I ’ve by no means heard of The Dog House earlier than, regardless of the actual fact it’s been operating since 2019. The title raised my hopes, although. Could this be Channel 4’s reply to Barbara Woodhouse? It’s wonderful how strongly that present stays within the reminiscence at a distance of greater than 40 years. If I bought a canine tomorrow, I’d prepare it by saying “Si…t!” in simply the best way that she did, with an emphasis on the T. And walks would all the time be “walkies”.
They don’t make ’em like Woodhouse any extra. Can you think about TV bosses now giving a prime-time present to a septuagenarian girl with a wise tweed skirt and excellent diction? Alas, The Dog House shouldn’t be in Woodhouse’s league. It’s extra of a riff on Paul O’Grady: For the Love of Dogs (which might be returning this yr with Alison Hammond as presenter. Hmm).
At the Woodgreen rehoming centre in Cambridgeshire, dogs in want of a home are matched with homeowners in want of a furry buddy. It’s heartwarming. It’s lovable. But it’s very a lot of its time. What do I imply? Well, simply as Training Dogs the Woodhouse Way was considerably missing in televisual pizzazz, as a result of within the early Nineteen Eighties audiences had been blissful to observe a lady walking round a hoop for an hour educating dogs methods to sit down, so The Dog House incorporates all the formulaic components of contemporary TV exhibits, from the wealth of private particulars in regards to the potential homeowners to the stagey nature of the set-up.
There’s the divorced father with 4 daughters, the eldest of whom thinks that he wants a pet to maintain him firm for the time that they’re residing with their mom. The young man who had a coronary heart attack and desires a canine as a result of walking it is going to be good for his well being.
The couple who deal with their dachshund, Baxter, like their youngster, however have ended up with such a needy animal that it joins them within the tub and follows them to the john; they’re in search of a second sausage canine to maintain Baxter firm and permit them some respiration house.
The “receptionist” who greets everybody isn’t an actual receptionist, however an actor employed for the present. Staff touch upon the human-animal interactions whereas watching them remotely on a set of screens. It all feels slightly pressured, when Paul O’Grady has proved that merely specializing in the dogs is sufficient. But it’s feelgood TV, and each story has a stunning, blissful ending.
