Dog Pampering Los Angeles Style

20 Feb 09

Thought you’d seen it all when it comes to pampering your pets? Leave it to Los Angeles dog owners to kick it up a notch with a hyperbaric oxygen chamber for dogs.

Take dog companion Melanie Marden, for example. She and her dog called Porshe, indulge in oxygen chambers. She explained that “her energy’s gone up, her fur is so much softer, like a puppy.” All the same, Marden admits, not everyone understands their $150 a treatment habit.

“I explained to them, you know the thing Michael Jackson does? Well, it’s really good for you. I know it’s a little weird. My mom says ‘you’re so LA now,’ ” Melanie laughs. (Poor Melanie doesn’t realise modelling one’s own behaviour on Michael Jackson is nothing to laugh at!)

Alas - apparently in LA, even dogs feel the pressure to turn back the clock. Maya Volk of www.02-beauty.com explains that “it is an anti aging treatment.” (Personally I know that I quite enjoy being a young man about town, and also am aware that little feet very much looks forward to my ever-increasing maturity.)

But you don’t have to go to Hollywood to get pet chic. The rage for all things doggish has taken off in places such as Seattle.

People have been known to pay more than 200 dollars for a customised dog bed. The pet industry pulls in $41 billion a year, and that buys a lot of luxury. When it comes to collars, some stores carry ranges that include real pearls, genuine italian leather and an $85 collar featuring real Swarovski crystals. Not to mention the angora sweaters and rhinestone studded T-shirts.

Goodness knows what spa-treatments Hollywood dogs are presently enduring, in the run-up to the Oscars!

Awoof! Archie