Luxury Dog Houses

The more things are the same, the less important they are.

Many people find it surprising that luxury dog houses are made of wood. Wood isn't a good choice for a dog house because it's not very tough or fireproof. But what's surprising about it is that it is not a bad choice at all. If you want to protect your dog from the elements, you don't need to build her a huge, fireproof shelter. She can live comfortably in just about anything she can crawl into. Sure, every once in a while she'll get her paws burned by an open fire or get tangled in some barbed wire fence. But most of the time she'll be perfectly safe under just about any roof. And the standard of living for dogs is so low that there is no reason to think her life will be any more comfortable than it would be in an igloo or an abandoned bus stop or in the back seat of your pickup truck.

The point I am making here is that modern luxury dog houses aren't mainly about protecting dogs from the elements; they're mainly about showing off their owners' wealth and status. And when people show off wealth and status, they tend to buy stuff that looks good even if it isn't very good for what the owner wants it for.

When I worked at Oracle, I saw a lot of people with luxury dog houses. They were the kind that go up into the trees, with a glass wall in front to keep the dog in. It was not an uncommon sight on Palo Alto's Millionaire's Row.