Dog Detective Checks Up on Malicious Dog Walkers
How much could possibly go wrong hiring someone to walk your dog? The answer it seems is, plenty! That's why some New York City dog owners hire pooch private eye Brock Schwartz, reports the New York Post.
Either by trailing the dog-walkers on the streets of Manhattan or by installing doggy cams in apartments, Schwartz uncovers what the "professional" dog walkers are really doing (or perhaps more importantly, not doing). For example, although walkers may charge up to $60 for an hour, it's fairly common that they short change owners on time, doing say... only 40 minutes.
Another trick of the trade seems to be delegating the walk to someone else who the owners never okayed. Some take multiple dogs on a walk, billing each owner for a separate one-on-one stroll. One bizarre scandal involved training the dogs to do their business in the bath tub and not walking them outside at all!
Schwartz invented this line of work for himself. That was after he was employed by a dog walking service he deemed unethical. That's when the light bulb went off for him. He realized that the owners as well as the dogs need someone watching their backs.
As a business and as job, being a dog detective has a rosy future. This is the era in which animals have evolved from being perceived and legally treated as property to more like members of the family. According to the National Pet Owners Society, almost 46 percent of households have dogs and spending on pet care in general projected to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $48 million annually.
For those who are really ambitious and interested in a career relating to animal rights, studying for a law degree might make good sense. A fast-growing specialty in law is animal issues, ranging from custody issues during a divorce, to estate planning. There are also those high-profile cases in which dogs have been harmed or killed by contaminated food and owners sue the companies for emotional suffering or loss of affection in cases where the dog does die.
