are in recovery and suffered from addiction, part of that, certainly the AA process, is, you know, you're making amends. That's part of the whole process, isn't it? You write letters to people you've heard. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think I see this as making amends to the world on a sort of global scale. Yeah.

Do you know what I mean in a way? Yeah, definitely. Well, I think humans are responsible for dogs. Like we domesticated them. And all that sort. And then it's like everything, we just chucked them away. Like, same with, like, the oceans and plastic. And, like, I just think we're responsible for dogs.

And because, like, you should see them, like, they're not very good at survival on their own. They can eat and they can, but they're, they struggle, you know? And it's at our fault in all, essentially. Because when they were wolves, they could survive on the road. Yeah, and we've just, like, cast them aside and don't even, yeah. I mean, even, yeah. It's definitely our fault, yeah.

So trying to fix it a little bit. And that must... I think when you come across cruelty, that must be really hard because you've also got to keep your call with these people. Yeah. Cruelty's hard yet, definitely. I think poisoning is the worst.

I've seen dogs like six dogs poisoned in one go and you're watching them die slowly from the poisoning. That's the... Like, I've seen dogs shot, and believe it or not, that's not as bad. because like I can kind of nearly get my head inside they're like okay the dog's in my garden or you know my area it's eating my chicken or something

shoot it right so there's like you could maybe understand that but the person who's gone out and bought the poison you know they've had to go to the shop they've had to put it into the dog food and lay it out for it's more like premeditated if you know what I mean like that's the one that really gets me when you see six

perfectly healthy dogs all poisoned in one go it's like Jesus how do I pick myself up after this one you know yeah I want to ask you about Liam Gallagher yeah because he adopted one of your happy dog go dogs yep and we should say loads of people well not loads but you do have a fair few people adopting from all around the world particularly sort of Canada UK yeah Ireland. England. And Liam Gallagher got in touch with you about adopting this puppy you had. Yeah. It's so funny. I came in one morning, or woke up one morning,

and we have a spreadsheet thing, like a form on the internet and you can put your name in and you know, to apply for a dog. And I looked at it and it said Liam Gallowher. And I was like, oh, geez, that's, you know, I was like, it's unusual. But it's. very common name so it's fine then the next line was like occupation and it said singer and I was like oh it's my bloody like my mates are clearly winding me up like there's no way and then the next line was like do you have a partner or something like that I think it was and it was his name Debbie has his wife or partner yeah I don't know if it's his wife or partner but one of the other and I googled that and it was his wife and I was like okay it's an elaborate

at prank. They've really researched it. And then the next one was like her address of her company and so. So I was like, holy, this is, this is the real Liam Galler. So we like laughed about it. We were like, what the hell do we do? Like, we're like, okay, well, we've got to like, you know, do the an interview. Like, we've got a whole process where you interview them and check if they got a, you know, a house or cats or all that. And we're like, I was like, I can't like make Liam Gallagher do the interview, can we? And we're all like, yeah. So we're all nervous doing the interview.

It literally just Zoom came up. And it just came up and it was like Liam Gallagher on the other end of the. And then I sort of told myself, I was like, okay, it's obviously Debbie. Because it's predominantly women who follow the dogs. And I was like, she's obviously followed the dog. I'd say 7030. She's obviously followed the dogs and she's like dangled Liam. to get our attention because loads of people want the dog.

But then he comes on the call and he's like, he's like, ah, that Buster's a mad bastard, isn't he? He's like, what about Tina? How's she doing? And he knew every character. He'd been watching them on his phone every morning. And I was like, this is the most surreal thing I've ever seen in my life. So it was like, yeah, so they adopted the dog. How lovely, and that was buttons.

Buttons. And he's since gone on to say that he can't be separated from buttons. He's obsessed with buttons. He flew buttons by private jet, didn't he, over to wherever he was, in Italy or France or something. And isn't that funny? When you think of that little puppy who is living on the streets. She just walked into the sanctuary one day. It's unbelievable.

