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[size=huge]Pampered Pups[/size]
The dog's life is looking pretty good these days, with massages, day care, gourmet treats and more
Text by Carla Kucinski
The last five years of Kate Wright's life have been filled with late night trips to the emergency room, "diaper bags" packed with medicine, toys and snacks, and conversations with her sister about the latest cutest thing Cora, her Jack Russell terrier, has done.
At times, she feels like a single parent, minus the changing of diapers and burping.
"I never had a dog that I treated like this," said Wright, a 28-year-old interior designer, of Lansing. "We don't put a bow in her hair and call her FiFi. We don't have a rhinestone collar; it doesn't go that far.
"She has a little dog coat for the wintertime, little dog shoes. She goes everywhere with me."
Cora isn't just a dog to Wright; she's a member of the family and gets treated as such. She has spent thousands of dollars on veterinary care for Cora, who has epilepsy and Addison's disease, an adrenal insufficiency. A recent 3 a.m. trip to the pet emergency room for Cora's seizures left Wright with a $1,500 bill. Her friends think she's crazy.
"But what do you do?" she said, as Cora frantically ran around her living room floor, holding a sock in her mouth. "How do you justify not taking care of her?"
Wright's attitude reflects how the role of the pet in the family has changed during the last few decades. Dog owners throw their pups birthday parties, take them to day care and dress them in winter coats and booties. They board them in luxury suites, spray them with cologne and carry them in fashionable bags.
Bonnie Wheeler, a mental health counselor in Okemos who specializes in pet loss, attributes the shift in people's perception of their pets to a number of cultural changes, particularly within the family structure.
"People are having fewer children, so the pets are in some sense taking the place of the children," she said.
Plus, we're less of an agricultural society than before, which changed the function of animals from being strictly hunters and herders to being companions, she said. It's almost become human nature to pamper and humanize pets.
"It's how we discuss personalities in general," she said. "We don't know how a dog describes himself. When we start attributing human characteristics to them, then we start treating them like humans."
Even veterinary care has advanced dramatically within the last 10 years, causing pets to live longer and owners to get attached to them, she added.
"Before, we didn't use the diagnostic kind of things on our pets," she said. "We didn't invest as much money and as much time as we do nowadays."
Pets Bring Big Business
Rhinestone collars. Louis Vuitton carriers. Doggie cologne.
The pet industry is full of products to pamper your pooch. And pet owners are spending more money on their pets than ever before.
The American Pet Products Manufacturers Association estimates more than $34 billion will be spent on pet supplies and veterinary care this year. That number has doubled in the last 10 years.
"No matter how bad the economy is doing, people are still buying for their pets," said Jana Nicol, owner of Gone 2 the Dogs, a pet boutique in Lansing. Nicol opened the boutique a year and a half ago. Her sales this Christmas have "doubled if not tripled" since last year, she said.
Nicol carries a variety of posh pet products including chichi collars and leashes, clothing and fancy treats that resemble real pastries, such as doggie donuts covered in yogurt and carob. Nicol orders the goodies from bakeries such as Curious Dog Bakery in Lansing and Lazy Dog Cookie Co. in Grand Rapids. She even carries birthday cakes ("Pup Pies") and bones that look like cookies.
"People love to spoil their dogs," she said.
People like Heather Beavers and her husband, Dave, who spent $100 this Christmas on their two dogs, Haley, a yellow Lab, and Shamus, a shelty Lab mutt. They bought them treats, collars and a harness for the car.
"Some of my friends think it's ridiculous," said Beavers, 27, of Lansing. "It makes me happy. I feel as though (Haley) has emotions and feelings."
Beyond the collars and fancy treats, Haley also gets her picture taken every year with Santa and participates in the Easter Egg hunt held at Gone 2 the Dogs.
"We have no kids," Beavers said. "She is our kid. A lot of people see dogs as dogs; they don't see them as spirits."
Day care for dogs
People laughed at Holly Hunting Martin when she told them her idea for opening a day care center for dogs. Despite the skepticism, she left 18 years of property management in 2000 to open her Doggy Daycare and Spa in Okemos and as Martin likes to put it, "pick up poop for a living."
But 800 clients later, the idea of doggy day care is catching on. So much so that Martin outgrew her facility and a year ago moved into a newly built 7,000-square-foot facility in Lansing that's twice the size of its previous location.
The day care center averages 25 to 30 dogs a day. Before dogs can attend, their owners go through an interview process that includes a three-page application that asks questions about personality traits, behavior issues and health problems.
Martin's clients, or "moms and dads," run the gamut -- from college students and singles to families and retirees of various economic backgrounds. A one-day pass costs $25 per dog.
"People are making a financial sacrifice in order to ensure their dog is happy and healthy," she said. "I don't look at doggy day care as frivolous; I look at it as being essential. It's not froufrou stuff, where they're sitting around on a couch watching TV."
The purpose of doggy day care, Martin said, is to socialize and exercise the pet who otherwise would be sitting at home all day in a crate.
The dogs enjoy playtime indoors and outdoors and occasional naps. At the end of each day, dogs are sent home with a report card grading them on potty breaks, nap time, sleeping, listening and sharing.
"It's just like day care for kids," she said. "We treat them like they're our children."
The Hands-On Treatment
Nicole Dingwell thinks people have the wrong idea about pet massage. It isn't a way to pamper your poodle. It's an alternative, natural form of healing used to treat a variety of conditions including separation anxiety, muscle pain, aggression and emotional stress. It can also increase circulation.
"It's the same benefit for animals as it is for humans," said Dingwell, 31, who owns Petrissage, a practice in Charlotte, where she performs equine and canine massage, aromatherapy and Reiki, an energy-based healing practice that involves placing the hands on parts of the body in order to balance the body's energy. "You can get to the source of the pain rather than treating the symptoms."
The majority of Dingwell's clients are horses, athletic dogs and older dogs with arthritis.
However, the American Veterinary Medical Association doesn't recognize massage therapy and other holistic practices performed on animals as formal methods of veterinary care. Although massage therapy is an established field with horses, but relatively new to people with pets, Dingwell said interest is growing.
"A lot more people have realized how beneficial massage therapy is for humans," she said. "Veterinary care has evolved so much that alternatives are being looked for. It's mirroring our own health."
A cute picture at the link above as well as some upcoming dog events for those that live in the area. :D