The Sunday Read: ‘My Goldendoodle Spent a Week at Some Luxury Dog ‘Hotels.’ I Tagged Along.’

hey I'm Sam Apple I'm a contributor to. the New York Times magazine and the. owner of a very good golden doodle named. Steve who loves neck massages and. hard-boiled. eggs I've had this feeling for a while. now that the dogs are taking. over all these activities where you. never see dogs in the past.

now you're seeing people bring them. everywhere they. go restaurants have dog tasting menus. there are ice cream parlors specifically. for. dogs we dressed them up in Halloween. costumes which a decade ago might have. been a joke now it's like of course you. buy your dog a Halloween costume who. wouldn't do. that recently I became obsessed with. this concept of luxury dog. hotels not petfriendly accommodations. for people but upscale dog kennels.

essentially that are nicer than some. human. hotels there are these high-end Resorts. with names like Chateau poochie and. barkingham pet hotel where your dog can. luxuriate while you're off on. vacation Hotel staff will take your dog. on nature walks read them bedtime. stories and perform belly rub. tucks the ameni some of these places. offer are pretty astounding queen-sized. beds big flat screen TVs swimming pools. TOs and they're often filled with chic.

decor the most lavish dog hotels include. Spas where your dog can get a blueberry. facial a mud bath or a. massage according to one franchise's. website relaxing down Tempo SL chill. music emanates throughout the entire. Hotel creating a peaceful Vibe for the. canine. guests the same franchise will pick your. dog up in a Lamborghini or other sports. car of your choice.

why is it so different from the way we. grew. up I decided to go on a road trip with. Steve so that we could try out some of. these dog hotels. ourselves I packed the car with Steve. stuff Mard one of his favorite toys a. big bag of hard-boiled eggs in a. sleeping. bag the result is this week's Sunday. read read by Eric Jason. Martin our audio producer for this. episode is Adrien Hurst the the original.

music you'll hear was written and. performed by Aaron espacito. by the time my golden doodle Steve and I. pulled up to our resting place I was. tired from the long drive and already. second guessing my plan I felt a little. better when we stepped inside the. Dogwood Acres Pet Retreat the lobby with. its elegant tiled entrance might have. passed for the lobby of any small. Countryside Hotel at least one that.

strongly favored dog themed Decor but. this illusion was broken when the. receptionist reviewed our reservation. which in addition to our luxury Suite. included cuddle time group play a nature. walk and a belly rub tuck. in venues like this one located on Kent. Island in Maryland's Chesapeake Bay. didn't exist when I was growing up in. the 1980s if you needed a place to board.

your dog back then you went to a kennel. where your dog spent virtually the. entire day in a small and probably not. very clean cage there were no tuck-ins. no bedtime stories no dog bone-shaped. swimming pools there were certainly. nothing like today's most upscale can9. resorts where the dogs sleep on. queen-size beds and the spa offerings. include mud baths and blueberry facials. one pet hotel franchise on the west W.

Coast will even pick up your dog in a. Lamborghini I knew Dogwood Acres. wouldn't be quite as luxurious as that. but the accommodations still sounded. pretty nice the website mentioned. distinctive Decor cable television and a. large picture window overlooking an. extra- large private outdoor. patio my plan was to stay with Steve at. a string of dog hotels yes four dogs. only in the Mid-Atlantic region not too. too far from where I live putting the.

plan into action had required making a. series of deeply embarrassing phone. calls my requests were sometimes met. with awkward silences which would be. followed by questions along the lines of. you sure you want to do that I tried to. explain that staying at dog hotels would. take me to the heart of some questions. that I'd been thinking about a lot in. recent months how did humans start. catering to the whims of canines rather. than the other way around and what if.

somewhere along the way we all became a. little too obsessed with our. dogs after Steve was weighed and. examined for fleas and ticks we were. escorted to our room everyone at Dogwood. Acres was exceptionally warm and. welcoming which did nothing to lessen my. fear as I walked by them clutching my. sleeping bag and rolling suitcase that. they all thought I was a total schmu I. wanted to take each employee as side and.

explained that it wasn't what it seemed. that I was actually on a very serious. quest to understand something important. about the American condition in the 21st. century but there was nothing to be done. because of course the only thing. Schmucker than staying at a facility for. dogs is trying to justify it as a quest. to understand something important about. the American condition in the 21st. century I tried to remain positive as. Steve and I made our way into the. recesses of dogwood Acres.

never mind if the hallway of luxury. suets had less the feel of the Ritz. Carlton than of say a Soviet era. Bulgarian office building so what if the. room directly across from our suep was. occupied by a large black dog named. Bella who was barking ferociously and. lunging at the window facing our room. what difference did it make that someone. had used a black marker to add some all. caps notes to the printed chart taped to. Bella's door do not reach for head. caution with sudden movements did it.

really matter that our room was. significantly smaller than I anticipated. 6.5 ft by 6.5 ft or that the extra-large. private outdoor patio was surrounded by. Steel caging it could have been worse I. had my sleeping bag there was a TV and. an elegant stainless steel pill of water. should Steve or I get. thirsty it was all of course entirely my. own fault.

