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Canine company by the hour

On my last trip to Costa Rica, I was walking along the beach in a small town on the Atlantic coast that’s best known as a hot spot for surfing. There were a number of dogs playing on the beach—catching sticks and Frisbees, sniffing the tourists, and generally having a good time. The dogs may have been strays, or they may have belonged to local residents—the people playing with them did not appear to be their owners. But in any case, the dogs were apparently healthy, friendly, and well cared-for. I’ve always liked dogs, though for a variety of reasons I can’t see myself owning one. Still, that afternoon on the beach, I was thinking that it would be great to have a dog to play with for just a few hours, and that some enterprising person ought to set up a little dog-rental business there to cater to people such as myself who could not bring their own dogs to this remote location.

I filed this idea away in the back of my head along with all the other goofy and implausible notions I’ve come up with over the years. And then one day, I read an article in a local newspaper about a growing trend at luxury hotels and resorts around the world: free (or inexpensive) loaner dogs for the guests. Maybe my idea wasn’t so goofy after all. A few web searches turned up a number of businesses that loan or rent dogs for short periods of time—often, though not always, as a way for tourists to have canine companionship away from home. This idea seemed to have legs, so I thought it merited a bit more research.

BYOD

Although it seems a bit crude to compare rental dogs with rental cars, the concepts are similar at least in the sense that someone else is responsible for major care and maintenance. I’d never expect to rent a car for a weekend and then be asked to take it in for an oil change or a tune-up; and when borrowing or renting a dog, you don’t worry about grooming, bathing, or veterinary care. But these factors are rarely the major attraction to potential renters. Some people like having a dog with them as a way of breaking the ice when meeting other humans (a role dogs perform nearly as well as babies). In other cases, it’s simply a matter of wanting company, a hiking companion, or a playmate. Either way, the availability of loaner dogs is increasingly becoming a competitive advantage for hotels in areas where guests like to spend a lot of time outdoors.

Dog lovers on vacation may be the most visible niche market for rent-a-dog services, but there are numerous other examples. Specially trained guard dogs and hunting dogs are available in some areas for people who are unable to care for such animals year-round but need their special services on occasion. And in some Asian cities, such as Tokyo and Hong Kong, where it’s extremely difficult to find dog-friendly housing, rental services enable people to spend quality time with dogs.

Increasingly, animal shelters and pet stores are using dog rental (or loans) as a way of encouraging adoptions: people borrow pets for a few days, become attached to them, and decide to keep them. Conversely, many people who rent dogs do so in order to make sure the animals will fit into their households and lifestyles before making a permanent commitment. If you’ve lived with a dog for a week and find that it doesn’t get along with your other pets, bothers the neighbors with its barking, or causes a severe allergic reaction, it’s nice to know that you can return the dog with no leash attached, so to speak.

Barking Mad

Many people, not surprisingly, think rent-a-dog programs are an atrociously bad idea. I’ve frequently read complaints to the effect that a dog is a living being, not an inanimate object like a car or a library book that can be passed from owner to owner without any ethical difficulty. Critics of dog-rental services worry that renters may not be trustworthy, that being handled by many different people can create stress and confusion for the dogs, and that dogs who are frequently rented out may have difficulty bonding with their owners. Some people go so far as to say that if you’re not willing to undertake the responsibility of full-time dog ownership, you have no business becoming a short-term steward either.

I certainly agree that dogs should not be loaned or rented out haphazardly; owners have an obligation to ensure that potential borrowers or renters can safely and responsibly care for the dog. But many owners hire dog walkers or dog sitters, or place their dogs in kennels when they’re out of town, so I think there’s a reasonable precedent for giving someone else temporary care of a dog—though, of course, some dogs are more amenable to this sort of lifestyle than others. Arguably, dogs may benefit from increased exercise and socialization with humans, as long as the rental periods are not too long or too frequent.

I have not yet found any programs that rent pets other than dogs. As a cat owner, I think cats would tend to be temperamentally ill-suited to such drastic changes. On the other hand, I certainly enjoy visiting bookstores where cats are available to sit on the laps of browsers. So here’s my idea: an internet café where you can rent a computer with a mouse for $10 an hour, or a computer with a cat for $15. Bring your own lap.

Note: This is an updated version of an article that originally appeared on Interesting Thing of the Day on November 23, 2004.

Image credit: Bruce Emmerling [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons

UNESCO declared March 21 to be World Poetry Day back in 1999, and who am I to argue with the United Nations? It’s a day meant to promote the writing, reading, reciting, teaching, and preservation of poetry, so go generate or consume some lovely words today. I’m one of those uncouth souls who think poetry ought to actually rhyme, or at least have some meaningful rhythm. (I know, so gauche, right?) That prejudice aside, here’s a pro tip: taking an ordinary prose sentence and adding arbitrary line breaks and indentation doesn’t make it poetry, even though a lot of what’s sold as poetry is precisely that. You have to put some work into those words, people. At least give it a solid effort today.

