Lucky dogs!
There's a dog hotel, a dog Zen garden and now a doggy spa: Do we love them too much?

Laura Lind
National Post

February 21, 2004

Urban Dog caregiver Staci Dall-Lerner looks on as Kelso makes his way through a tunnel. The facility boasts cushioned athletic flooring, a hydrosurge pet-bathing system and doggy gym equipment.

'What a sick, twisted society." That's what my husband said when he saw a picture of the dogs. Not the poisoned dogs at Withrow Park, but the dogs who are spending a day at Urban Dog, Toronto's first fitness spa for dogs. The 8,500-square-foot "Urban Canine Oasis," which opened in December, boasts cushioned athletic flooring, fresh filtered water, a hydrosurge therapeutic pet-bathing system, sandblasted glass doors, a giant wreath made of bones, play areas for large and small dogs, complete with dog playground equipment, and fortune cookies for dogs, with messages such as "Life's ruff."

But the innovation that sets Urban Dog apart from other cutting-edge dog daycare and spa facilities -- like New York's Dog Hotel and Chelsea's Roman bath and dog Zen garden -- is the nanny cam, according to owner Susan Rupert. The camera is set up in the dogs' play area and the video is streamed on to the Internet. So if you're a dog owner in the middle of a dull sales presentation or the stock market is slow, you can watch your schnauzer sniffing the shitzus. Or, for the control freaks, you can make sure the caregiver gives your dog a tummy rub every hour.

Though the $35-a-day fitness centre is meant to be an occasional treat for a dog, more indulgent owners can send their dog five days a week to the tune of $9,100 a year. At present, just one shepherd-hound cross attends Urban Dog daily, at a cost rivalling the price of sending a child to private school.

This level of pooch pampering may sound twisted and insane to non-dog owners, but it's part of a trend anyone should consider before adopting a puppy. As with parenting, you don't just open your heart, you're also expected to open your wallet. The pet industry in Canada has surpassed $3-billion in annual sales.

Marketers have discovered humans have a Pavlovian response to anything related to dogs, so an upscale pet boutique will feature such anthropomorphic items as canine birthday cakes, dog baby gifts, dog biscotti and truffles, dog leather jackets, pink gingham rain slickers and four-poster dog beds.

As Andre Farncoeur, a veterinarian at the Don Valley Animal Hospital, says, "My stand is, their money is often well earned and they can spend it on what they like. People buy diamond earrings, get their nails done. They'll pay $89,000 for a Lexus, or they'll buy a Hummer. If you ask me, that's the ultimate crazy reality. So they buy their dog a toy -- why not?"

To be sure, the lavishing of tributes and gifts on dogs is not unprecedented. In his 1998 book, Why We Love the Dogs We Do, University of British Columbia psychologist Stanley Coren cites many examples of dog devotion through the ages. Ramses the Great had images of his four favourite dogs carved into his tomb. Some 3,000 years later Charles II of England commissioned a mural of Cavalier King Charles spaniels painted on a bedroom ceiling. Frederick the Great of Prussia ordered that his mausoleum be constructed on the palace lawn overlooking the graves of his 11 dogs. And Ulysses S. Grant appointed his dog to cabinet.

In his summary of the dog-human bond, Coren neglects to mention that for the less-exalted classes, if times were tight, the dog was dinner. During the Siege of Paris in the 1870s, for example, customers lined the block to buy dog meat from the butcher shops.

Thankfully for all of us, dogs have moved up the food chain in Western societies over the past 135 years. But maybe a bit too far up. A recently divorced mother complained that her ex-husband, who was given custody of the dog, was trying to deduct the cost of the dog's care from his monthly child-support payments, an indication of just how expensive it is to keep a dog and, more telling, where the dog lies in their family structure.

"I've had patients who have a harder time grieving the loss of a pet than the loss of a family member," therapist Margaret Hicks says.

"It's not surprising. The dogs give unconditional love. And they're dependent, like children -- they require a lot of care. When you invest that much energy into something, you value it more."

The new quasi-human status of dogs has led to escalating costs for pet health care and enormous feelings of guilt for their owners. Long gone are the days when vet visits were limited to spaying and neutering, rabies shots and having the dog "put to sleep." Now, in the case of once fatal illnesses like cancer, vets are administering chemotherapy, bone grafts, radiation and amputations at considerable expense to owners and, one must assume, some discomfort to the animal. "We will not extend the life of an animal at any cost," Farncoeur says, "but if the owners are happy and the dog is happy, and they get a good year with their dog, it's their choice. People haven't learned to let go. We live in a society where people are alone and cocooned. Can you give your neighbour a hug and not have him think you're crazy? Animals can fill that void. This isn't a negative comment on the pet industry, it's a comment on human society."

