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Pet hotels are puttin’ on the Ritz

Massages, ice cream, TV ... it’s a dog’s life

Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo Laurie DeWitt⁄The Gazette Roxy, a boxer puppy, hangs out behind the front desk of the Happy Tails Dog Spa in North Bethesda. Dogs must pass a 15-minute evaluation, in which they are observed interacting with other dogs, before they are allowed to participate in Happy Tails activities.

Wrapped in the brown paper sack decorated with paw print stickers and labeled in green marker are his favorite treats — chicken dumbbells filled with rice and snacks of sweet potato with bacon. Yummy.

Just a typical summer meal at doggie day care.

‘‘I don’t want to be the mom that didn’t pack the good lunch,” explained Bethesda resident Courtney Rackley, the ‘‘mother” of the bearded, gray miniature schnauzer.

Two months ago, Ozzie began attending the Happy Tails Dog Spa in North Bethesda, where dogs are given opportunities to roughhouse in ‘‘playgroups,” ride down playground slides, lounge on futons and splash in baby pools for $33 a day. Dogs can also board overnight for an additional $20.

As one of the area’s high-end pet care companies, Happy Tails signifies a trend in modern pet ownership. And as pet ‘‘parents” take summertime vacations, more pets are finding themselves on their own comfortable vacations.

‘‘You’re not chaining your dog up outside,” said Alexandra Bowens, spokeswoman for the day care, boarding and grooming facility. ‘‘It just doesn’t happen anymore. You’re putting them in sweaters and giving them ice cream.”

Rackley hesitates to admit that she is ‘‘one of those people.”

‘‘I don’t dress my dog up,” she said.

‘‘I did buy him a sweater when he was a puppy,” Rackley conceded with a laugh, ‘‘but I took it back and we’re not going to talk about that.”

The American Pet Products Manufacturers Association estimates that $38.4 billion will be spent on pets in the United States this year, up from $17 billion 12 years ago.

With items like faux mink coats and services like pet manicures, the industry is moving toward more luxury offerings, according to a 2005 report by the association on pet product trends.

Feeding the market are growing groups of young professionals delaying parenthood and baby boomers seeing their children off to college, who have the disposable income to spend on their furry friends, according to Bob Vetere, president of the Greenwich, Conn.-based association.

For these groups, pets become like ‘‘replacement children ... so they reward them a little bit more than would be normal,” he said.

So instead of the traditional box-like doghouse, pooches can get the plush pillow bed with personalized embroidery — part of a continuing trend that Vetere calls ‘‘humanization.”

‘‘Human terms are more expensive than pet terms,” he said. ‘‘As a result, you see a great deal of pet owners going to high-end luxury items, boutique items and the like.”

When dogs are groomed at the Happy Tails Dog Spa — as they often are at the end of their vacation stays — they are not just washed, cut and dried.

They are massaged in a tub with Jacuzzi-like jets, soaked in a foamy bubble bath, trimmed to perfection and blown out with a special hair dryer that forces out shedding hair, Bowens said.

The pampering is not for naught either.

Owners can have their portraits of their pooches taken in the studio.

‘‘To some people it’s silly. But look at this,” Bowens said, pointing to a photo of a fluffy black and white puppy donning a red hair ribbon. ‘‘It’s priceless.”

Happy Tails works like an all-inclusive resort for the canine Caribbean, Bowens added, where services like petting, playtime, feeding and giving medication is included in the overall cost.

Charging extra for petting the dogs is ‘‘completely insane,” Bowens said. ‘‘We’re going to pet your dog.”

Happy Tails employees not only pet the dogs as they romp around their playrooms, they also know each dog’s name and personality.

They know that Hudson won’t eat his food without canned cheese sprayed on top. They know that Ozzie loves to run around and greet newcomers.

The company makes it its business to know almost everything about the dogs — from birthdays to allergies to medication schedules to sleep habits, Bowens said.

It’s these small personal things that set Happy Tails apart, Bowens said. ‘‘We’re not going for the Wal-mart of doggie day care.”

Dogs are also given 15-minute evaluations where they are observed interacting with other dogs before they are allowed into Happy Tails playgroups.

After his first day at Happy Tails, Ozzie received a report card that said his favorite game was chase.

‘‘It was like his first day of school,” Rackley said. ‘‘I was like, ‘Oh my God, now I know what it’s like to have kids!’”

Rackley said she often drops Ozzie off at day care and checks on him through the Happy Tails Web site, which broadcasts live footage of the dogs playing, peeing and pawing at each other.

‘‘I don’t want to watch my dog all day, but it’s nice that they have that option,” she said.

At the PetSmart PetsHotel in downtown Bethesda, vacationing dogs are given the option of staying in a plexiglass-walled room or upgrading to a ‘‘suite” furnished with tile flooring, plush bedding and a color TV for $23 a night.

Cats stay in plexiglass ‘‘cottages,” which are cages that can be linked together for more room, for $14 a night.

‘‘People are taking more lavish vacations,” said hotel manager Philip Tickner. The special services at the hotel, like soft-serve lactose-free ice cream, ‘‘kind of ease their guilt.”

For those worried about their pets, the hotel also provides a wooden telephone booth for owners to call in and speak with their beloved dogs.

‘‘You can’t call out,” Tickner said. ‘‘But they can call in.”

The 14,000-square-foot site, which opened in February, includes a ‘‘relief room” that features gravel flooring and faux trees and pine posts. The facility, which holds a maximum of 185 dogs comfortably, is entirely contained indoors.

Each dog gets two walks through the simulated dog park per day, but owners can sign up for extra playtime for an additional charge, Tickner said.

The hotel is already booked through Labor Day, so parents seeking to leave their dogs while they go on vacation should act quickly, he said.

‘‘There’s nothing wrong with spoiling your pet,” Tickner said, ‘‘because parents will come in here with a peace of mind.”

Silver Spring resident Vohn Murphy credits her doggie day care for making her 4-year-old Lucky, a ‘‘lab retriever and hound-from-hell mix,” more friendly.

Although Lucky had previously been banned from one grooming salon for being skittish, she has behaved well at Happy Tails, Murphy said.

Her other dog, Chance, a 9-year-old furry chow and husky mix has also lost five pounds from running around in playgroups at the center, Murphy added.

Although sending dogs to a ‘‘spa” sounds wasteful, Murphy said, it is worth it because the dogs become happier and healthier.

‘‘A couple of people shook their heads at me [at first], and their dogs are now there,” she said.

Going to Happy Tails is ‘‘like going to the ice cream parlor” for the dogs, Murphy said.

Although the cost is not cheap, Murphy said it’s not that expensive either, considering the benefits.

‘‘One day there is maybe [worth] a week of Starbucks,” she said. ‘‘Definitely, I’d give up something like that to allow my dog to have some energy and get in better shape.”