Audrey reichhart the owner had. graciously offered to set up a cot and. air mattress for me but I insisted I. wanted only what the dogs get this is it. reichart said extending her hand to the. room but you're not a. dog.

[Music]. a little while later a young woman came. by to give Steve his bedtime belly rub. tuck in watching by the open door I. couldn't help thinking that if only. humans were good and innocent like dogs. instead of being so weird and gross and. sex obsessed we might have a wider range. of wholesome services like this one. available at our hotels then I.

remembered that Steve might not be so. good and pure around his own kind either. had I not had his testicles surgically. removed at 8:00 p.m. it was lights out. Steve got onto his dog cot with the. stuffed malard toy I'd packed a few. minutes later I heard some deep. breathing and saw that Steve was out. cold which made the whole experience. loner like when a friend would fall. asleep first at a sleepover at some. point I remembered that I hadn't eaten.

all day I took a few hard-boiled eggs. out of my bag and looked through the. window to the patio SL steel cage and. felt it really should have been. impossible even Schmucker than. before it's not just the hotels there. are now dog bakeries and ice cream. parlors and Social Clubs one dog only. San Francisco Cafe serves canines a $75. tasting menu more and more restaurants.

for people also now offer dog menus a. lot of these things probably started as. jokes but such gestures have a way of. outliving their Origins at some point. throwing birthday parties for our dogs. and buying them Valentine's Day gifts. went from being something we did to be. funny to something we just did Total. spending on pets in the United States. and dogs are by far the most popular pet. Rose more than 50% between 2018 and.

2022 when it reached $137 billion. according to a pet products trade. Association Americans now spend more. than half a billion dollars each year on. pet Halloween costumes alone for the. national retail. Federation this sharp spending increase. overlaps with Americans spending. approximately twice as much time with. pets today as they did two decades ago.

a 2023 survey found that around half of. American owners believe their pet knows. them better than anyone else does. including significant others and best. friends these statistics sit. uncomfortably alongside the fact that. the US Surgeon General recently declared. human loneliness and. epidemic it's hard not to wonder whether. our growing obsession with dogs is. somehow related to our declining. interest in one another Maybe even as.

we're humanizing our dogs the deeper. appeal is not that they're like people. but that they're not like people maybe. if you dig far enough beneath the. surface of our dog love you eventually. arrive at a thin layer of. misanthropy my interest in America's dog. Mania wasn't only sociological several. months before our trip I found a small. lump on Steve's right hind leg the tumor. turned out to be benign but the. experience left me profoundly shaken.

when the veterinary surgeon told me she. thought it was cancer I had to sit in. the car for 10 minutes to regain my. composure before driving. home every time I looked over and saw. Steve's breathtakingly goofy face. encircled by his dumb plastic cone I. started to cry. again before this cancer scare I. probably would have said that the. expanding place of dogs in American Life. was a good thing that a world that.

revolves around dogs is a better world. it was only after I realized how unready. I was to lose Steve that I found myself. wondering if the problem with our. current dog Mania might run deeper than. I'd thought I don't think of myself as. particularly lonely but I don't get. together with friends in person very. often anymore the phone calls I used to. have with friends have been replaced by. texts I usually work from home and and. on a typical workday I interact with.

many more people on Zoom than in real. life if I need the comfort of another. Beating Heart the closest one around is. inside Steve's rib. cage unfortunately if less human. connection is driving us to form deeper. bonds with our dogs it's hard to. conclude that dogs are actually solving. our. problems the most surprising finding in. the field of. anthrozoology which studies human animal. relationships might be that there's no.

conclusive link between pets and. well-being in 2021 Megan Mueller at. Tufts University discovered that pet. owners were twice as likely to report. being depressed as those without Pets. the finding was only an association we. can't really say whether pets are. responsible for that depression or if. depressed people are simply more likely. to have. pets still the mismatch between our. personal experience with the animals.

that we love and what the research says. is a complete mystery Hal Herzog and. anthro zoologist and Emeritus professor. at Western Carolina University told me. most studies don't show that pet owners. are happier that pet owners are less. depressed that pet owners go to the. doctor. less the next morning at Dogwood Acres. the staff threw a birthday party for. Steve in in a gated yard Steve's.

birthday was less than 2 months away so. I told myself the request was legit a. dozen dogs ran around happily in a sea. of toys There was a bubble machine and a. tub full of colorful plastic balls Steve. decked out in a handsome birthday boy. bandana immediately picked up a stuffed. bone and because I know there's nothing. he loves more than making a complete. mockery of me in a game of Chase I ran. after him our next stop was a.

presidential suite at holiday Barn Pet. Resorts just outside Richmond Virginia. each holiday Barn Suite had a different. Regional theme ours was Anapolis and the. suets orange and white walls featured. tasteful Maritime Decor including a. little blue shelf holding an antique. beerstein and tiny pictures it was so. nice 7.5 ft by 8 ft that I didn't care. at all that Harley the golden retriever.