But it's a great, like, not an advertisement for us, but I just think a lot of people, I mean, it is also, but a lot of people would see that and be like, oh, it's cool to adopt a dog. Like, I don't need to get, you know, like, so I think they also donated and, you know, just really supportive without ever wanting any attention for it they're just really good people

actually I always say that like that was about it was just before Oasis reunions I'm putting it down to buttons I was like she softened everybody she got the van back together she was a secret agent we sent in yeah yeah

I often wonder Nile because obviously you've become something of a celebrity through your work on social media and you have, well, it's in excess of a million, isn't it? You know, I have to say, I've had a lot of people on this guest, everyone from Ricky Javis to Jeremy Paxman to, you know, Ed Balls.

And you are the person that I've had the most requests for, people really sweetly getting in touch going, why haven't you had not a harb? Well, he lives in Thailand and he comes over here, which fortunately you have. But I wonder, how do you find... celebrity I hate it. Do you? Hate it, hate it, hate it, hate it.

It's like, even the fact that I could be that or it's thought of as just like, and like people stop me and stuff now in Thailand and a little bit here in different places and I just like because I'm quite introverted and I'm just like I just don't know what to say.

I usually just look at my feet and talk about dogs which is fine. You know it's Yeah, and it's so nice. Like I am, I'm not like a football player or I'm trying to think of other examples like politicians where it's like, you know, negative. Like everybody is just like,

you're amazing, the dogs are fantastic, I love, you know, like there's no one ounce of negativity, but I'd rather be just anonymous. So really, but I know how useful it is for the dogs. So it's a trade-off. And I also know that there's tons of charities in people who don't have any media expose. So I can't complain.

It's not a bad problem. So you obviously, that's interesting, that you obviously don't have that ego wound, some would call it, that a lot of celebrities have, which is why you're chasing love from people you don't know. You don't have that. I know, to me, no, the opposite. Like, genuinely, my worst nightmare would be somebody to, like, stop me on the way home and talk to. Like, I just hate it. And what makes it really easy is.

like it's my phone. I'm filming the dogs, but like so many people watch it, but I feel like I'm just talking into my phone. I don't feel as if there's like, it's only when I come here and talk to somebody like you, there's like, I'm like, oh shit, people are actually, I know there's comments there, like I'm not stupid, people watch it, but it still doesn't feel like it's real. But also you're more isolated from it living where you do. Yeah. Because I imagine in Thailand it feels slightly easier psychologically to get away from that. stuff than it would here yeah yeah yeah exactly you can I can I can hide and look now I would understand that because he speaks me come on Raymond oh look at

this now I love him he's so cool I think he's got a lot of dignity don't he does absolutely what is it you love about dog so much now I think their loyalty and they're just they're simple. They just don't need much, you know. Like he'll go home now as happy as can be. He's at the best day out, he's just, you know,

they're so simple. I don't say simple in a bad way. Like, just... Do you know what I love? I know, you know, Zygman Freud love dogs. And he used to have them in his sessions a lot of the time. And he had chow chows, I think he used to keep.

Right. And he said a brilliant thing which I love. He said The difference, dogs are very different to people because people bite their friends, whereas dogs only bite their enemies. Yeah, that's a good one, isn't it? And you know, it does make you think that, Nile, that you know where you stand with a dog. You do, yeah, yeah, yeah. God, he must only be about like five inches tall, is he?

He's so small. I dare you, Nile. Do you know he's never barked? Has he not, no? Have you ever come across that, Nile? Yeah, yeah, there's some dogs who are very, very. I feel he's a bit less special now. Hello, Niall, come on.

It is interesting the way animals, particularly dogs, how they lift your spirits, Niall? They can, yeah. Do you find that still? Because do you still suffer from depression sometimes? Sometimes, but not, like I would say 5% of what, when I had alcohol and valium involved. So I still get it, definitely.

And it always hits me when a dog dies. I just end up in bed for a day. It just like absolutely gets me. even though you think you can avoid it. But yeah, no, no, it's not like it's totally manageable. But, yeah, they can't lift your spirits, can't they? They can just, at the end of a day especially, or, you know, they just put everything into perspective.

