A dog's life

Coco Martin Del Campo may be one of the most spoiled three-year-olds you’ll ever meet. The little brunette spends her days dressed in designer duds carefully picked out every morning by her doting mother, who takes her shopping for new outfits two or three times a month. She gets as many treats as her heart desires, has her nails done every couple of weeks and sleeps curled up in bed with her parents every night.

Coco is a dog. And wherever her “mother,” 28-year-old Saskia Martin Del Campo, goes, you can be sure the teacup Chihuahua is never far behind. In fact, more than likely she’s tucked away in a designer bag slung over Martin Del Campo’s shoulder or at the end of a rhinestone-encrusted leash.

“Everything she has kind of accents what I have,” explains Martin Del Campo, a bubbly blonde real estate agent with Dexter Associates Realty, who has popped into Barking Babies, a Yaletown designer doggy-wear boutique. Coco perches in her arms, decked out in a black Juicy Couture tracksuit. “We sometimes dress accordingly. Today we didn’t because we were in a big rush and I’ve been working and she was lounging. So she’s in her loungewear and I’m in my workwear. But yeah, sometimes we both go out in our little black tracksuits.”

The dog eyes Martin Del Campo’s interviewer with suspicion, lips twitching to reveal a tiny but perfectly formed set of pointy teeth. The sound of a high-pitched growl fills the room.“She’s very protective,” Martin Del Campo explains apologetically.

If there was any question that dogs are now first-class citizens, Trouble puts any doubts to rest. In August 2007, the white Maltese became the richest bitch in the world when her owner, “Queen of Mean” Leona Helmsley, passed away and bequeathed a $12-million inheritance to her devoted canine companion. (Money can’t buy happiness, though, even if you’re a dog; Trouble is now reported to be suffering death threats and living in hiding, under a new identity, with a 24-hour guard.)

And in April of last year, outrage grew across the globe when certain pet foods, including those manufactured by Ontario-based Menu Foods Income Fund, were found to contain wheat gluten from China tainted with melamine. The column inches dedicated to the deaths of beloved pets as a result of the toxic food far outweighed those documenting the subsequent execution of Zheng Xiaoyu, the head of China’s State

Of all the places to live if you’re a dog, you can’t do much better these days than Vancouver Trouble’s fortified mansion excluded). In 2006 DogFriendly.com listed it as the most dog-friendly city in North America. (In 2007 we slipped down a peg and relinquished the top spot to Boston, Massachusetts.) According to the website’s write-up, “The city has many outdoor restaurants and cafés and quite a few of the stores allow you to shop inside with your dog… Vancouver boasts seven off-leash dog beaches and over 20 off-leash dog parks giving your dog ample opportunity to run.”

Judging by the explosion in the last couple of years of high-end boutiques, spas and services for the canine companion, the local business sector has taken notice. While the value of the Canadian pet industry is difficult to pinpoint, an indication of its potential size can be gleaned from American Pet Products Manufacturers Association Inc., which estimates $40.8 million was spent in the U.S. pet industry last year. The most recent numbers available from Statistics Canada on household spending indicate that the median pet expense per household in B.C. increased from $425 per year in 1997 to $560 per year in 2005 – well above the national 2005 median of $460.

Where five years ago your typical Vancouver mutt would make do with dried kibble and Milk-Bones, regular walks to the park and a weekly brushing, today’s pooches arguably live better than some of their owners. They can feast on wheat-free peanut-butter truffles made by Vancouver’s K9 Biscuit Company and birthday cakes from Kitsilano’s Three Dog Bakery, sit at a booth and get served a restaurant-style meal at Doggy Style Deli on Denman Street, and boost their heart rates on indoor treadmills before indulging in personalized reiki treatments at Oak Street’s Mestisos Pet Spa – all the while sporting the latest must-have fashions of the day from shops such as Ker­risdale’s Fetch or Yaletown’s Barking Babies.