Canadians spend $4 billion each year on their pets. More than half goes to the bare necessities: food and trips to the vet. But there's a huge new market for luxury animal products—designer clothes, posh resorts, organic treats, even insurance policies. Why the sudden urge to pamper our pets? Some say it's because people are waiting longer to have children and instead lavishing love on their animals. Others blame a consumer culture gone crazy. One thing's for sure: small-business owners are cashing in
Lisa Brooks
Happy Tails Pet Resort
Huntsville, Ont., started in 1996
"I had a fantasy when I was a child of being surrounded by dozens of dogs. It was my going-to-sleep dream. The dogs would be swimming and running and playing free, and we would all live together in a big brick house. Now I've achieved that dream. This is a place for people who don't like the idea of their dogs being caged, filed away and only being taken out for occasional exercise. It's a resort for pets. We have activities like paw-print painting and pottery, but most of the time the dogs just hang out with each other and have fun. Each dog has its own cubby to sleep and eat in. They're all wood, with Berber carpet in the summer and straw in the winter. There's also a TV and a fireplace. For the larger dogs, there are cabins on the grounds, and couches. The dogs sleep wherever they feel most comfortable. My favourite part of the day is meeting our customers—it's great to see people so happy with the service. Dogs that have been here before are excited when they arrive; they can't wait to be with the other dogs and play all day. At the end of their stay, the dogs are happy to see their owners, of course, but people always tell me that as soon as their pet has said hello and settled in to the car, they fall fast asleep. It's like a switch goes off, and they sleep most of the way home, like a child coming home from camp.
Fraser Telford
Exotic-fish expert, Big Al's
Mississauga, started in 1975
"As a kid, I was into every kind of bug I could catch. Then, when I was 6, our neighbour's son went off to university, and I got his five-gallon tank and some guppies. By my seventh birthday, I was ordering my own fish through the mail. I used to think I would become a marine biologist, but I found that I really enjoyed the retail end of things. I've been at Big Al's for five years. I'm the livestock man-ager for the Mississauga store, and it's like running a small zoo or aquarium. We have over a thousand species of fish, from goldfish and guppies to large angelfish and sharks. We had a 6 1/2-foot nurse shark named English Bob (he was named after one of the gunmen in Unforgiven) who outgrew his tank. So we shipped him off to the West Ed-monton Mall. We arrived at 4 a.m. to get him ready for the flight—even sharks have to get to the airport early.
We have school tours in here all the time. Growing up, I didn't have friends who were into fish, so it's nice to be able to pass on to kids what I've learned. We do a lot of set-ups for companies that want an impressive display tank. The Mandarin restaurants have huge, beautiful tanks. We get a few celebrities in as well—a lot of athletes, guys with disposable income. We order goldfish for Don Cherry straight from a huge farm in Hong Kong, and former Raptor Charlie Villanueva used to come in frequently. We also get guys from the Leafs and Argos. Saltwater tanks are very popular. It used to be that you needed a lot of time and money to keep one, but technology has advanced to the point where it's affordable for the average person. Reef tanks are the high-end items now. We have set-ups that run $18,000 to $20,000, and those are truly im-pressive. We also get parents who come in and say, "I need a salt-water tank and the fish from Finding Nemo. Make it happen." And we do.
You usually don't notice all the strange creatures you're dealing with, but sometimes a shipment will come in from South America, with something even we don't recognize. We have to pull out the textbooks. Probably the best part of my job is talking to people from all over the world. We have suppliers in Vanuatu, the Philippines—everywhere. Often their English isn't the greatest, but as soon as we start talking about fish, we really communicate. Fish are the common language that we speak."
"My husband, Serge, and I got Tyson three years ago. He's an American pit bull terrier, and he is the first pet we've owned as adults. We did a lot of re-search first, though. We found a reliable breeder on the internet, and called her veterinarian and her references. She's in the Okanagan Valley, and so we had to fly Tyson to Toronto, but we loved him right away. So, yes—we bought a pit bull over the internet. Our friends thought we were crazy, but if you knew us, you'd know that when other people say stay away from something, that just makes it more likely we'll do it. We love a challenge. Pit bulls are a short-haired breed, and they need a bit of cover in the winter. We looked everywhere, and we couldn't find any jackets that we liked, so I designed one. I had no previous sewing experience, but every time we went to the park, people would follow us and ask us where we got the jacket. That's how it started. We entered the One of a Kind craft show in Toronto last year and won the award for best booth, and that's when things really started to take off. I'm doing this full-time now, plus working as a graphic designer. The response has been amazing, and we've had plenty of requests for new products. But right now we're focused on ex-panding into the States and Europe with our current line. None of this would have happened without Tyson, of course. He's our muse."
Diana Fischer
English Nannies for Dogs Inc.
Toronto, started in 2002
My family moved to Ghana, West Africa, when I was 5. The company where my father worked had an aluminium extrusion plant. It was shortly after we arrived that I in-herited a small zoo from another businessman who was heading back to England. He had deer and monkeys and guinea pigs and rabbits, and they all moved into our gar-den. I've been living and working with animals ever since. I've trained horses and bred sheep, and for the past 20 years I've been training dogs. I believe in discipline and being firm with animals, especially when they're young. The most aggressive dogs come from homes where they are babied too much. That's fine once a dog is trained, but only after they have learned who is in charge. The leash is essential. In India, they will tie a baby elephant to a tree. The elephant learns that he can't move off that leash. As an adult, even though the elephant could easily pull the tree out of the ground, psychologically he doesn't believe that he can. He's learned the leash. But the most important part of what my daughter, Astrid, and I do is teach people how to use their voice and body language to project confidence to their dogs. We've been in homes where a child is being bullied at school, and the family dog will bully the child as well. If we can teach that child how to stand up for himself with the dog, then he will also learn how to stand up for himself at school. You can't be fake with a dog. A dog will see straight through you.
Dr. Karen Regan, Veterinarian
Animal Hospital of High Park
Toronto, started in 1986
Like a lot of little girls, I thought being a vet would be neat. It was my dream. It wasn't until I was in univers-ity and I got a job working with a vet that I realized I could do it. I loved every aspect of the job. That's when I decided to go to the Ontario Veterinary College in Guelph, and I've been working at the Animal Hospital of High Park ever since I graduated in 1997. Our clinic specializes in exotics and so-called pocket pets, so at any one time our waiting room can have mice, ferrets, reptiles, large dogs and any number of exotic birds. The birds will often be talking—and for a vet, it's a little distracting when your patients are talking up a storm in the waiting room. We didn't really learn much about exotic pets in veterinary college—there was only a single course when I was there. But the profession has come a long way in recent years. There are journals and ongoing education programs, and we also have a network of vets on the internet who deal with exotics. So when we come across something really unusual, we have a place where we can go to ask questions. I don't really like the term "pocket pets," which gets applied to small animals like hamsters and guinea pigs. There's something about the term that implies those pets are disposable. We believe that all animals should get the highest quality of care, no matter what their size, and the people who bring their pets here think the same way. Watching the animals get better and the bond that exists between the owners and their pets, that's some-thing to see. These animals are so well-loved. It's the most rewarding part of my job.
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Baking: From My Home to Yours
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