holiday gifts for your dog

I was amused recently when I read an article in the New York Times about people (I believe it was mainly women) in New York who could not be parted from their tiny little dogs for one second of the day, and took them everywhere with them. Now these little pooches, mainly Chihuahuas, Pomeranians, Yorkshire Terriers and anything with toy in front of its breed, were to be seen in all the places where the in-crowd goes, and could be seen sitting on bar stools in cocktail lounges and on seats at restaurant tables which struck me as ridiculous. Now don't get me wrong, I love dogs myself, but all the dogs I have owned have been big dogs, and the last dog I owned when I was in England (a German Shepherd/Labrador mix) would not have been welcome in any of these places - let's just say, he had "personality", and often came to his own decisions about what he would and wouldn't do, and his social skills were generally lacking.

As if this wasn't amusing enough, these tiny little canines were also dressed to kill. In fact one woman scoured the internet into the early morning hours looking at stores in Europe trying to find that to-die-for outfit for her dog, in order that he would be dressed in an up-to-the-minute fashion accessory that no other dog in the City had. Not quite sure whether this was insanity or the norm, I started looking around at the dogs here in San Diego and, of course, the dress code for dogs is much more lax here than in New York City (which is the case for humans as well), but there are a few dogs (mainly the small ones) who were wearing jackets, hats, sunglasses and for some reason one large dog I see in the village sometimes wears little black bootees on all his four paws - but not every day. We even have our very own pet store here, Muttropolis, which sells clothes, beds, blankets, toys and pretty much anything you can think of for you or your pet (check out the cute ballerina dancer dress at the top of the page). So realizing that this was more normal than I realized, I found this great list of gifts for dogs in InStyle magazine, in fact the pink leather leash and collar at the top of the page and the cute microfiber parka on this Pomeranian can both be found at the InStyle gift guide website.

So, if you are looking for something for that dog or dog lover in your life, here are a few of the things InStyle suggests:

• Bone china hand-painted charm, $50, by Herend.
• Pink leather leash and collar, $78, Coach.
• Canine cards and stationary, at pup-prints.com.
• Microfiber parka, pictured above, $59-89, Room Service Home.
• Corduroy bed, $175, Canine Styles.
• Painted metal bookends, $25/2, the Sarut Group.
• Christmas or Hanukkah dog treats, $30 for 18 biscuits, Kool Dog Kafe.

Or, if you want your puppy to live a little, why not treat him or her to a Northwestern VIP Black Beaver, pet friendly bed for $800 from the Quintessential Pet? He's worth more than that? OK, then it has to be a visit to Bark Avenue Jewelry, where you can get custom made diamond jewelry for your pet from $110 up to $5,000, and at the recent New York Pet Fashion Week, they featured a diamond encrusted collar for $150,000!