Dogs Puttin’ On the Ritz, Thanks to Grateful Owners

CHICAGO — It’s not easy working guard duty all day long.

Jumping to catch a glimpse of any intruders, barking out warnings to suspicious visitors and alerts to the rest of the household.

Promise Anne Atkinson works hard at it. And as a reward, the year-old golden retriever mix’s owner gives her a monthly treat.

A massage.

By a professional masseuse.

For $40 an hour.

If that seems a bit extravagant of the owner, Jennifer Atkinson, a Chicago police officer, the fact that there’s even such a business as professional dog masseuse underscores that for many canines around the country, these are doggone good times.

“The old expression, ‘He’s treating me just like a dog,’ doesn’t mean what it used to mean,” said Bill Schoolman, executive vice president of the American Pet Products Manufacturers Assn.

Today dogs stay in day-care centers that allow owners to check in on their pets by video via the Internet. Dogs eat gourmet pet meals in high-class hotels (for instance, the $8 plate of shredded braised beef and steamed rice at Chicago’s Four Seasons Hotel is called “the tail wagger”). They even undergo expensive medical procedures once reserved for humans--from kidney transplants to cataract surgery.

Besides the pet superstore chains that encourage owners to bring their animals along, increasingly, furniture stores, hotels and other businesses not only tolerate but welcome dogs.

Take pooch out to the ballgame? Why not? For the last few years, Comiskey Park has opened its doors to dogs for one game. This year, 550 dogs turned out. Many left before the Chicago White Sox finally lost to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 12-11; apparently dogs like good pitching.

The businesses that cater to dogs are endless.

Many coffee shops now stock cookie jars with dog biscuits and keep water bowls filled. In San Francisco, the Fountain of Youth Ice Cream Cafe offers a pup cup for $1.75. There are even eateries specifically for dogs: the Three Dog Bakery in 29 U.S. cities has treats like Pawlines and Pupcakes.

This star treatment--not to mention terry cloth bathrobes--is no longer limited to the pedigreed companions of the rich and famous who fly first class in python-print leather carrier bags ($399, In the Company of Dogs catalog).

Atkinson explained why she pampers Promise Anne (named after a dog in an old movie, title now forgotten): “She had a tough life before I adopted her, and I wanted to spoil her.”

Dogs appreciate such pampering, the professionals say.

“They respond better to massage than people do,” said Denise Theobald as she gives Promise Anne a massage, rubbing the dog’s head, legs and behind its ears-- which to the untrained eye looks a lot like petting. “They are very in touch with their bodies, they don’t have that this-is-ridiculous or I’m-ashamed-of-my-body sort of thing.”

Schoolman’s organization estimates that pet owners spent $23 billion on their pets in 1998, and that figure is expected to rise to $28.5 billion next year.

Dogs make up 39% of U.S. pets--cats are next at 32%, followed by freshwater fish at 9%--and are the biggest winners in this spending bonanza.

It shows.

Dogs can walk into Barker & Meowsky (get it?) in Chicago wearing a chewed leather collar and walk out sporting a $42 mood collar, complete with embedded stones that change colors.

Maximilian is one happy pug now that his owner, Allyson Heumann of Chicago, spotted a little yellow life jacket in the store’s window.

“It means he gets to go swimming,” she said of the 1 1/2-year-old with all the swimming ability of a furry brick. “Before, he’d go to the beach and all the big dogs would be swimming and he couldn’t swim.”

Maximilian doesn’t like the rain either. Which explains why Heumann plunked down $50 for a bright red raincoat.

This good fortune for dogs is in part driven by the economy.

“People have a lot more money to spend on their dogs,” said Gary Leibovitz, who owns Windy City K-9 Club in Chicago, which every morning looks like an elementary school in a well-to-do community --right down to the Volvos and SUVs pulling up outside--as owners and dogs exchange quick goodbyes before dogs head off to play and the owners, who pay $21 a day for the day care, head off to work.

But money doesn’t explain everything. “There are more people carrying pictures of their pets in their wallets, throwing birthday parties for them,” said Larry Hawk, the president and CEO of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. “People feel different about their pets today. Instead of a piece of property in the backyard that makes noise, they are now part of the family.”

For some, dogs are the family.

“Not everybody has children,” said Mike Martin, of a pet exercise center in Chicago called A Dog’s Day. “We have a Halloween party, where everybody comes and dresses up their dogs like cowboys, chefs, bugs, dinosaurs. They relive their childhood from their dogs.”

Tracy Yannias learned how serious some people are about giving dogs attention when she bought Piper, her 8-month-old miniature schnauzer.

“When my breeder was interviewing me she said she would only sell to people who would be home all day,” said Yannias, a Chicago commodities broker who works at home.

And the special treatment continues after the last ball has been fetched. At Pets Are People, Too in suburban Chicago, nearly a dozen animals a week are cremated at a cost of anywhere from $75 to $400.

“Sometimes we divide the ashes up for them,” said Don Fritz, one of the business’ owners. “They keep some and scatter some down by the pond where the dog used to swim.”