- You guys probably know that I have a pup Husky named Roxy,
and while I thought that it's cool to own a dog,
I think it'd be so much cooler to own a bear.
Meet Bear Varshavski.
♪ Bippity-bop and hippity-hop ♪
♪ I'm as happy as I can be ♪
♪ I'm gonna dum, dum, dum, and zippity zoom ♪
♪ Love is sweet, love is grand, it works wonderfully ♪
♪ Woooh, we bop and zippity-hop ♪
♪ I'm as happy as I can be ♪
♪ I'm gonna dum, dum, dum, and zippity zoom ♪
♪ I'm in love, I'm in love, I'm in love, I don't care ♪
Come on, come on little boy.
Come here, come on daddy's lap.
Yes this is little Bear Varshavski my new pup.
And I know your first reaction, what about Roxy?
Don't worry Roxy's not going anywhere,
she's my little pup forever and ever.
Like most of you know, I do share Roxy with my dad.
In fact, we got Roxy together when my mom
passed away to have something to bond over.
But now a days since I'm living apart from my dad,
I feel awful when I have to take Roxy away from him
and then leave him alone 'cause it makes him really sad
and on the other hand, when I have to give Roxy back to him
I get really sad 'cause want to still have a pup around.
What better way to celebrate being a dog lover,
get health benefits, cheer up myself,
cheer up my dad, and get Roxy an awesome brother
then to get a little Newfie and name him Bear.
A Newfie is a Newfoundland, and I know
it sounds like I'm saying New-fin-land
but I'm saying New-found-land in a way
that it's properly pronounced,
so I'm still learning myself.
This little guy here, right now he's only eight weeks old
he's technically tiny but he weighs basically half of Roxy.
So you can imagine, he's gonna be
probably 150 pounds when he grows up full size.
He's gonna be a huge beast.
The highlight of the Newfoundland breed
is their temperament.
These guys are known as gentle giants
for a very good reason.
They're amazing with kids, they're amazing with people,
they're basically giant people pleasers.
And that's how their breed came to be,
they were working dogs that helped haul loads,
they helped rescue people that were drowning
'cause they're excellent swimmers
because of these webbed huge feet of theirs.
I mean, his paw is bigger than my wrist.
I don't have the biggest wrists in the world, but Jesus.
(dog hiccups)
He has hiccups.
Growing pups always have hiccups,
that's not new, so that doesn't even concern me.
(laughs)
I'm sure you've heard that there are
health benefits to owning a pup,
but do you know exactly what all those health benefits are?
Anxiety and depression.
We know that dogs make us feel good,
but actually they're great at warding off mental illness.
Yes, those who have pups, generally have
less anxiety and less depressive symptoms.
We don't have a clear understanding of why dogs
help with anxiety and depression,
but we know that they definitely make you more social.
And this is great for all ages.
Kids benefit from this.
There was a study talking about how kids
who are autistic benefited greatly
by spending time with a dog, it's great for socialization.
Another point in life it's really good for
is when your 20s and your 30s
and you're trying to find someone new
and your dating and it's not that easy.
Guess what?
Get an adorable pup, go to the dog park,
meet some dog people, 'cause generally
dog people are really awesome people.
I don't know why I did awesome people.
We've talked about the negative effects
of chronic stress on your body
and a lot of that is the result of the chronic activation
of your sympathetic nervous system.
That's that flight or fight response
that keeps you always on edge.
Well guess what, having a dog,
petting a dog, lowers your blood pressure,
calms your sympathetic nervous system.
You get a lot of health benefits from that.
Not only is your heart healthy
'cause your blood pressure is lower,
but in studies when we've looked at dog owners
and comparing them to non-dog owners,
we've found that the dog owners had
lower cholesterol, lower triglycerides,
and that really makes a difference for heart health.
It reduces the risks of heart attack, strokes.
If you can reduce the chance of having one of these
major illnesses and diseases happen to you,
just by owning an amazing dog.
Well this is not directly a health benefit,
I think this is incredibly awesome.
Dogs' noses are 40 times more sensitive
than a human's nose is.
And what dogs have been able to do
is sniff and detect cancer.
Initially, this was just based
on anecdotal evidence, people telling stories
that a dog was licking their lump
and they got it checked out
and found out that it was cancer,
but now we have scientific research on this
to the point where we're thinking
about using dogs in medical care for this.
It's incredible, dogs can smell cancer.
Contrary to popular belief, having a dog
in a household actually decreases the likelihood
that your children will develop asthma,
eczema, or allergies, and that's usually
a trio that runs in tandem together.
Let's get out of science land for a moment.
Not only do you see benefits within
heart attack patients, depressed patients,
Alzheimer's patients, but the biggest benefit
and the most exciting stuff that I've seen research on,
is that they compared people who own dogs
and people who don't own dogs and guess what?
Those who own a dog, drastically
and significantly extend their lives.
And we don't have a clear explanation for that,
whether that means dog owners take more walks
and are more active, is it because they're more social,
is it because their stress levels are lower 'cause they're
constantly petting and playing with their dogs?
It's likely a combination of all of these factors.
What's cool about having a big dog is that
they can serve as guide dogs, as rescue dogs,
they're so smart, they're very intelligent,
they're people friendly, and that combination
is really good for a working dog to have.
Now, I don't think I'm going to be doing
a lot of rescue missions here with Bear,
but what I will be doing is I'm gonna
get him certified as a therapy dog,
and days that I can, I'm gonna bring him
into the hospital for my patients to play with him.
Because he's so calm, he's so friendly,
and a lot of times in the hospital
where patients are sick, we tend to be afraid
to bring humor and happiness into the situation
because we feel like it might upset the patients.
But in reality, patients need a laugh,
they need a good time, those who are sick
need a laugh the most.
So I hope that Bear can be an awesome therapy dog,
we can bring him into the hospital,
maybe we can bring him on a curbside consult with us
and ask people questions on the street with Bear with us.
I hope that you guys enjoy him as much as I do,
there's gonna be tons of pictures of him on Instagram
and all over social media, so please like those.
And if you have a recommendation
for his social media handle please let me know
because I haven't yet come up with one.
I don't know if everyone knows what a Newfie is,
so I was thinking Bear the Newf
might be a little weird for most people.
So if you have a social media handle recommendation,
please write it down below.
If you love dogs, give this video a like.
If you're curious about my other pup Roxy,
who's an amazing Husky, check out
a day in a life Husky edition on my channel now.
Again guys, thanks for watching, stay healthy and happy.
Gentle giants, I mean that's so important to me
especially because I have kids come by,
that makes me sound weird.
(laughs)
I found his spot. (laughs)
Am I mean for doing this?
God, you're going to be licking my face
with your monster tongue when you get bigger,
what am I gonna do with you?
(laughs)
Give this video a like, or a lick.
(upbeat vocal music)