Beaches resident Susan Litchen was perfectly accepting when her dog Tippy died of kidney problems five years ago at the age of 15. "It was Easter and Passover, a time of birth and death." Litchen had just had her second child and Tippy had been relegated to sleeping on the couch once again. "I think she died to do me a favour," she says.

But Tippy's death was not without intervention. Before Tippy died, Litchen hired a psychic healer to minister to the dog. "Tippy was ailing," she says, "then halfway through the treatment [the dog wasn't brought in to the healer's office but was treated psychically, through Litchen] the dog died. The healer called for the next appointment and we told her the dog was dead. She was so upset, she said she should have known."

But even Litchen, who admits that consulting a psychic healer was a little over the top, draws the line at some canine consumerism. "I can't buy doggy hors d'oeuvres," she says. "I find that perverse and upsetting. There are people begging for money out on the street. How can you buy these things?"

There is a tacit belief in our culture that people who lavish attention and products on their animals are insensitive to the plight of others, Coren acknowledges in his chapter "Can You Love Dogs and Still Love People." But this is not born out by research, he writes. "The evidence is that individuals who form emotional bonds with dogs and other animals also tend to be very sociable and caring in their everyday lives. This suggests that dog owners are exactly the people who are most likely to assist the needy and abused in society."

But are you really forming an emotional bond with a dog when you send it to an orthodontist (see sidebar), amputate its leg or dress it in a black leather jacket? At Urban Dog, watching the dogs walk around on the gym's nanny cam is ultimately alienating and seems somehow wrong. After 10 minutes of observing the dogs, I notice they tend to run around in a pattern, like the captive polar bears at the zoo. They greet Rupert at the door like imprinted ducks. Is it possible that even with three staff members to tend to their every desire and all that space to romp in, this isn't enough human companionship for these animals?

Of course, the main reason people send their dogs to daycare is to prevent the dogs from feeling the loneliness that prompted their owners to buy them in the first place. But one wonders if pet gyms are really the answer.

Perhaps the unsettling thing about doggy daycare is not that we're treating dogs as well as we do our own children, but that we're treating them as badly as we do our own children. Caging them in with strangers while we're out working all day trying to earn enough money to cover the cost of keeping them happy. Perpetually chasing our own tails.

- Urban Dog is hosting a free drop-in this weekend for members of the Withrow Dog Owners' Association. Owners must provide proof of address and their dogs will be screened for aggressive behaviour. For more information contact Urban Dog, 37 Parliament St., 416-361-1037.

CANINE CONSUMERISM:

Does your dog really need:

A doggy coat? "The design may be anthropomorphic," veterinarian Andre Farncoeur says, "but it's not that the dog doesn't need the coat. When it's cold outside the dog can only walk for 10 minutes."

Doggy shoes? These are not luxury items, Farncoeur says. "They've got dogs with bleeding paws because of the salt -- it's not a fashion statement. People send them to an indoor playground so they can run in the cold weather."

A doggy orthodontist? Braces for dogs are still rare, but Farncoeur says he's heard of it for show dogs. "They would be disqualified for an overbite, and there's prize money involved, so if it's an excellent specimen the owners will have it done." Otherwise, he says, vets are performing necessary surgeries such as "removing eight teeth from a sea of pus. We're not doing teeth-whitening."

Doggy aqua therapy? Dog aquatics can ease the pain and discomfort experienced by older dogs with arthritis, practitioners claim. For $60 an hour a physiotherapist will massage the dog while it swims in a warm pool. The exercises assist in retraining and relaxing the dog's muscles while increasing strength and range of motion.

A doggy horoscope? Dogs Dogs Dogs, a Toronto magazine for dog owners, publishes astrological advice for dogs. Sample horoscope: "Libra dogs should connect with their inner puppy." But these are meant strictly for fun, the author insists.

Laura Lind, National Post

THE RIGHTS OF DOGS:

It's hard to believe, but the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children was founded to give children the same protection animals enjoyed thanks to the efforts of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. In 1874, the employer of a nine-year-old abused servant named Mary Ellen Wilson was jailed after ASPCA founder Henry Bergh testified on the child's behalf. "The child is an animal. If there is no justice for it as a human being then it shall at least have the rights of a cur in the street. It shall not be abused."

Laura Lind, National Post

Ran with fact boxes "Canine consumerism" and "The rights of dogs" which have been appended to the story.

© National Post 2004