Pug party reflects changing trends in pet care

Meranger is a member and assistant organizer of the Ottawa Pug Meetup Group, a group of more than 200 local pug owners who bring their favourite pets together once a month for social time. On Saturday, Aug. 25, it was at Meranger’s east-end home, where over a dozen wrinkled-faced pooches traipsed through kiddie pools and tumbled around her yard.

“Usually we go to Lansdowne Park – there’s a dog area there where you can let your dogs run loose, so we overtake the park because there are so many of us,” she says with a laugh, adding that their numbers are usually well under the full registered membership.

Beyond a social occasion for the pugs, the group’s monthly events also offer an opportunity for owners to share information and advice, Meranger continues.

“It’s just people getting together and talking about things like, what’s your pug like, and realizing they’re all the same and we’re all going through the same stuff – it’s almost like a support group,” she laughs. “Some people who are new pug owners like to know (about their behaviour).”

The smallest addition to the Meranger family, Sophie, arrived last April. Meranger explains she and her husband decided on the breed because a previous neighbour had owned two of them.

“(Sophie’s) a part of the family,” she says. “We don’t have any kids at home anymore, so she’s our baby girl. She’s so spoiled . . . we just love her so much. It’s hard to explain, but she’s got such a little personality.”

While the Ottawa Pug Meetup Group is only one example, it’s not only social get-togethers that are seeing a growing trend of dogs becoming more like companions than pets. Some owners are ensuring their animals get only top-quality, five-star treatment – regardless of their species.

Businesses like DOGZ Spa & Boutique, located downtown on Wellington Street West, offer a bevy of pampering treatments for man’s best friend, including dog-specialized pedicures, aromatherapy and massage.

Owner Tracey Howard says dog owners want to pamper their pets because “they’re just like their children. They cry when they drop them off for daycare. Some people call two or three times a day, which we always welcome, because my four boys are my babies also. They want to pamper their children and take care of their children as they do themselves.”

As for whether a large demand exists for such specialized doggy services, Howard replies that she’s booked “seven days a week.”

While DOGZ has been offering the services since the store opened in February 2006, Howard says they have become far more prevalent everywhere in the past five years.

“In New York and L.A. it’s been really popular the last few years, and it’s been slowly seeping into Canada,” she explains. “We noticed in Ottawa – when I was doing my research before opening up the store – there was no one else (in the city) doing it. Now we’re noticing more and more places are now offering spa services, because before in Ottawa straight across the board it was grooming only.”

While Rover may love the special play dates and relaxing massages, some trainers caution against not recognizing dogs as animals first.

“People need to see that the dog is an animal, and then after that the species that it is … and then the breed of a dog, so those things have to be fulfilled,” says Dianne Sarasin, a Bark Busters representative for eastern Ottawa. “It doesn’t mean that you can’t give your dog lots of love and attention; the thing is you have to fulfill those aspects of the animal before you shower it with affection.”

She also say a large part of socialization for dogs – beyond getting together with other four-legged friends – is getting them accustomed to the world around them.

“It’s more about socializing your animal to the environment,” Sarasin explains. “To the sounds, the smells, the people they’re going to see daily on their walks … anything your dog is going to encounter during their lifetime.”

The most important thing, she continues, is that pets are properly cared for – and that they know their place in the pack.

“As long as you fulfill the dog – as long as he has shelter inside and out, nutritious food, physical and mental exercise and above all, leadership,” Sarasin says. “There’s nothing wrong with (giving love and affection), it's just that first you have to show the dog that you are the leader."