HASTINGS-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. — No one was in the doghouse, not even Quigley and Snowflake, two Pomeranians on a car trip with their owners, Alan Ruta and Jennifer Wright of Cambridge, N.Y.

Quigley and Snowflake sniffed the doghouse — actually, there are two large, cream-colored doghouses next to the front doors of the Ardsley rest stop on the New York State Thruway, and they checked out both.

As Quigley noticed — or was it Snowflake? — these are not conventional doghouses. They are made not of wood but of powder-coated aluminum. They are air-conditioned. They have internet connectivity, although that is for owners to pay 30 cents a minute so the dogs can lounge inside, not for the dogs to watch cat videos or anything. The idea is to park man’s best friends in a comfortable place while their owners go where they cannot — into the rest-stop building, with the usual “no pets allowed” signs on the doors.

These are, um, the dog days of summer. A dog cannot be left in a car. Some people do, and also leave the engine running and the air-conditioning on (and maybe worry that Rover would slide behind the wheel and drive off, as in the Walt Disney comedy “The Shaggy Dog”). But mostly, there is the question: What’s a dog owner to do?