I Hate Dogs and I Am Not a Horrible Human Being

Yellow Dog Roasters Rolls Out Mobile Coffee Bar, Plans Commercial Space

(Photos by Jack Reynolds)

Named after and inspired by family dog Oakley, Yellow Dog Coffee Roasters offers a variety of coffees with a warm and personable attitude. Plans are now brewing for the business, established this year by Wall Township Police Ptl. David Smithman of Manahawkin, to open a new commercial space soon.

Smithman is set to move the roastery from his at-home workspace in Manahawkin to operate fully from the new address at 420 North Main St. (Route 9). He prepares to open a full coffee bar within the year and looks forward to expanding his brand.

"We really try to care for every type of coffee lover, so I'm excited to see what the new location has to offer," he explained.

Yellow Dog Roasters sells over 10 different blends online at yellowdogroasters.Com and rotates the type of blend throughout roasting periods to maintain variety. The brand is also available wholesale at Beach Haven coffeeshop Guapos. The new shop location will enable an even bigger selection.

In the meantime, the company will continue to sell online and cater to private events with its mobile coffee and espresso bar, aka the Coffee Can, a truck Smithman built, equipped and furnished with his father at the beginning of the year.

"It was a fun experience and great way to spend time with my dad," he said.

In addition to the traditional hot coffee, cream and sugar, the truck offers an endless espresso menu. Future plans include an additional cold brew menu and, thanks to the new storefront, Smithman will expand further.

When asked about his goals for his business, the police officer's answer was simple.

"I just want to make coffee for everyone and cater to the average coffee drinker while also making high-quality products," he said.

Overnight patrol shifts sparked his appreciation and curiosity for coffee roasting. The midnight ritual became a special part of his work week and Smithman became increasingly interested in the craft. He wasted no time in buying his first 4-pound roaster before switching over to a 15-kilogram (about 33 pounds) roasting machine, which he now uses to make all of the coffee for his shop.

Coffee beans are rated on a 100-point scale, and premium beans must score an 80 or higher to be considered high quality. With his coffee beans rated anywhere from 80 to 95 points, Smithman explained the manual effort makes the difference when roasting. He hand-stirs the beans during their cooling process to ensure a professional handmade batch. Sticking to a manual roast, he can adjust and fix the batches to accommodate a wider variety of blends. In doing so, he creates specialty coffees for every type of coffee lover.

"I like the human input surrounding the craft," he said. "Sure, I could put everything on automatic, but it's the hard work and care that make a good cup of coffee."

— Rebecca Oldham

The Yellow Dog

In the small shipbuilding town of Danforth, Albert Walker realizes, to his distress, that German sympathizers, spies and draft evaders, by voicing doubts about the United States' involvement in the war, are having a disastrous effect on the patriotic spirit of the townspeople. In order to silence these "yellow dogs," Albert organizes the boys of Danforth into a club, to be headed by a young patriot called "Nosey" White. The boys pledge to challenge unpatriotic remarks by handling the speaker a card labeled "yellow dog." While Nosey is in the home of his sweetheart, Kate Cummings, one day, he overhears her father, Alexander Cummings, in conversation with a group of German spies. Learning that the agents plan to set fire to the shipyard, he informs his father, who rushes to the scene and engages one of the spies in a fight. The spy is shot, and when Albert and Nosey expose Cummings, the German is sent to prison.

Facts About Dogs You Never Knew

Maksim Shchur/getty images Facts about dogs you never knew

Why, among all the animals on earth, do dogs hold such a special place for us? They've been our friends for thousands of years, serving as companions, sentries, warriors, ratters, hunters and lifesavers, and they come in all shapes, sizes and personalities. They are also endlessly fascinating, as any list detailing facts about dogs will prove. And that fascination causes many people, myself included, to devote their lives to a totally different species than their own.

Like most dog lovers, I started out loving dogs because they were cuddly, cute and fun. Then I decided that to really understand them, I needed to learn why dogs behave in certain ways, how they perceive the world and how their genes influence them. I eventually accumulated a houseful of my favorite breed (salukis, in case you were wondering), earned a PhD studying dog senses, and wrote hundreds of articles and 30-plus books about dogs—along the way, storing away loads of random facts about them.

To say that we know everything about dogs would be as ludicrous as to say we know everything about humans. But here, from my 50-plus years of fascination, are 30 facts that will make you appreciate dogs even more and maybe even interact with yours a little differently.

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1. Dogs were the first animals domesticated by humans

Fossil evidence indicates that dogs were domesticated around 23,000 years ago and were the only animals domesticated during the Pleistocene Epoch (aka the Ice Age), but DNA evidence places the date even further back. In 2021, a literature review published in PNAS concluded that domestication began in Siberia up to 26,000 years ago. These dogs were derived from a now-extinct species of wolf and migrated around the globe along with their humans. Some of the oldest-known breeds are the Arctic spitz breeds, Middle Eastern sighthounds and several Chinese dog breeds.

2. Dogs are the most diverse mammals on earth

They range in size from tiny Chihuahuas to gargantuan Great Danes, and they come in a huge variety of body types, coat types, coat colors, ear types and even behaviors. But scientists have discovered their diversity is due to a fairly small number of genes that make huge differences in their looks. For example, 90% of all dog coat types are determined by just three genes: long vs. Short hair; furnished (facial hair) vs. Non-furnished hair; and straight vs. Curly hair. Similarly, surprisingly few genes also control how big a dog is, how long its nose is and how its ears are shaped, among other traits.

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