How the household decides who walks the dog

We sent a one-question survey to 4,000 households on Maskotis: who walks the dog, most days? The answer wasn't the partner with the most flexibility, or the one who works from home, or the one who got the dog in the first place. It was, overwhelmingly, the partner who couldn't say no to the look.

We followed up with a longer survey. Patterns emerged. In 28% of households, the morning walk and the evening walk are split between two people for purely circadian reasons — one is a morning person, one is not. In another 19%, the schedule was negotiated once, years ago, and has not been revisited since the dog stopped being a puppy.

The funniest answers came in the free-text box. One household uses a magnet on the fridge that gets flipped after each walk. Another rotates by day of the week, but the kids get assigned weekends because they have 'more energy.' One person wrote, simply: 'I lost a bet in 2019.'

Underneath the humour, the data tells a real story. Households where walks are scheduled, in the app or anywhere, report higher walk rates and fewer arguments. Households where walks are negotiated each evening report what you'd expect: a dog who waits patiently while two adults discuss whose turn it is.

We added the household-walk schedule to Maskotis after this survey. The fridge magnet was, in retrospect, the inspiration.