Dog-sharing
Todays’ WSJ has a front page piece on pet-time-sharing. Pros, cons, case studies. Hey there Journal– we did that for six years with our greyhound Gracie. In the vast pantheon of work-family-pet survival solutions, this was one of the winningest endeavors yet. In fact, during this sharing period, my visiting pal Claudia was surprised one day when Gracie was brought into the house by a stranger, after a full day of walks and dedicated pampering. Claudia said, “That’s when I knew you had it all figured out Jules. You outsourced your pet!”
Not so simple, but not exactly false either. Long story short. When we moved to Ireland in 2001 we couldn’t take Gracie. She would have had to be quarantined for six months in a nasty kennel at the Dublin airport (Ireland has no rabies). As a rescue dog, we were advised it would break her gentle spirit to go back to the clinker. So I put a “Gracie needs a home for a year” poster up in the local dog walking woods. Retirees Paula and Byron called…they kinda knew Gracie and were looking for a second greyhound as company to their Angie.
One year in Ireland morphed into four, with us borrowing Gracie back for a few weeks each summer. Upon return, our dog sharing partners had had Gracie for more years than we did, and we knew we had to gently propose some kind of joint custody. It worked out beautifully…we had her for nights and they had her during the workday when our house was empty. Paula and Byron knew loads more about animals than we did, and Gracie was happy as a clam with her two-household life. She had a dog companion during the day, and three boys to keep things lively at night.
Anyway, at this point I could deliver a PhD level course on work and family (and pets) management. (On rough days I think I really, really need to take that course.) But now we have two new rescue greyhounds and we badly need a new sharing arrangement. I can’t understand why more people don’t do this…or why the heck I didn’t set one up before bringing these two dogs home to our busy household a few months back! (My half-baked solution was going to be bringing Stud and Gigi–they came labelled with those dumb names– to the office…before I learned my partner Jim is allergic to dogs.)
Anyway, leave it to the Journal to report on a “trend” that is not exactly breaking news. But if it advances the dog-sharing cause, I am all for it. Any takers?
Jules Pieri 
4 Responses to “Dog-sharing”
Achooo! Oh, nice doggi—achooo, sniff sniff.
Hey Jules, I loved reading about your experience of dog sharing, a pity you had to miss out on the company of the dog though. My experience is one in which I share my dog on a daily basis…my friend looks after him for the evening, I take him back in the morning. Dog and sharers get to enjoy all of the benefits. I’ll look forward to your next post.
Thanks for sharing your story. And I guess I didn’t feel too much regret over missing the company of our dog (Gracie) because we weren’t home during the day anyway. It made me happy to know she was content. If you care to know more about her…here’s a post about something strange that happened to us regarding Gracie. https://julespieri.wordpress.com/2008/02/12/my-dog-is-for-sale/
I recently had a very positive dog sharing experience. Due to a change of work pattern I was faced with leaving my dog too long alone during some week days. I found a website called Find a Dog Share (http://dog.findashare.com) and through that found a young woman with no dog of her own due to her own commitments who was happy to look after my dog 3 days a week when I was working. Not only is my dog happy and thriving in her company, but I’ve made a new friend too! Not sure who’s sharing who anymore, but it worked out really fine!