None of us like to leave our pets home alone. Some of us have the luxury of working in a dog friendly office, while others work from home, but the majority of pup parents have to say goodbye to their best friends every morning so that they can bring home the bacon.
What does this have to do with the gourmet meals I mentioned in the headline? Don’t worry, I’ll get back to that later.
DogVacay, which is in the business of looking after pups when their humans have to leave them for an extended period of time, wanted to know how this affected pawrents and their relationships with their dogs.
The company surveyed 2,000 dog owners in the United States. They discovered that the average pup spends 2,080 hours home alone each year. This time is a culmination of human work habits, general outings, and vacations.
60% of the dog owners who took the survey say that they worry about whether or not this much time alone will have any long term effects on their best friends.
There’s no data out on that concern, but what DogVacay did discover was how people are hoping to assuage their guilt over leaving their dog home alone. As it turns out, guilt is delicious, well, delicious for dogs.
Humans are emotional and we also get really, really hungry when we’re emotional. Who hasn’t eaten a pint of gelato when they’ve had a bad day?
It turns out that we’re channeling that hungry emotion to our pups and feeding them gourmet level meals in the hopes that they’ll forgive us for leaving them home alone – because, you know, maybe dogs also like to stuff their faces when they’re sad.
Many pup parents feed their dogs boiled or grilled chicken as part of their regular healthy diet. Some, however, are taking things to the next level and getting a bit hipster with their dog’s food. By “hipster,” I mean adding quinoa and kale to the menu.
One lucky Tibetan Terrier gets his noms with a side of Hollandaise sauce!
(No one tell my dog that other pups eat this good. He’ll never let me hear the end of it.)
h/t via Daily Mail.
