Hot Dogs, Part Deux

On my way out of the JOG A DOG treadmill area, I picked up a copy of Modern Dog Magazine, a full-color periodical with advertisements equally as entertaining, if not more so, than the content, featuring all sorts of niche products for your pooch from clothing to jewelry to organic food.

Two products particularly caught Sportsbiztech’s eye. The first was Komfort Pets, a “climate-controlled pet carrier.” Complete with a digital thermostat that measures the outside air, the carrier then tells owners how much heating or cooling they need to set for their pets to be comfortable. The second was RoamEO, a GPS tracking system for pets. The dog wears a GPS-enabled collar while the owner can track his or her movements within a one-mile radius on an LCD screen.

I headed backstage at the Westminster Dog Show to the “holding area,” a vast sea of purple and gold cubicles housing more than 2,500 dogs. Excited at the prospect of techie gear galore, I instead faced rows of traditional pet carriers – some metal, some wooden, some plastic – all with fans attached to their exteriors. And no GPS tracking devices to be found.

Feeling duped, I decided to talk to Joyce Meier, who was helping her friend, owner Susan Babich, watch over Aba (pronounced AY-bah, full name: Ch. Rocklane’s Relive the Magic), a golden retriever that competed at Westminster on Tuesday. I showed the Komfort Pets ad to her and asked whether this was becoming the norm at dog shows, or whether she personally knew anyone who used climate-controlled carriers.

How to jog that (Westminster) dog

If The New York Times considers dog shows to be a sport, then so can Sportsbiztech. And it just so happens that the grandest spectacle of them all, the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show (affectionately known as the Westminster Dog Show for short), starts tomorrow at Madison Square Garden. More than 2,000 dogs will compete in the two-day event for various honors, the most coveted of those being the “Best in Show” distinction to be named Tuesday night.

On Saturday, the Hotel Pennsylvania – which is across the street from the Garden – bustled with activity. Canine signage dominated the lobby of the host hotel, where dogs, breeders, owners and handlers swarmed in from across the country, waiting to check into their rooms. Other four-legged American Kennel Club champions, however, were already in the basement amidst a spectacle of sponsor tables that featured dog-inspired jewelry (for humans), trade magazines (for humans), and massages and aromatherapy treatments (…for dogs. For real.)

In the center of the chaos, several dogs kept in shape by lightly running in place as their owners held their leashes. However, they weren’t running on flat ground; they were running on specialized treadmills…for dogs.

For real.

JOG A DOG, a returning Westminster sponsor, provided four treadmills for competitors ranging from size small (for toy dogs like the Pekingese) to the new extra-large model, a 261-lb. machine that runs at speeds up to 10 m.p.h. Retail prices range from about US$1,100 to $3,000, and can be customized to include wheels, a gaiting bar and a timer.

The JOG A DOG Web site at http://www.jogadog.com addresses questions about the product for potential consumers. One intriguing section explains why it is not advisable for dogs to use human treadmills. Treadmills for humans, the site details, are shorter in length because humans have shorter gaits (foot movements) than dogs do. Human treadmills also have a tendency to malfunction when exposed to significant amounts of dust – and, in this case, dog hair – while the JOG A DOGs do not include the same electronic sensors that cause their ancestors to shut down.

The JOG A DOGs also provide immediate benefits for Westminster competitors. In a crowded, polluted metropolis like New York City – and especially on a damp, rainy day like Saturday – the JOG A DOGs enable canines to get their exercise without having to get their paws and coats dirty, eliminating those extra trips to the manicurist, the masseuse and/or the salon (and saving owners time and money). Here is a video of several dogs enjoying their JOG A DOG fitness routine…well, all but one.