Man’s best part-time friend

August 20th, 2007

Every so often my wife returns to this, one of the favourites on her wishlist: “Could we get a dog. Pur-lease?”. My usual answer is “Yep, right, sure. How about we do that just after we retire to the South of France” or similar, something that is about as likely as us retiring to the South of the Moon, if you must know. It’s not yet reached obsessional stage with her, and it would hardly be that practical for us in any case, but we have mused over the idea that someone, somewhere should offer dogs for rent, so that you could, say, at the weekend, enjoy taking your preferred pooch for a good walk, and perhaps helping out people who were ill, or were really busy, and who needed someone to look after their dog for them. Something like that. 

Anyway, it now seems someone, somewhere is doing this - welcome to the world of Flexpetz……a Californian concept that’s apparently doing good business right now in the States. With Flexpetz, you sign-up as a member, they vet you (no pun intended!) and whether it’s for a few hours or a weekend, you can get your dog delivered to your door, complete with global-positioning microchip in case you and your rented Rover get seperated. 

 The website features a news clip from a LA TV show where the presenter describes it as a “guilt-free, worry-free, commitment-free ownership” and everyone seems very amused, amazed and accepting of the idea of pet-timeshares.

Only in California, you might think, but apparently the concept is coming over here - with Flexpetz due to opens its first UK office in London later this Autumn. If it does make it to these shores you can bet it is going to be controversial and already the Kennel Club has issued a statement with their deep concerns and misgivings about the idea.

I can’t say I approve of it myself, it could prove to be terribly disorienting for a dog to have a wide range of people all looking after it, and no stability in its life. A dog is for life, surely, not just the the weekend. Â

Entry Filed under: pets