Regular readers of this blog know that pet trends is one of my favorite topics. The key reason, beyond the fact that I'm a life long dog owner, is the fascinating trend towards "pet humanization."
More and more pet owners are seeing their pets as full fledged family members - and themselves as "pet parents." Because of this, spending on pets is skyrocketing. Last year, for example, Americans spent almost $50 billion on their pets.
This is creating opportunities for pet-preneurs - entrepreneurs creating businesses to serve this growing and increasingly diverse goods and services market. The Intuit Small Business blog article Grooming and Booming has a nice infographic on this topic.
Of course my favorite humanized pet is Chico, my brother and sister-in-law's dog. Chico visited recently and for the first time was allowed in the backyard with our dogs. Chico's parents have always considered our dogs too unruly and "dog like" for Chico to interact with.
Much to the surprise of his parents, Chico had fun and at times actually acted like a dog - or at least sort of like a dog. Nature, in this case, won out over nurture. (BTW, I have to be careful what I say about Chico. His parents warned me his lawyers are bulldogs.)
For those interested in pet trends, Euromonitor is hosting a free webinar on this topic this week. Global Pet Care – What is Driving Growth in 2011 and Beyond? is on July 27th at 10:00am eastern.
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