Respect Authority

So last night, in a fit of boredom, I decided to see what my cable provider offers me by way of free On Demand content. Perusing the channels available to me, and with so limited an attention span that I didn’t make it past the “A”s, I stumbled upon Animal Planet On Demand - where I found, and spent the next hour laughing at, Animal Planet rags-to-riches show Underdog to Wonderdog. 

The premise of the show: a ragtag group of semi-authority figures/animal enthusiasts/psychos Animal Planet picked up hovering around the adoption cages at Petsmart pool their intellectual resources to rehabilitate a stray dog in preparation for its new life with an adopted family.

There’s: 
Andrea - Trainer
Ali - Groomer
David - Canine Carpenter
Ryan - Team Leader

First of all, what? If I were Andrea in this scenario, I’d be like “What the fuck? Why do these other douches even get credit? Team Leader!? What does that even mean?!” Having to train a wild dog is just a bit more complicated than building him a doggy house, or supervising someone else building him a doggy house. How does one get to be a “canine carpenter” anyway? Is it special, like getting a veterinary license? Are there certificates involved?

So the show starts with our heroes gathering together in a local coffee shop, which is already weird since why wouldn’t you just meet wherever the dog in need is? In any case, Ryan thanks everyone for coming, which suggests his role might simply be top of the phone tree. (When you’ve got a doggy carpenter on staff, it’s conceivable that phone tree originator would be considered a leadership role). Read More ›