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Start-up company lets busy people enjoy dog on part-time basis

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20024378/

I`m not sure how to feel about this.  Would you get a part-time dog?

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Oleg Issers | StartupNation.com Web Team

50% of computer programming is trial and error. The other 50% is copy and paste.

I dunno....we already get part-time fish, for only the $13/year of a license. 

People own "shares" of horses, why not shares of dogs?  Personally, the price is WAY STEEP when you add all those together.  I can see the animal rights activists and people who think pets are humans going nuts over this concept.  When we had to give our dog away when our kids were born (he was not nice to the babies), one lady told me it would be better to put our dog to sleep rather than give it away and that people like me shouldn`t be allowed to own dogs - they are not "toys" to be gotten rid of at my pleasure.  I bet she`d have a thing or two to say about this...

But, from a mom who has 8 and 9 year old sons who have started to devote a good portion of every day to "why can`t we have a dog?"  I would be all over it if it was a lot cheaper.

I like the idea of getting our fill of "dog" and then sending it home.  I know that after a couple of weeks, all the promises of "we`ll take care of it!  WE PROMISE!!!!!" will wear off and guess who will be feeding and scooping?  ME!!!!  I`d love to have a dog JUST LONG ENOUGH for them to get their fill but not long enough for me to end up doing all the work. 

~Kim

I think this is sad for the dogs. It`s like we`re making a profit with the latch-key kid syndrome.

Dogs are loyal creatures that usually bond strongly to one or a few people. They become depressed during a divorce, when kids go off to school, or when a canine companion dies. And now we`re going to shift them and shuffle them and make them go between several houses every week, while spending the rest of their time in "cage free boarding"?

It just sucks for the dog.

If you want and love your dog, you will find time for him/her, no matter how busy you are. It all comes down to priorities. Our dog wasn`t well recently and we were making 100 mile round trips almost everyday. I still had to run the business. I just watched less TV or didn`t read any books or....Sam our dog became a priority. Simple as that.

ScrapBizKim -- perhaps you could find a neighbor who has a dog and make a deal with her to buy her a month`s worth of dog food if she would let your kids have full responsibility for 6 months (dog staying at her house) to feed, walk, poopyscoop, wash, dry, and play with the dog.  That would be morning feed and walk, after school walk, and evening feed (if dog eats then) and walk.  The boys have to figure out (perhaps with your help) a schedule of who does what when and it gets posted with you so you know who is responsible to do what and when.

For six months they must do it and the neighbor gets to report.  Sure, you have to give them some leeway at first to learn, but six months is a long time.  If they succeed with no more than 6 demerits (3 each), they get a dog; otherwise they don`t.

It`s probably as close to reality as you can get such as the "baby me baby" used to teach teenagers what results from pregnancy.

The concept of part time dogs is a great idea but not good for the dogs.  Can you imagine if they did that with kids (especially now that mine is getting 6 teeth all at once)!  I`m sure almost all teenagers would be returned!

You either love dogs or you don`t, you either own a dog or you don`t. 

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He who gets greedy like a pig, gets slaughtered like a hog!

True - the dogs would have a hard time with it.  At least when you buy a share of a horse, the horse stays in one place and you go out to where the horse is to take care of it. 

We have offered to dog-sit for our neighbors.  They have yet to take us up on it (usually because they don`t go very often).   But, my kids have dogs in the neighborhood to play with on occasion.  That`s all the dog I need. 

The funny thing about this dog thing is that this is what happens to children of divorce...  they don`t live anywhere really, but just shuttle back and forth between two homes.  And, an even CLOSER analogy to this would be foster kids - who can live in several different homes over the course of a single year.  Interesting that people willingly accept this type of temporary living arrangement for children but not for dogs...

~Kim

 

I don`t think anyone "willingly accepts" it.

I think they (parents) do willingly accept it - because it`s easier than making changes to their own lifestyle.  A judge in the midwest, in a custody hearing, declared that the children must stay in the family home and the parents must be the ones who rotate in and out of the house.  Each parent was to have their own room with a locked door and would take turns living there each week as they had joint custody.  The parents (and others) were OUTRAGED over that decision.  But why?  It was best for the children to have the stability and both parents lived and worked in that town.  But, the parents said it was too hard for them to not have a place to be settled.  Uhh, no kidding...

I think we do believe that children are flexible enough to fit in our lifestyles while we are not willing to be flexible enough to fit into theirs.  My BIL in Cambodia sends for his son at will and his ex-wife willingly packs him off so she can be rid of him for a while.  That child is so screwed up from bouncing between his parents on two continents.  Yet, my BIL could easily move to the US again and be near his child.  But he CHOOSES not to. 

~Kim