But you're having to deal with that. Is that hard the dealing with, because you're responsible a lot of the time for multiple dogs. Yeah. And I know how hard, you know, we all know how hard it is to lose one dog. But... I'm always worried of dogs dying. It's like I have the dogs I feed, then the dogs who are sick, so there's a bigger

chance that they'll die because they're, you know, there's something wrong with them. And then now I have about like 70, 80 dogs around the world, so I'm even worried about them dying. Like, even though they've got owners and everything, I'm like... Just a dog dying is such a sad thing, isn't it? I don't know why. It's even sadder than a person for some reason, I think. Well, I think...

Because dogs never really graduate from being babies, if you like. They're constantly dependent on us, aren't they? He brings me so much joy. I can't tell you. Oh, yeah, there you. And when you've been through bad times, you know, mine was grief. I went through a really tough time. And I know this sounds like, but I would wake up every morning

and I would go to cry because that was my default thing, was, oh shit, I'm alive. You know what you felt like that? I think time to cry. And then I'd look at him. I burst out laughing because he looks so absurd. Yeah. And then he'd do something silly, like he'd want his food and he'd do that play position. And I would set you up for the idea.

Even that makes me laugh. No, they can. Or they get you out of the house or they, you know, they get the... He likes the ladies as well. It's awful. Sorry, girl. No, honestly, what an incredible man you are. Oh, no, it's just...

How do you feel hearing this? Do you feel a bit uncomfortable if you'll be honest with me? Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. I always try and change the subject. Even, I have to go and do the book sign and I know it's just going to be like two hours of people saying, oh, you're incredible, you're fantastic. And I'm just like, oh. Why?

Well, I mean, I don't know. I just, I don't know, it's just awkward, isn't it? I don't know. Do you think it's because you worry that people will question why you're doing it? Yeah, yeah, definitely. that definitely. Do you know what I mean? They might think, oh, 100% 100% Yeah, but then I would say but it's so genuine when people are like I'm not joking there's people there I guarantee you to be there somebody there tonight who's got like

cancer for example and they'd be like oh mcmuffin help me get through the you know so it's like it's so genuine but it's um that's a lot to it's quite lot fresher It is, yeah, or I get quite a lot of suicide notes and that type of stuff as well, which is really have to be kind of nearly careful how you deal with it. So you have addicts and things reaching out as well. Yeah, yeah. Which is fine. Like, I always remember when I was addicted, I used to watch anything to see, you know,

like celebrities or I used to like Ronnie O'Sullivan Snooker player, he has depra really bad. So I used to watch his interviews and stuff and he'd be talking about it and I'd be trying to get like, So if I can ever talk to somebody, I genuinely answer probably 50 a week, just like, lighter ones. But then if I get somebody saying, like, you've stopped me from suicide or if you do exit, I have to like really like not answer because I don't think you can get drawn into like, you've got to just say like talk to the. You've got to advise them to talk to mental health professionals. You're like you're not the like it's hard enough keeping my own show on the wrong. road, never mind. Yeah.

But people are, there's people out there struggling everywhere, you know. What an incredible legacy you will have though, and this hospital for Tina, are you genuinely going to call it what you said you're going to call it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Tina's hospital for dogs who aren't doing so good. It's a zoo land of tribute and I'm loving that. Yeah. And she would have loved it. Exactly. I know. People say, oh, dogs don't have sense humour but I don't know

I think they can be so silly and playful Some of them do like Wacker would have a sense of humour for sure And do you know when I saw those pictures of Tina with the pink motor songwises on She was loving it with you looking like Wallace and Grombe Yeah yeah no offence but you would definitely The Moundcapp inventor 100% she was she was just happy to be involved

Like you could have taken her anywhere and she would have been like that Look at this guy with his Alsatian that's lovely Oh do you get a lot of Alsatian type dogs on the street now yeah a bit of a mix

yeah some like not full isn't that a sweet doggy he's got lovely big ears hello doggy it's so cute hello oh it's so cute

we were talking about this earlier but one of the things I love Nal is how it's like you've sort of rejected capitalism in some ways yeah I think I think there's some of that I mean you still need

to like the stuff we do is not free, so I haven't rejected it totally, but I just hate the, like it's nice in here, but like I said, that restaurant last night where I was just watching people and I was like, I was just watching like, there was a girl like scurrying into her like gym class and she was like angry to get there on time, do you know what I was just like what she going to do then? Like go and just I was like to, I was like, oh go and live somewhere nice people. There's a nicer life out there.

