Latest products for pets include brain teasers, organic dinners

Funny thing about people: No matter how much we can dislike one another and no matter how mean we can be to each other, we all turn into marshmallow-centered fools over the four-pawed, double-clawed, scaly, finny and octo-legged companions we adopt as pets.

For proof, just check out the array of pet products displayed recently at SuperZoo 2010, a trade show for pet retailers at Mandalay Bay convention center.

The show connects manufacturers of pet-related goods with pet shop owners and other retailers. So, a few months from now, pet owners may well see some of the items introduced at the show.

And, when that happens, Rover, Tabby and Godzilla probably will end up more finely coifed, more stylishly dressed and more amply fed than most of the actual humans we know.

Displays included foods from dried pig ears to Alaskan salmon bites and nutrition supplements, many of which claimed an organic provenance. Bejeweled collars, cute booties and flashy cloaks. Toys and puzzles designed to entertain, even educate, the family pooch.

Doug Poindexter, president of the World Pet Association, and himself a former pet goods retailer, noted among this year's trends more manufacturers offering natural and organic pet foods. In fact, Poindexter said the foods section of SuperZoo has expanded every year during the past two or three years, "and we still have more requests to be in that area of the show than we have space for."

Also popular again this year are "high-end fashion" items designed for the family pet, Poindexter said. "We greatly expanded that section this year and pretty much filled it, and had people who were waiting to get in and weren't able to."

The driving force behind these trends? A continuing "humanization of pets," Poindexter said. "They've become like people's children."

That'd certainly explain why a cat owner might be interested in buying a cat toilet-training device, or why a dog owner might spring for a water bottle attachment that allows the family pooch to sip from the same bottle his/her master/mistress uses while on a jog.

In the area of attire, most of the offerings seemed more stylish than practical. Not so for a silver cloak New York designer Jane Bell of Pet Portables created.

The cloak looks exactly like the top half of a hazmat suit for dogs. And that's not too far off, Bell explained, noting that it's made of a similar material that's also water resistant, breathable and protects dogs from the harmful effects of UV rays.

In the area of fun and games, the show featured chew toys of all types. However, The Kyjen Co. of Centennial, Colo., took that recreational tack one step further, offering a set of puzzles designed to challenge dogs' cognitive skills. Basically, the notion is for the owner to hide treats in the puzzles' hidden compartments and allow the dog to sniff out the treats and then figure out how to manipulate the puzzles to get to them.

Kim Magee, Kyjen's vice president of sales, said the concept is similar to those toys that challenge kids' minds. "At Kyjen, our big thing is to keep dogs engaged," she explained. "Really, it's just the whole interaction of the people with the dogs, and it's great fun."

For dog owners searching out a bit of game-night fun, Late for the Sky Production Co. of Cincinnati pitched a line of dog-based Monopoly-type games. Spokesman Chris Niehaus said the company began making themed games about 25 years ago, starting with college-based games and then moving a few years ago to Dog-Opoly.

This past summer, the company expanded Dog-Opoly by introducing 13 breed-specific versions, including Beagle-Opoly, Lab-Opoly, Poodle-Opoly and, of course, Shih Tzu-Opoly.

Game play is just like Monopoly. But as players round the board, they buy dogs instead of properties, try to stay out of the kennel instead of jail, visit the dog park instead of free parking and draw "good dog" and "bad dog" cards instead of "Chance" and "Community Chest" cards.

Fans of other pet species will be happy to know that SuperZoo exhibitors didn't focus exclusively on the four-legged and the warm-blooded. Some exhibitors were pitching wares aimed at retailers, and owners, of fish, lizards, snakes and birds.

Most fun of all was the booth of Cedar Hill Birds, Lodi, Calif., where a pair of hyacinth macaws, Coco and Sky, hammed it up for delighted showgoers.

"We've been hurt by the economy like everybody else, because (pets are) considered a luxury item," said Alycia Antheunisse, who operates the business with her husband, Eric.

The couple have been breeding birds for 27 years, and Alycia said the past year or two has seen decreased bird sales. But, she added, "I have seen an upswing in sales the last two or three months. I would say, economywise, we're starting to come back a little."

While SuperZoo is a celebration of the American pet, a few exhibitors did address the more practical demands of pet ownership. In the, let's call it the poop control category, exhibitors offered an impressive array of poop scoops, poop bags, poop carriers, and, for the stubbornly optimistic dog owner, poop-collecting doggie diapers.

Then, backtracking a bit, digestively speaking, TropiClean pitched a new line of products designed to make canine oral hygiene more convenient for dog owners.

The products include a foam breath freshener -- sort of like doggie Binaca -- a water bowl additive designed to kill halitosis-producing bacteria, breath-freshening chew treats and -- blessed salvation for any dog owner who has ever tried to brush a jumpy dog's teeth -- a gel that, when applied to a canine's canines, "removes plaque with no brushing," said TropiClean representative Denver Kassebaum.

The products, introduced earlier this year, already have received industry plaudits, Kassebaum said. "People are just blown away that it's just such a simple product."

And, addressing head-on another potential hazard of dog ownership, Bissell Homecare Inc. introduced retailers to a compact carpet cleaning system dubbed -- and how witty is this? -- "Yikes."

The cleaner is perfect for what Erin Reed, Bissell associate product manager, described as a pet owner's inevitable "oh no" moments. But isn't being reminded of a, perhaps, ickier aspect of pet ownership a bit of a buzz kill at a pet show?

Not at all, Reed answered. "We love our pets even when they're messy."

By the way, Bissell also was offering a line of pet-oriented odor-eliminating and cleaning products bearing the names -- and, again, points for wit -- "Pew," "Ewww," "Dang" and "Yecch."

"It's tongue-in-cheek," Reed explained. "We have fun with it."

Contact reporter John Przybys at jprzybys@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0280.