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I can respect that. You want to maximize the likelihood the dog survives. I call this "The Hard Problem of Delineation". You can't delineate between who will a

I can respect that. You want to maximize the likelihood the dog survives. I call this "The Hard Problem of Delineation". You can't delineate between who will and won't kill your dog no matter what system you use. That's the problem. Though I take your point about the cold, uncaring, capitalist dog walker. Hmmm. Edit: now that I think about your point I can see what you mean. The "sharing economy (Uber for X)" has become a widely known abstraction that people realize they can exploit for monetary gain and thats likely to attract more people walking dogs who wouldn't otherwise care about, be familiar with and/or know how to handle dogs. I agree, at least in principle, that may be a phenomenon that is occurring.

masonic 8y ago
You want to maximize the likelihood the dog survives. Wag, however, has a huge financial incentive for the dog to die even if it could be saved, due to the cost differential between surgery and subsequent care vs. cremation cost.
- james_s_tayler 8y ago
  Well in the case the dog has already been hit and is facing either death or the possibility of salvation by some means then perhaps I might agree that them sweeping our four legged friend under the proverbial rug might be, not necessarily the most moral course of action, but perhaps the most expedient. The comment that you want to maximize the likelihood the dog survives was referring to the point of market entry after you have decided you want someone to sit your dog but haven't yet selected a provider. They certainly don't have an incentive for the dog to die in that case, unless we invoke a conspiracy theory that they actually also run the doggy crematorium and thus win twice on the deal. But that's a mildly absurb prospect.
- michaelmrose 8y ago
  This is an interesting point since the owner wasn't involved until the dog was dead we don't even know if any such decisions were made.
enjo 8y ago
RE: Your edit I think that's close as well. One of the interesting things I've noticed is that people who are participating in the gig economy seem to be participating in almost ALL of the gig economy at once. I've met many people who do all of the following almost every day: - Drive for Uber/Lyft - Deliver packages for Amazon - Walk dogs for Wag/Rover - Rent a place on AirBnb - Do some stuff on Task Rabbit - Deliver food for GrubHub/DoorDash/etc... I can't imagine these folks are any particular loyalty to any of it, nor are they developing skills in any of these in a meaningful way.
treis 8y ago
>You can't delineate between who will and won't kill your dog no matter what system you use. That's the problem. I think essentially every dog owner will have done something to "kill" their dog but were saved by chance. Dogs sneak out the door when you're bringing groceries in, yank the leash out of your hand, escape fenced yards, among a number of other possibilities of them getting loose. The saving grace is that 999 times out of a thousand there's no traffic or the driver is paying attention or fluffy comes back before anything happens. In a situation like that it's hard to say if the walker is worse than any random owner or walker, or if they were just unlucky.
- james_s_tayler 8y ago
  Exactly. To a certain degree it's just bound to happen. The problem lies in the blame game. If it happens on while the owner is looking after the dog they just accept the sad event as an unfortunate random happening. If it happens on someone else's watch it was their "fault". Which it might been or it might not have been but we have a really hard time shutting off that need to find someone to blame for bad things that happen that are out of our control.

masonic 8y ago

You want to maximize the likelihood the dog survives. Wag, however, has a huge financial incentive for the dog to die even if it could be saved, due to the cost differential between surgery and subsequent care vs. cremation cost.

james_s_tayler 8y ago
Well in the case the dog has already been hit and is facing either death or the possibility of salvation by some means then perhaps I might agree that them sweeping our four legged friend under the proverbial rug might be, not necessarily the most moral course of action, but perhaps the most expedient. The comment that you want to maximize the likelihood the dog survives was referring to the point of market entry after you have decided you want someone to sit your dog but haven't yet selected a provider. They certainly don't have an incentive for the dog to die in that case, unless we invoke a conspiracy theory that they actually also run the doggy crematorium and thus win twice on the deal. But that's a mildly absurb prospect.
michaelmrose 8y ago
This is an interesting point since the owner wasn't involved until the dog was dead we don't even know if any such decisions were made.

enjo 8y ago

RE: Your edit I think that's close as well. One of the interesting things I've noticed is that people who are participating in the gig economy seem to be participating in almost ALL of the gig economy at once. I've met many people who do all of the following almost every day: - Drive for Uber/Lyft - Deliver packages for Amazon - Walk dogs for Wag/Rover - Rent a place on AirBnb - Do some stuff on Task Rabbit - Deliver food for GrubHub/DoorDash/etc... I can't imagine these folks are any particular loyalty to any of it, nor are they developing skills in any of these in a meaningful way.

treis 8y ago

>You can't delineate between who will and won't kill your dog no matter what system you use. That's the problem. I think essentially every dog owner will have done something to "kill" their dog but were saved by chance. Dogs sneak out the door when you're bringing groceries in, yank the leash out of your hand, escape fenced yards, among a number of other possibilities of them getting loose. The saving grace is that 999 times out of a thousand there's no traffic or the driver is paying attention or fluffy comes back before anything happens. In a situation like that it's hard to say if the walker is worse than any random owner or walker, or if they were just unlucky.

james_s_tayler 8y ago
Exactly. To a certain degree it's just bound to happen. The problem lies in the blame game. If it happens on while the owner is looking after the dog they just accept the sad event as an unfortunate random happening. If it happens on someone else's watch it was their "fault". Which it might been or it might not have been but we have a really hard time shutting off that need to find someone to blame for bad things that happen that are out of our control.