Real Talk - Vol 9. - Welcome To Dogmerica

Sometime over the past couple decades man’s best friend took over the American household.

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You know - that statement does make me think of this Seinfeld comedy bit:

That was funny, but I digress...

I'm a bit of a data junkie. When I see something that leads me to formulate a random (and sometimes hilarious) theory on society - I can’t help but hunt for data to see if it holds weight.

I just did this with pet ownership, especially dog ownership.

The Findings

65% of U.S. households, or roughly 79.7 million families own a pet, according to the 2015-2016 National Pet Owners Survey conducted by the American Pet Products Association (APPA). This is up from 56% of U.S. households in 1988, when the survey was introduced. Data Source

So we can see a high majority of households have a pet. However, we need to dig into some detail to chase my theory.

Oh, you might be wondering what that theory is?

The Single Women Dog Theory

Turns out I’m allergic to most dogs - I’m still cool with dogs, just allergic.

However – being a single guy who is allergic to dogs you quickly realize something while out in the dating world…..

Nearly every girl that is single owns a dog these days

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At first I thought this was all in my head. So that’s when I started digging into the research.

As we saw earlier 79.7 million households own a pet, but how is that broken down.

Looking at the table we see 54.4 million households own a dog. That equates to 68% of all pet owners.

Hmmm…is their a chance my theory hold weight?

If 79.7 millions equals 65% of American households, then we roughly have 123 million households.

Of those households 54.4 million own a dog, so 54.4 divided by 123 =

• That I’m just crazy and my theory holds no weight!  (or roughly 45%)

Granted that is still a lot. Nearly half of America owns a dog.

Did my dating pool just get cut in half!?

Well , no. It likely did not
But for your possible entertainment - see the below conversation that often takes place on my dates

Her: “So do you have any pets?
Me: “No - I had a cat growing up, but I’m actually allergic to most dogs”

Which is followed by this reaction

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The Joys of Dating..hahaha.

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Regards,
Mitchell J
For the occasional funny rant and a bunch of financial tips: