I’m not a dog owner, but everyone else seems to really love their dogs. So much so, that if I offered the following service, most would consider it beneath them as pet owners to take me up:
Every work day, you’ll wake your dog before it wants to get up, force feed it some breakfast, and tie it to a pole at the corner of your street, then go to work. A giant vehicle with no safety harnesses will stop by and load your dog, along with fifty or sixty other dogs, and haul them off to a huge dog daycare center.
The dogs will be crammed thirty or forty to a room, and each room will have one person there to look after them, and make them go through a number of drills and activities that dogs hate, sitting still the whole time, not being allowed to do what dogs really want to do – run around. This supervisor will be unionized and paid based on years of service, with little or no connection to how well your dogs fare under their care. Some are good people who like dogs, though many found veterinary school too challenging and would struggle to gain employment as private dog trainers, groomers, or sitters.
At noon, hundreds of dogs will funnel into one huge room where they’ll eat stuff of lower quality than what you give them at home. Then back to the little room where they’ll be forced, once again, through activities with dozens of dogs of radically different sizes, tendencies, breeds, abilities, and behaviors. Your dog may be a loyal and gentle Lab, paired up for an activity with a few vicious Pit bulls and a Rottweiler They’ll have to learn to adapt.
If your dog acts up, fails to complete activities, resists commands or any other kind of behavior generally frustrating to the supervisor, the dog will be punished, shamed, confined to a small cage, possibly drugged, and you’ll likely get a stern rebuke.
Just before you get home from work, your dog will be carted back to your street on the bus of rowdy creatures, and left to wander home. There it will wait for you to return, and when you do, you will have the duty of looking over a stack of papers sent home with your pet. They detail several hours more of activities you must force your dog to do before it goes to sleep so it can be ready to be awakened while it’s still dark the next day to do it all over.
The whole program will cost upwards of $10,000 for your dog each year, summer excluded. The good news is, you will be forced to pay this fee for all your neighbors, and they’ll be forced to pay it for you via monthly charges on your property value and earnings. Even those with no dogs and no desire to have dogs will pay, and those with tons of dogs will pay the same. Payment won’t be based on the service at all, but on how much money you have.
You’ll send your dog here every day for years, during the most active and formative years of the animal’s life. You’ll have to have special permits and permission to opt-out, and you’ll be treated like a crazy, neglectful person if you do – even if you quit your job just to stay home to raise, care for, and train your dog yourself.
Just about every dog owner I’ve ever met would consider this an outrageously offensive rip-off that borders on animal abuse. Most of those same people beam with pride and “spirit” while putting their children through the same basic routine.