Heavy Petting

Under the wooden roof of the homey brick-covered house are four condos. The guest of the condo can watch the mini-TV, snuggle on the single bed, stroll under the soft lighting or enjoy water and treats served on the double bowl inserts. \nEach condo costs $40 a night. Customer services are requested through woofing and yipping. And yes, the condos board man's best friends. \n"Those are rooms that feel and look like home. They are naturally more expensive than what we call the traditional boarding accommodations," said Brian Fullerton, general manager of Canine Companions in Bloomington. "But they've worked. They are popular. People love them and utilize them."\nCanine Companions started in 1985 as a local professional dog training center and has been expanded to a pet service business that offers grooming, cage boarding, doggy daycare and the latest additions - luxurious condos and a veterinary hospital. It is part of the growing pet service industry in Bloomington and across the country. \nThe booming pet services, including pet hotels, pet butlers, pet sitters, pet massage therapists and pet travel agents, are expected to be the hottest trend in the pet industry this year, according to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association. \nFurthermore, spending on pets has doubled from $17 billion in 1994 to an estimated $38.4 billion in 2006, up from $36.6 billion last year, according to APPMA. \n"This (pet service) has become a more emotional-based business," said Fullerton, who referred to himself as the daddy of two German shepherds and one bulldog. "People's mentality towards pets has changed over the past 16 years. Pets are now their children. People don't balk at the idea of spending money on their kids." \nIn addition, many pet owners need to work 8-10 hours a day and can't devote quality time to their pets. They compensate for that financially, for example, by sending their "sons and daughters" to daycare, Fullerton said.\nBloomington Pet Pals, an in-home pet-sitting service established in 2005, has been meeting customers with similar needs. Its users range from IU students to professors, from professionals to retirees. \n"Most (of our clients) do not have children," said Ann Wesley, co-founder of Bloomington Pet Pals, in an e-mail. "They generally have a high disposable income and are willing to pay to make sure that their pets are pampered."\nUpon request, a pet sitter will visit and stay at a pet owner's house for 30 minutes at a time. Each pet-sitting visit usually includes feeding the animals, changing the water, cleaning their messes and providing companionship, such as taking dogs for a walk or playing string games with cats. Some may also require medication like insulin injections, dialysis IV, oral liquid or pills, Wesley said. \nCatering to the individual situations of its clients, Bloomington Pet Pals has been growing rapidly, with full bookings months in advance, especially for the travel-related seasons. \n"In April, we already have reservations for Christmas and Thanksgiving and have very few days off throughout the entire summer," Wesley said. \nThe Dog House, which provides "cageless" boarding, daycare and pet-sitting, also accommodates the largest amount of dogs during the holidays and spring break. \nIt began in 2001 as the Top Dog Pet Services that offered dog walking and dog waste removal, as well as pet transport and pet-sitting services. Last year the business was renamed the Dog House, with an emphasis on creating a cageless home environment for dogs. \n"A lot of people don't like the thought of throwing their dogs in the cage. It's just like prison for people," said Jim Dasenbrock, owner of the Dog House. "Here we are completely cageless. We have no kennels and no cages. We are basically just like a house set up in a big building."\nWith an average of 20 dogs per day, the Dog House currently contains a living room, two indoor playgrounds, two developing condos, a kitchen and a fenced grass yard at the back of the building. In addition, the staff is on site 24 hours a day, which is the main factor that allows the pet care to be cageless, Dasenbrock said.\nHowever, living in the Dog House himself, Dasenbrock, like many others in the pet service business, has sacrificed his personal life for what he has created. \nFullerton expressed a similar view. \n"One thing I tell everybody that I hire in here or I work with is that you work 365 days a year. There is no off day. When you have dogs, you are here," Fullerton said. "For people who are not willing to accept that, this is not the business to get in."\nDespite that schedule, both agreed that their businesses will continue to grow.\nSeeing the inviting market demand in Indianapolis, Canine Companions plans to work on opening a larger sister chain there a year from now. \nAs for the Dog House, more improvements for the local base are on the way, such as constructing a Web site, fashioning the condos and offering healthy and natural dog food without chemical preservatives, Dasenbrock said.\n"We are still a year old, and not everybody knows about us," he said. "But once we implement our ideas, and get the name out there more, we definitely will grow"