A dog’s life for Dubai’s VIPs (very important pets)

From luxury resorts and day-care centres to canine paddling pools and glamorous grooming salons, Dubai is awash with pet pampering services.

Originally founded as a mobile grooming service, Shampooch continues to offer pampering on wheels in its trademark pink and yellow Shampooch vans, while now also offering an upscale salon experience.

Makeovers are completed with a spritz of canine fragrance, and four-legged clients are welcome to model for ‘before’ and ‘after’ shots against Shampooch’s bright pink photo wall.

In addition, doggy day-care and overnight “boutique hotel” boarding is offered in the heart of affluent residential neighbourhood, Jumeirah.

“At Shampooch, we get a lot of different types of clientele, we get people from all different nationalities like Dubai. It's a real melting pot of different cultures. It's the same with dogs, so we get all the different types of dogs,” says Managing Partner Shaheen Shahani. “We've got clients who come to us to get their dogs groomed and we have a lot of busy professionals who go off to work in the morning leaving their dogs in our day-care facility.

“Dogs spend the day here, which is like coming into school. They run around, they make friends, they chase balls, they go out in the garden. They have a great day. They go home tired, happy and content, which is great for the owners as well.”

Another popular canine retreat, My Second Home in Dubai Investment Park, houses indoor and outdoor canine swimming pools, an indoor air-conditioned park and a range of suites for overnight stays.

“We've got just about everything that you can imagine for dogs,” says My Second Home Director and General Manager Sean Parker. “We've got overnight boarding, we've got day-care and schooling for dogs,