Monday July 31, 2006 Doggie Steps
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I've been told by several people that the thing they like most about my blog is the inability to predict what the next post is going to be about. I don't pick a single topic. This isn't the NetBeans channel. All NetBeans all the time. You come here, you get a random topic. Sometimes they're even about Sun. Think of that as a bonus. |
They don't come more random then this.
A little while ago, we saw an informercial for Doggie Steps. Here was this long TV commercial showing several small and/or old decrepid dogs trying to get up onto the bed or the couch where their owner was, and failing miserably. They'd try again and again and bounce back down to the floor, quite often with that pained expression on their face either indicating severe internal bleeding or a growing hatred for their owner who was inflicting this cruel and unusual punishment on them. I had a good laugh, thought how pathetic it all was, and that that was something that we'd never buy.
Yesterday, I went to their website and order our own set of steps for Dusti. Sad but true.
We recently bought a new bed for our bedroom and it's higher than our old one. Dusti can easily get on it in the daytime or just before bedtime, when there is light. In the middle of the night it's another story. She'll get down off the bed to go for a pee, a drink or bark at some passing squirrel outside, then a few minutes later you'd hear her padding back into the bedroom and trying to work out how to get back up on the bed. You'd hear this terrible thud and realize she'd tried to get back up, but hadn't quite made it. So one of us would get out of bed and lift her up.
We need to improve on this, if only for a peaceful nights sleep.
Now I've watched those "As seen on TV ads" before. You buy something, and they add in something else. "But wait there's more!" they cry and then throw in a set of steak knives.
That's exactly what the online ordering process for this product was like. I just wanted to order a set of doggie steps, but no. I had to patiently wade my way through several other potential "upgrades" (each their own separate web page), where I could have ordered:
- Doggie Vitamins - only one more dollar!
- A second set of doggie steps for free (just pay the shipping - ten bucks by the way).
- The four step version (only another ten dollars).
- The sheep skin covered version (only another ten dollars). Which makes me wonder what the "basic" set of steps are going to be covered in as all the pictures on the web site look like the steps are covered in sheep skin.
I think I'm missing one. My eyes were starting to glaze over at this point. If we didn't have such an urgent need to remedy this problem, I would have just cancelled the order and gone somewhere else.
( Jul 31 2006, 07:24:54 AM PDT ) [Listen] Permalink Comments [2]
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i've sidestepped all need for this entire product by simply teaching my dogs that they sleep in their beds, not in mine. granted they're still spry and healthy, but they'll always be smelly and dirty, and i prefer my bedroom as low-allergenic as doable in a dog-owning house.
as and when they grow old and feeble, i may humour them by simply moving their beds into my bedroom. but on the floor, not where the alpha dog sleeps.
i might some day have to rig up a pair of planks to serve as a ramp up to the living room couch for the one dog that likes to curl up there, i suppose. i'm not about to buy any set of stairs, however; my siberians can't climb stairs very well as it is, and a few two-by-fours come a lot cheaper than anything that needs TV advertising...
other than that, i just feel that infomercials must all be destroyed. i cannot abide that form of advertising, not at all. (i'm the sort of person who can't stop laughing at the famous video clip of the infomercial host trying to sell a cheapskate stainless-steel decorative katana, banging it against the desk to show how sturdy it is, and getting hit smack on the forehead by the half he thus snaps off...)
Posted by Nomen Nescio on August 02, 2006 at 11:14 AM PDT #
We got Dusti from an animal shelter when she was four years old. We think in some respects that she's untrainable. We are certainly having no success in stopping her barking at other dogs (or pedestrians, cyclists, anything that moves...)
We've tried the dog basket/bed at the bottom of the bed with no success. I don't think this is going to change.
We are also of the mindset that these steps are just temporary. We intend to replace them with a nice hassock/bench/whatever which Dusti will be able to also use to get on the bed, when we find just the right piece of furniture. Yeah. Right. This could take a while.
Posted by Rich Burridge on August 03, 2006 at 06:59 AM PDT #