OHMIDOG! : Dog parking? Baguetteaboutit

They may be well-intentioned and address a real issue, but these parking crates for dogs that have appeared on the streets of New York worry me.

The woman behind them hopes to have 100 of them in place in Brooklyn by next spring, place them throughout New York City and, eventually, other cities across the country.

It works like this: You sign up for a membership, and receive a member card in the mail that unlocks the temperature controlled doghouse. Then you*re billed through the mail at a rate of 20 cents per minute.

Chelsea Brownridge told Fox 5 the idea grew out of her own concerns about leaving her dog Winston tied up when she has to run into a store.

Of course, that*s a troublesome practice, too — and more than a few dogs have been stolen after being left tied outside stores in New York, and elsewhere.

Dog parkers are now in test mode outside of two Fort Greene businesses, including Baguetteaboutit on Vanderbilt and DeKalb, where a spokesman welcomed the idea.

“A lot of our customers will open up the door and yell out to us, ‘Can you bring me out a sandwich? Can you bring me a menu? I don*t want to leave my dog.* And we*ll accommodate them. This gives them an opportunity to take care of their dog while they come in and take care of themselves.”

Seems to me taking steps to accommodate dog-walking customers outdoors would be an easier solution — as would people leaving their dogs at home when they have the need to shop.

My main objections though come from being claustrophobic, and a technophobe.

The dog parking crate reminds me a little bit of those newspaper boxes (which you can probably get a pretty good deal on nowadays) — and simple as they were they often malfunctioned.

Dogs can see out of the boxes through a small plastic window, but the boxes still seem uncomfortably confining. And anything that is “temperature controlled” can see its temperature go out of control.

On top of that, anyone who has had to return to the hotel lobby three or more times to get one of those key cards rejiggered — so it actually opens the door to their room — knows those cards can*t be trusted.

What*s going to happen when a dog owner can*t get his dog out of the box?

An app is in the works that will allow customers to reserve boxes, but they otherwise will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Will New Yorkers end up fighting over them too, as they do parking spaces and taxi cabs? Will Uber dog parking boxes surface, charging only 10 cents a minute?

If a key card is able to open any dog parking crate in the city, might thieves just maybe figure that out and sign up for membership?

There are just too many questions. It might be easier to just make all business establishments dog friendly.

Until then, always walk with another friend when out with your dog, or leave the dog home, or — difficult as it may be — skip the baguette.


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