Why I hate dog propaganda

I recently went and saw the movie “On the Basis of Sex” in the theaters with a group of friends. It’s an incredibly powerful movie, following the story of Ruth Bader Ginsburg as she fights for gender equality in America’s laws.

The movie tackles not only the issues of gender inequality, but also the tenuous relationship between mother and daughter, the challenge of aiding a dying loved one and the power that comes with being yourself. With all of these themes, it’s not hard to assume that there might be a few tears shed in the theater; in my friend group there definitely were.

Although, not during the movie. During the previews.

That’s right. My friends cried more during one trailer than the actual movie. The preview in question: “A Dog’s Journey”.

“A Dog’s Journey” is the follow-up of “A Dog’s Purpose” and tells the story of the family dog Bailey. Bailey spends the movie being reincarnated as various dogs all with one purpose: help Clarity June, his girl.

It’s the definition of a feel good dog movie. I hate it.

The trailer might have triggered tears in some of my friends, but it just left me feeling disappointed and bored.

Some people can’t do rom-coms, others refuse to watch horror movies; I find it painful to sit through a dog movie.

I’ve never seen the appeal of dogs by themselves, so the idea of elevating them to such a standard baffles me completely.

You might be thinking, just because I don’t like dog movies, doesn’t mean they’re horrible. And you’re right, but I’ve plenty other reasons why dog movies are just bad.

My first argument: dog propaganda is everywhere. It’s in books, movies, social media, everywhere. It’s nearly impossible to go more than a week without seeing some kind of dog propaganda.

It’s overplayed, unoriginal, boring and just annoying.

Next, of the pets, dogs are the most dependent upon their owners. In most pro-dog content, this is translated into loyalty.

I can’t stand this translation! Dogs aren’t loyal because they just love your personality, they hang around you because they have no choice; they need you to survive.

All of this content builds dogs up as independent, thinking, problem solving creatures. Yet, anyone who’s had any pet at all will tell you about the multitude of times they looked at the animal and just thought ‘how are you still alive?’

It’s false advertising is what it is.

Introducing an audience to a lovable canine character with majority human characteristics is the first mission of every one of these movies. The second is to tear that character, or the character’s happiness, away from the viewer with some tragic event.

As soon as a dog is involved, the movie somehow gets an allowance to become formulaic and predictable. Everybody loves dogs, so the, frankly bad, movies are given the benefit of the doubt.

Maybe “A Dog’s Journey” will be different. Maybe it will provide an original and compelling plot with layered character building and dynamic acting.

I’ll never know; I definitely won’t go see it. I can’t stand dog movies.