Broken Aesop: The moral of the story, essentially, is that sometimes you need to apologize for things even when you don't believe that you did anything wrong, and even when you may have suffered more than the person you're being asked to apologize to. The problem is, while Archer obviously doesn't think he was wrong... he is. Objectively. Bringing an animal whose behavior he couldn't really control along for negotiations with a species who is well-known to be easily offended and put a special emphasis on tradition wasn't a good idea, thus, he loses any sympathy from the audience. Rather than them rooting for Archer before finally accepting the Hard Truth Aesop at the end, they find themselves siding with the Kreetassans and asking for Archer to just apologize for offending them.
Fetish Retardant: The episode might try hard to play up the Fanservice and general sex appeal elements, but the fact that quite a few of these scenes involves Porthos in them (like Archer rubbing decontamination gel on Porthos during the decontamination scene, or Archer's nightmare about Porthos' funeral suddenly turning into a steamy wet dream about making out with T'Pol) makes them so jarring that it practically means the attempts are effectively dead on arrival.
So Bad, It's Good: Zig-zagged. Most will agree that among even the dumbest episodes in the franchise, this one can't be defended because its very existence was declared a genuine mistake, written during a time when the showrunner himself was feverishly sick and unable to remember why he even wrote this story, when he should have slept off his sickness. Others find it hilarious that such an episode even managed to exist at all and watch it to comprehend just how delirious the writer was at the time and get an idea of the stresses in the writing businesses.
Tainted by the Preview: The only Star Trek product that's more potentially infamous and embarrassing than this episode is the trailer for it, which looks like something straight out of a sleazy sitcom.
Unintentionally Sympathetic: Archer calls out T'Pol (and to a lesser extent, Phlox) for not caring about Porthos because her species doesn't keep pets. Leaving aside the fact that this is a continuity error because it's been established previously that Vulcans do keep pets, most actual dog owners would probably agree without any hesitation that Archer spends the entire episode being an inconsiderate ass towards both the Kreetassans and his own crew, that Porthos' illness doesn't do anything to justify his behavior, and that T'Pol is entirely right to call him out over his Skewed Priorities.
, which looks like something straight out of a sleazy sitcom.