In the minds of 1500 dog owners, a survey carried out by Crufts sponsor, Samsung, says that they consider us as “family”!
The encouraging results show that:
– 56% to those surveyed said they would mourn their dog more than an extended family member (that’s because we are immediate family – we are there, day in, day out while extended family tend not to be part of their daily lives)
– almost 90% consider their pet as a fully fledged member of the family (who are those 10% who don’t!!!)
– 53% admit their dog’s needs had influenced major life decisions – where they lived or what job they had
– a quarter of the owners have given their pets their own social-media profile (we’re in good company)
– every other dog owner believes their pet knows what they are thinking or what mood they’re in
– the average dog owner splashes out £1,011.72 a year on their pet
– 41% enjoy the same supper as their owners (not us – we eat raw, Mummy eats cooked)
– and all the indulgence leads to – one in five dogs have to be put on a diet! (Me included!)
– a third of Britain’s dogs have their own designated chair in the living room (though I never sit in mine except for being photographed!)
And the top dog names are:
1. Dexter
2. Max
3. Milo
4= Elsa/Mr. Darcy (note: me, Miss Darcy was influenced by the Mister!)
6. Sherlock
7. Yoda
8. Bellatrix
9. Lola
10. Dave
Seems like a lot of them are influenced by characters in movies and TV. While the more traditional names like Rex and Rover are deemed to be old-fashioned.
This is my brother Milo – so we both have top 10 names! And he’s sitting in his own seat.
May’s comment: That’s nice to know but it sure doesn’t seem very much reflected in a lot of our daily lives. Even though we have identified a lot of places in London that are dog-friendly, overall there aren’t 50% of restaurants that welcome dogs, nor many large shopping centres that allow our “family member” to shop with us. And the very fact that Harvey’s Law is being debated in Parliament tells us that the law does not recognise the place of dogs in the family.
And finally, my biggest peeve is travelling with dogs – that we can’t just get on a train to go to the continent or fly with them even if we paid for their seat!!! And dogs are not allowed to fly in-cabin into Great Britain even with pet passports … the laws are rather archaic in that sense.
How can we use this Samsung survey? Well, maybe they can champion against dog-meat trade in their own country.