staying down the hall had the. considerably fancier Mount Vernon Suite. which featured a painting of George. Washington and a tubular light fixture. that called to mind Dan. flaven this business which has been. family run since it opened in Glenn. Allen Virginia in. 1972 was originally called holiday Barn. pet kennel and the dogs stayed in cages. attached to outdoor kennel runs. you had Vermin coming in the Resort.

owner Michael Hughes recalled all of a. sudden you look and there's a raccoon in. there or a posum or snake not long after. it opened hughes's parents began hiring. teenage pets at the time tending to the. emotional needs of a dog in a kennel was. considered novel today dog boarding. establishments have to focus most on the. emotional needs of pet parents as owners. are known in the industry Hughes.

mentioned a holiday Barn guest that ate. only Chick-fil-A. sandwiches at some dog hotels suites. have cameras and emails from concerned. owners arrive throughout the night San. Francisco's pet camp once received a. frantic call from a woman who wanted to. know why her dog had come home with an. erection the hotel years denied. responsibility for the erection a dog. hotel in Pennsylvania once had to make. time for a pet parent who insisted on. calling in each day to play the kazoo to.

her. dog pet parents is a term of modern. creation although Pat has a longer. history the word first came into use in. the early 1500s and from the beginning. it could refer not only to animals but. also to people particularly spoiled. children James serle an ameritus. professor of Animal Welfare at the. University of Pennsylvania told me that. the or of humans keeping pets can.

probably be traced to the human tendency. to respond to Young animals in the same. way we respond to small children it's an. extension of our parenting. instincts we have extended our parenting. instincts so far it seems that the. distinction between pets and children. has evaporated. altogether and pet industry experts say. the Relentless humanizing of our dogs. has been accelerated by Millennials and.

Jen Z who now make up the largest share. of dog owners in the country and who. often have a first dog before a first. child Americans in their 20s and 30s. nowadays have a lot of spare parental. love in their hearts and their dogs are. lapping it. up I slept well at holiday Barn the next. morning before leaving I helped Steve. into a dog life jacket so he could. Splash around in the bone-shaped pool I.

put on some rubber boots and clumped. around after him while two chocolate. labs took turns swimming laps the. previous few days were overcast but the. sun was out now and I was overcome with. an I could really get used to this. feeling before I realized I was now. fantasizing about extending my stay at a. dog. Resort I knew before I arrived that the. Oldtown Pet Resort in Dulles Virginia. where Steve and I would be spending the.

last night of our trip would be the. fanciest of our destinations but I was. wowed just the same the lobby had a. sculpture of a pointer and a glass wall. with a view of the heated indoor pool it. was nicer than the lobby of most human. hotels I'd stayed in when I later. interviewed Ron Halligan president and. chief executive of Oldtown Pet Resorts. he told me his job came with some. special challenges it's like running an. acute care Retirement Facility they all.

have to be taken to the bathroom we have. a med cart half of them are on. meds after we checked in a friendly. young man named Jonathan Neil LED Steve. through an agility session during which. Steve jumped through hoops and walked. along ramps and elevated planks Neil. then changed into a wet suit to oversee. Steve's swimming session which involved. leading a very unamused Steve back and. forth across the 20ft long.

pool though I'd arranged to stay at a. luxury suite at Oldtown there was a. concern that the dogs there might smell. me and that this could be upsetting to. them so Steve and I were put up in an. otherwise unoccupied Wing comprising. essentially large roofless. cages it was probably for the best I. wasn't particularly in the mood to watch. Happy Feet which was playing on the TVs. in the sweet SS that night a c had been.

set up for me and I was too tired to. refuse it it was hardly big enough for a. person but Steve forgoing his own. dog-sized cot climbed up with me then. William Tyler the executive director of. the hotel at the time stopped by our. cage Tyler a middle-aged former Marine. and a good-sized man got down on the. floor inches away from us and began to. read Steve his bedtime story a book.

about Clifford the Big Red Dog saving. people from a fire when Tyler finished. reading he said good night to us and. turned out the lights I curled around. Steve as best I could on the cot feeling. grateful that he was there with me but I. wondered about Steve's feelings too over. the course of my time living in the lap. of canine luxury I became more convinced. than ever that a world with more dog. love is a better world yet I also met.

quite a few human beings in the bespoke. Pet Care industry who having observed. all parties up close expressed their. anxieties about the extent of our. devotion when humans include animals in. everything they do the dog doesn't know. how to be a dog Hugh had told me lying. there on this last night I wished Steve. could tell me what he thought of the. whole. thing in the morning Steve got a a mud. bath at Oldtown spa and a blueberry.

facial and then after Steve was blown. out and brushed and sprayed with a dog. cologne it was time to drive home it had. been a good trip as we drove back I. stroked Steve's head at red lights and. felt only a little bit like a. [Music]. schmuck.