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Area pooches properly pampered
By JOSH ZIMMER
© St. Petersburg Times, TAMPA -- The line to Patricia Jamison's massage table was long as she administered soothing rubdowns for one patient after the other. All those dogs, just one set of hands. Jamison said the massages can work wonders. "Sometimes . . . I try to find sore spots," she said while working the joints and muscles of one lucky dog. "If you have a dog that's nervous when you go to the vet, you'd be surprised how much this helps. "I know this works on people. Why not my best friend?" Jamison said of her 11-year-old female Irish setter. She's old, Jamison said, but "I want her running with me." Jamison, a chiropractor from Dade City, was at Al Lopez Park on Saturday lending her skills on behalf of the Beneful Smart Spa, a traveling fair sponsored by Ralston Purina. For free, dog owners could also get their four-legged favorites a bath, complete with towel-down and blow dry; a grooming with aromatherapy; and, for those that didn't fall off, a run on a special treadmill called a "Jog-A-Dog." The scene was shoulder-to-shoulder fidos that sniffed and occasionally growled at one another. The owners, who often referred to their dogs as kin or as "my best friend," were proud. "This is my child," said Susan Hausler of Tampa when introducing her 2 1/2-year-old male golden retriever, Hunter. Despite -- or perhaps because of -- the owners' love, they sometimes overfeed their dogs, event coordinators said. So in addition to pushing a new product, the organizers were also preaching good health. "What we're doing is trying to teach people how to pamper your dog right," without encouraging obesity, said Robert Bronfeld, one of the organizers. Standing by a pair of treadmills, Hollywood, Calif., animal trainer Scott Hart said massages and grooming not only help dogs with conditions such as arthritis but also are a great way to bond with the animals. Treating dogs to such human perks is new, he said. In Hollywood, he said, the emphasis is on training and grooming. Sabrina Drzal of Tampa and her 8-year-old son, Justin, came with their three miniature dachshunds. "You look like a brown rat," she said to Princess as the wet longhair sat draped in a towel in the arms of Monica Maldonado. Maldonado, who drove in from Orlando to help out, admitted she was getting a little tired from the lifting. Although Ralston Purina was unabashedly pushing a new product called Beneful, the idea of replacing extra food with pampering resonated with Drzal. Then, looking at her overweight dachshund, she said, "Now doing that's another thing."
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