Image credit: Florence Earle Coates [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Bhutan’s bottom line

The tiny nation of Bhutan, located between its gigantic neighbors, China and India, has a different way of measuring its success. Known as gross national happiness, this measurement of the quality of its citizens lives’ as opposed to their productivity, turns the usual economic indicator, gross domestic product (GDP), on its ear.

Gross Domestic Products

Also known as gross national product (GNP), gross domestic product refers to the total value of goods and services produced by a country within a certain time period. This measurement is meant to show the size of a country’s economy, and is sometimes used to track the standard of living, as it is assumed that increased productivity translates into better living conditions for citizens.

There are some flaws to this approach, however. Since GDP does not discriminate between positive and negative causes of productivity, a natural disaster can add to the GDP (because of the resources and work put into counteracting its effects), although the event itself is hardly in the best interests of society. Similarly, environmental catastrophes (such as oil spills) and the ravages of war inflate the GDP while having an ill effect on human life and the environment.

Another deficiency of using the GDP as a measurement of national advancement is that it has an extremely narrow focus. For example, using the GDP measurement, the unpaid work of child rearing and housekeeping has no value, nor do non-monetary transactions such as bartering for goods and services.

In short, the whole sphere of human existence cannot be reflected using the GDP, and in fact, GDP distorts the picture because it counts all economic activity as positive, without the counterbalance of what has been lost in terms of environmental damage and human suffering.

For these reasons, economists have come up with another measure of economic growth—the Genuine Progress Indicator, or GPI. This indicator takes into account both the positive and negative effects of a country’s economic activity, in theory providing a much clearer picture of the well-being of its citizens.

WWBD (What Would Buddha Do)?

In much the same vein, in 1972, the king of Bhutan, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, coined the term gross national happiness (GNH) to describe the path Bhutan would take to economic development. Drawing on the spiritual tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, GNH is designed to balance economic progress with the well being of the Bhutanese people.

The four main pillars of Gross National Happiness are economic self-reliance, environmental preservation, cultural promotion, and good governance. These four pillars are further extrapolated into nine domains: psychological well-being, health, education, time use, cultural diversity and resilience, good governance, community vitality, ecological diversity and resilience, and living standards.

To determine how well the country is meeting these goals, and to determine future policy decisions, Bhutan conducted surveys of its population in 2008, 2010, and 2015. The results were assessed using the Gross National Happiness Index, which was developed in cooperation with researchers from Oxford University.

In 2011, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution entitled “Happiness: towards a holistic approach to development,” highlighting Bhutan’s focus on GNH as a model for other nations to follow. In 2012, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and Bhutan’s Prime Minister organized a High Level Meeting on the subject “Well-being and Happiness: Defining a New Economic Paradigm” at which the first World Happiness Report was issued. Subsequently, the United Nations designated March 20th as International Day of Happiness.

A Nepal-ing Situation

While Bhutan is held up as a model for other countries to follow in creating a more humane economy, it has not been entirely successful in creating its own peaceful and productive society since Gross National Happiness was first introduced. The government’s concern with conserving the country’s cultural traditions, and restricting outside influences, has led in the past to restrictions on access to media and a traditional dress requirement (although this has eased a bit in recent years).

Of more concern is the mass exodus in 1990 of 100,000 citizens of Nepalese descent and Hindu faith in response to an attempt by the government to assimilate this group into the dominant Bhutanese culture, which led to protests and subsequent harsh treatment in punishment of the protests. These refugees lived for many years in camps in Nepal, while Bhutan, Nepal, and India failed to agree on how they should be accommodated. In 2008 various countries—the United States, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, Denmark, New Zealand, and Norway—began taking them in, with over 112,000 of the refugees resettled abroad to date.

I Can’t Believe It’s Not Bhutan

While the past implementation of Gross National Happiness in Bhutan led to repressive policies, the recent introduction of democratic elements into Bhutan’s government (elections began in 2007) is seen as a positive trend for its living up to the ideal of GNH. And that ideal is still a worthy goal; there is something very attractive about belonging to a society that views the pursuit of gross national happiness as its prime objective. It would be extremely interesting to see a shift to this kind of thinking in other countries: how would our world change if the United States, the European Union, and other large economies implemented this policy? It’s impossible to know for sure, but it’s nice to think about a world in which success is measured in more than dollar signs.

Note: This is an updated version of an article that originally appeared on Interesting Thing of the Day on August 21, 2006.

Image credit: Mario Biondi, Italian writer [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

You don’t have to be happy all day today. No one’s going to force you. But the International Day of Happiness, established by the United Nations in 2013, is more than just a pipe dream that people will try to be happier for one day a year. It’s part of a campaign to “end poverty, reduce inequality, and protect our planet,” all things that should be conducive to greater overall happiness. And, just as Bhutan doesn’t measure its progress by GDP but rather Gross National Happiness, today is a day to remember that there’s much more to happiness, and to a fulfilling life, than financial achievement.

Image credit: Juniperusco [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons