With the new year upon us, getting fit and losing weight top many new year's resolutions lists. Imagine how much easier it would be to stick to those resolutions if your gym provided doggy daycare while you worked out.
At Fit Bernal Fit, an independent gym in San Francisco's Bernal Heights neighborhood, you can do just that. Members of the gym can bring their dogs for one-hour playgroups in the "doggy lounge" while they work out.
"I will talk myself out of exercising at night after being gone all day at work and leaving my dog at home alone," says one member, Carla Haggard, who arrived at Fit Bernal Fit on a Tuesday night with her dog, a poodle-mix named Bailey. "But I can just bring [my dog] to the gym with me and I don't have to feel guilty about coming here."
The one-hour of supervised care in the gym's doggy lounge costs $6 to $8, depending on the type of gym membership one purchases. "Members have told us that it makes them want to work out if they've scheduled their dog for playgroup," say the husband and wife team of Jeanne and Dean Eriksen, who founded the gym last fall.
Since opening, Fit Bernal Fit has caught the attention of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), which awarded the gym the "Most Progressive Fitness Center 2009."
"Fortunately, Fit Bernal Fit realizes that dogs--just like their guardians--enjoy socializing, playing, and spending time with others of their own species," says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. "The gym's policy is a sign that more and more people are realizing that animals' physical and psychological needs go beyond simply having shelter over their heads and food and water in their bowls."
"I don't think I would have opened a gym without the dog care aspect," says Jeanne, who provides dog walking services and is in charge of the doggy lounge at Fit Bernal Fit, along with her fluffy, white Japanese Spitz named Coyote. "In San Francisco, a lot of people don't have kids, they have dogs."
Will the trend catch on at gyms across the country? One can only hope...
Comments
It certainly is an interesting concept
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