DOG DYEING....what do you think of this

Posted on Mon, Apr. 12, 2004


DOG DYEING

On holidays, canines can be seen wearing coats of many colors

By SARAH NEWMAN

St. Louis Post-Dispatch


Most people dye eggs for Easter. Some dye dogs.

Dog-dyers dye dogs for other occasions as well. Holidays are especially popular for pooch painting. Kerry blue terriers turn green on St. Patrick's Day. White fluffy bichons wear touches of red and blue on the Fourth of July. Peekapoos turn purple for Mardi Gras. And pugs turn into pumpkins at Halloween.

Almost any pet parade or canine costume contest will bring out a pink poodle or other oddly colored canine.

As trends go, dyeing dogs barely qualifies. Such knowledge brings great joy to many pet people, who question both the wisdom of the practice and the sanity of anyone who'd color a cocker cobalt blue.

But pet groomers paint a different picture. They have annual styling competitions where doggy dye jobs are all the rage.

At the 2002 Groom Olympics, for example, a white standard poodle got clipped and colored until it looked like a purple octopus. In another creative styling competition, the clipping and coloring of another white poodle produced a gardenful of yellow daisies.

Donna Branson, an instructor at Petropolis' pet-grooming school in Chesterfield, Mo., attends regular grooming seminars to hone her creative canine-coloring skills. Bijou, her standard white poodle, has often played guinea pig as Branson and her students try different tinting techniques, from commercial pet dyes to sidewalk chalk.

Cassie Morr, color coordinator at Kennelwood Village Pet Hotel, is ''an aspiring creative pet stylist'' who hopes to compete one day at the national competitions. She, too, has a white standard poodle, Tillie, who has been crazily clipped and colored a multitude of times in Morr's pursuit of her goal.

Groomers who engage in such animal antics tend to be artistic types. But they're not dyeing dogs just for themselves. They're also doing it for their customers.

The number of people who dye their dogs may be small, but it's growing, said Susie Swink, styling manager at Kennelwood. People request it for all kinds of occasions -- including a recent wedding, where the bride had her Westie dyed to match her bridesmaids' dresses, she said.

''And when the Rams were in the Super Bowl, we turned a pug into a football.''

Sandy Turnbough of has a white standard poodle (do you detect a pattern here?) who has been every color except white since she was a puppy, nearly three years ago. Turnbough said the dyeing began when she saw a television commercial with pastel-colored dogs and ''got this crazy idea that MeMe would look really cute with her puff balls colored.''

Just for fun, Turnbough decided to pursue the possibility. So she started calling around to find someone who could do it.

Turnbough discovered Morr at Kennelwood, and MeMe hasn't been the same since. She's been red, white and blue for the Fourth of July. Orange for Halloween. Rainbow hued for Easter.

Professional groomers have an advantage over do-it-yourselfers because of the specially formulated pet-safe dyes available to them. Kennelwood uses Back to Nature's Pet Silk, which is an all-natural coloring developed specifically for pets, Swink said.

Such dyes tend to be semipermanent. MeMe's coat colors usually last about four to six weeks, Morr said, but it varies from dog to dog.

Long-lasting colors make sense for groomers when one considers the cost of professional dog dyeing. A simple one-shade tinting of a little dog such as Lacey may cost about $30, Swink said. But larger dogs, deeper colors, fancy patterns and other variables can easily take the cost into three figures.

That's without such little extras as matching nail polish and rhinestones. But they're another story.



http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/mo...ng/8414377.htm

no offence...but trust the americans!...

poor dogs done up like a fish supper!

It happens here too but not on such a large scale.
Vegetable dyes are regularly used in grooming competitions and for special occasions like weddings etc!

i'd love to see some piccies tho... just out of curiosity!

Now, now.....no slamming the americans. Many countries do things like this. A bit on the ridiculous side I will agree but to each their own really.

Follow this link...poor dog!!

http://www.heavenlyphotography.com/i...ts/tydydog.jpg

poor dog. I saw a dog with its claws painted once. The kids could not stop laughing

Some one had a lot of free time on their hands! LOL

LOL Alohacorso, poor dog. I like the plain ole garden variety of dog with natural colored fur.

lol thas funnY!