It's so weird, isn't it? I can imagine you're really aware of that when you come back here. Yeah. But then it's not, like, there's no museums, culture, anything on the island. So you don't have any of that stuff, you know? Like, there's a lot of stuff that you miss. Although I don't know, no, having read your books and followed you online, I am literally, every day I get closer to saying...

Just packing it all up. Thailand and the dogs here I can. You must get loads of people contacting you, so. Please can I come and volunteer? Can I work for you? But we should say at the moment you're not set up to do that. No.

To be honest, I'm just so focused on the dogs that a lot of places do it because they want to like raise money and they can charge people to come and visit. But I just think it would turn into like a tourist business then, you know? Like I just want to help the dogs. I don't want to... You don't want it to be Camp America?

No, and it would be like people would be. I just really... It wouldn't help. the dogs. Well like you say and what's very clear from reading your books which I really recommend

because they're so brilliant is that it's not all sort of you know snuffling a Labrador I mean it's like there's a lot of very difficult it's like being

sort of an ER as well at some days or like triage yeah yeah yeah yeah doing triage you're having to you know there's maggots in dogs sort of necks and

but you sort of get yeah not blaze not the words you get over that you don't you don't even really it's like a nurse or something you wouldn't even think about it's more the the trauma yeah the cruelty and stuff like that yeah of course of course when there's no reason for it well what a wonderful man you are now and we have so loved meeting you and I really really urge people to buy your wonderful book but every penny goes for Tina's hospital I don't I don't keep any of it myself it's all

All for Tina. I mean, the producer, who is Gen Z, so much more decent than my Gen X generation, let's be honest, is virtually on the floor? Yeah. So is it all of the proceeds go to the hospital? Everything, yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't...

She's crying. It's, yeah, that's... I don't need, I don't need much. So, and the hospital will be expensive to run, so we need it for that. Be kind to dogs, that's the moral of the story. No, we have so loved meeting you. Oh, it's been lovely.

How long is your podcast, by the way? Because it's normally you go in and it's like, I love it. I love the chats. Normally you go in and it's like, no, we don't do it like that. Yeah, that's much better. Do you think so? Yeah.

Do you know what, no, when I started it, the reason I wanted to do it over a dog walk is because I think you go into studios and it feels very sort of, you're facing someone. Yeah. for a start and it's all a bit constructed and you're doing a studio voice

whereas I think people are at their best over a dog walk. You like you let your guard down you just talk like you're not it doesn't feel like a podcast that's compliment to yourself as well just doing it to professionally well how lovely what a lovely man you are to interview

and what a lovely man you are anyway please do buy Niles wonderful book Tina the Dog Who Changed the World please do also give what you can to Happy Doggo because you do accept donations online by your website. Is that right? Yeah. You can give monthly.

Yeah. But just don't even feel pressure. Just go and watch the stories is always the nice. And then you'll find it. People always find a way to contribute. I never kind of pressured them. You don't push that donations. Why is that?

I just find when you go, like charities when you go on and it's like charity porn nearly if that's a word. I don't know if that's how you say it, but they just try to put that most graphic terrible and it's like send money now. we're going to close down, we're going to, animals are down. I just, I think you scroll past that, you know, like people. That's true, they get inspired more by seeing Tina's story.

Yeah, and you know, you feel like a difference has been made. Yeah. I don't know, just try and keep it positive. Nile, we love you, Nile. What amazing man you are. Thank you so much. Say goodbye to Raymond. Yes, absolutely.

You're such a good boy, Raymond. Bye, bye, Nile. How do you say goodbye if we were in? Gergan. How do you say it? Jurgan. Jurgan. I mean, I'm saying it totally wrong.

If there's somebody to tie listening, they'd be like, what the hell is that? That's how I would say it. We love you now. I really hope you enjoyed that episode of Walking the Dog. We'd love it if you subscribed. And do join us next time on Walking the Dog wherever you get your podcasts.