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THIS WEEK'S TOPICS:

• Pugs & Bulldogs hurtling towards extinction ☠️🦖

• The dog park with a guest list 🌳😎

• Spotify playlist art replaced with album art featuring rescue dogs 🎵💞

• This dog bytes 🤖 🐕

DOGGYDEX™

Winner 🏆: S&P 500

Proudly introducing the DoggyDex™, an index comprised of 10 publicly traded companies whose primary focus is the dog/pet industry.

The yellow line-plot in the chart represents these companies above (DoggyDex™) and their combined performance against both the S&P 500 and Bitcoin on a weekly basis.

Pawformance is measured by % gains & losses.

PUGS & BULLDOGS HURTLING TOWARDS EXTINCTION ☠️🦖

Most people just can’t get enough of the smoosh-faced breeds such as, Pugs, Frenchies, and English Bulldogs.

So much so that Frenchies became the #1 most popular dog breed last year and the English Bulldog came in at #6.

There are over 200 dog breeds recognized by the AKC. Within the top 40 most popular breeds 8 of them are brachycephalic dogs (aka smoosh-faced) and are seeing an increasing demand year-over-year.

With the proliferation of social media more and more people have been made aware of just how darn cute all the wrinkles, snorts, farts, and undeniable quirky personalities truly are.

These demands have driven higher premiums for excessive wrinkles, bigger heads, lower stance, and rare colors. This in turn has led to a meteoric rise in black market breeders who have little care about the overall health and longevity of their dogs and more concern about the profit.

Therefore we’re seeing A LOT of inbreeding in order to match up the desired traits that new dog owners seek. This inbreeding has caused shorter lifespans, breathing problems, difficulty walking, and high risk of skin disease due to the excessive folds.

Another physical mishap is the fact that English Bulldogs heads are so big now that they have to be birthed via c-section. A lot of Bulldogs also have such bone density and a progressively upturned muzzle that they can’t really swim.

If we look at the lineage of the University of Georgia’s mascot bulldog it helps illustrate the de-evolution of the breed. The ten dogs (they just announced no.11) that have served as the official mascot come from the same lineage since the 50’s.

Below is an example of the first two bulldog mascots compared to the two most recent. Take a look at the overall size, stance, head, muzzle, and wrinkles…

The unfortunate reality is that many of these breeds are rapidly deteriorating in health with each generation. They simply can’t sustain the current demand on them.

To top it off a lot of owners get lured in by the wrinkles and sadly abandon their dogs after being inundated with copious vet bills and necessary surgeries to keep their already pricey dogs around.

If we as dog lovers don’t start encouraging genetic diversity back into the gene pool for these breeds it very well could spell the end for them 😢.

THE DOG PARK WITH A GUEST LIST 🌳😎

Meet DOG PPL, a trendy members-only dog park in LA, complete with "rufferees", a sparkling clean environment, and of course, a bar for the hoomans.

With an $80/mo membership fee and requiring an approved application, DOG PPL might seem like an extravagant indulgence, but as we read more, they are on to some interesting things.

The founders Alexander Esguerra and Liam Underwood met at a local dog park and bonded over the shared complaints on its cleanliness, health risks, and lack of human comforts.

They decided they wanted some upgrades and had the idea that other owners would pay for the same thing. So in 2021 they opened the park and have since grown to over 900 members.

While private dog parks are nothing new, they decided to focus on hygiene and human comforts as their differentiators. Here are some of the amenities and standards they've put in place:

• Dog requirements for spay / neuter and vaccinations ✂️💉

• No dirt, only turf for cleanliness

• Free poop bags and lint rollers 🆓 💩

• "Rufferees" to monitor dog interactions to give owners some time off

• Heavy nightly cleanings 🌙🧹

• Music 🎶

• Wifi 🌐

• Bar 🥃

• Food (ex. Taco Tuesday) 🌮

Some well known vets, such as Dr. Hunter Finn have spoken out about their concerns around standard dog parks due to health risks, and many owners know the joy of taking your pooch to the dog park only for them to roll in every inch of dirt and mud they could find. DOG PPL does solve a lot of the immediate issues that dog parks tend to present.

Our thoughts on this? 🤔

It's not exactly cheap, no doubt.

It also has a bougie vibe to it, BUT, it doesn't decrease the other options there are out there, and no one is forcing us to go. On top of that, grabbing a beverage after a long day while our fur baby makes some friends is not a bad way to end the day.

We are all for the environment DOG PPL is trying to offer, and could see this as a great opportunity for other dog-trepreneurs (just made that up) that are looking for interesting ideas and to build a community of their own.

KIBBLE BITS:

• Service dog jumps on counter to save owner: Bailey the Australian Shepherd, is trained to spot when her owner, who has POTS, is going through an episode

• Gen Z likes their pets more than their partners: According to a survey of 2,000 pet owners, 36% admit they get more joy from seeing their pet happy than their partner

• A pittie gets showered in kisses from cows: Watch this sweet pittie get greeted with kisses from three cows on a farm 👅🥹

Every week we love to shoutout a pooch that has made another trip around the sun. Happy 4th Birthday 🎂 to the strikingly handsome Zeke!

That's all there is to bark about this week.

If you want more, be sure to follow our Twitter (@dogonomist).