| rev:text
| - Sending your dog to The Mutt Hutt is like sending a kindergarten-aged child to a selective and elite private institution. First your dog is assessed on her behavior. If your dog is one of those who is accepted based on merit, then you have the creme-de-la-creme of dogs everywhere, and you deserve a proud bumper sticker for your car. On the other hand, if your dog is accepted because you know someone who works there, or if your dog was adopted through second hand mutts (an affiliated service), then your dog is a mixed bag - could be perfect, but also could be very similar to the average dog. Anyway, we fall into the former category. Yay.
So at this point the Mutt Hutt has just confirmed for you what you already know: that your dog is perfect. Well, maybe not perfect, maybe just slightly flawed but who isn't flawed? Unfortunately, flaws are a big deal. If your dog is discovered to have undesirable personality traits such as barking or whining, or ignoring other dogs and not wanting to play, then she quickly loses favor with the staff. You get calls from the establishment for behavioral issues, warning you of imminent danger of your dog no longer being allowed in the program. You wonder if you should be enrolling your dog in a new establishment, especially in advance of your christmas vacation, but your dog is not officially expelled per-se, so you pray that everything turns out for the better. You think there's no way they could expel her - at least she's not aggressive. You try to help by telling them your dog really likes to play fetch, but they tell you that no balls are allowed inside the premise. That's when you realize you sent your tennis star to a school with only a wrestling program - dogs just jumping on each other for fun. Every time you drop off your puppy, if she tries to run away, the staff gives an exasperated look because she's the problem child. You try to ignore their judgmental looks and pretend nothing is wrong, hoping everything will get better soon because re-enrolling her elsewhere when she hasn't been kicked out is a hassle.
One day, your dog has a very bad day... she jumps up on the door. That is the day when the staff says enough is enough. They call you midday and tell you that your dog needs to be pulled from daycare immediately. In a tone not dissimilar to one you would receive when a sweater-wearing private school tells you your child has been kicked out, The Mutt Hutt tells you that she's no longer welcomed back. She's having problems. She's anxious, they say. She's unhappy here, they say. She stands by the door. She always wants to leave. As a puppy parent, you are shocked. My angel is perfect. You must be mistaken. She's a gentle soul, the most amazing thing. The pleas fall on deaf ears. She's kicked out of the program.
Outside the Mutt Hutt, you give a good stare at your problem child because this is her fault - why couldn't she just behave like all the other dogs inside the program. She spends the rest of the day in her crate because she knows something happened and it's not good. Eventually you come to terms with the fact that maybe your dog just needs something different; that maybe you should consider dogwalkers instead. You are still upset that the Mutt Hutt gave you only three weeks to find another boarding location for your dog before Christmas (that's like saying "Good luck finding spots elsewhere... HA!.") But ultimately you are relieved that you don't have to deal with their judgment anymore. Walking in there whenever I went was certainly not a happy event for me, and it was clearly not a happy place for my dog. My dog may not be perfect, but she's perfect enough for me.
So, therein lies the problem of reviewing something like The Mutt Hutt. I am sure if your dog was accepted and is a teacher's pet, then you enjoy the place. If your dog was not accepted or kicked out, you probably have a differing opinion. How else can I judge them besides saying, in my most indifferent tone to their policies and with relief that I no longer need to jump through their hoops and obstacles: "A-OK."
EDIT: Maybe you're also concerned about how the animals are treated and how the facilities are. I don't know, although I hear good things. They don't allow anyone to view the premises, although they have an instagram where they post pictures sometimes.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)