Are there dog supermodels? No, really, are there any?

April 4, 2005 4:22 PM

Dye pets! That's right, for those of you who have always longed to color your furry friends in all the shades of the rainbow, Pet Ésthe rides to the rescue. Just look at those happy doggies! And when you've feasted your eyes why don't you head on over to one of their affiliated stores to watch the canine runway fashion show (embedded vid and awesome music)
posted by Kattullus (35 comments total)

I think my dog would probably never like me again if I dared put that crap on her. Or she'd kill me in my sleep.

Dogs aren't clowns, its rude to think they are.
posted by fenriq at 4:26 PM on April 4, 2005

But I do like their mouseovers with the Yorkie wagging his tail, that's pretty cool.
posted by fenriq at 4:29 PM on April 4, 2005

Neat. This will work great with my coulrophobia.
posted by linux at 4:29 PM on April 4, 2005

It's rude?
posted by stevil at 5:14 PM on April 4, 2005

You know, much as I'm a huge proponent of treating dogs like dogs and not toys, and giving them the respect and training they deserve, regardless of size or breed, I don't see the harm in this at all, and the dogs sure don't care. I see where fenriq's coming from, but I think it's much ruder when people carry dogs around all over the place when they have four functioning legs (I'm looking at you, Paris Hilton), or chain them up in a yard, or hit them, or don't train them, or have Disneyfied misconceptions and expectations about their morality, that kind of thing. Dogs care about that kind of rude, they don't know or care if they're dyed pink.
posted by biscotti at 5:25 PM on April 4, 2005

awesome...I'm going to try it on pigeons, if it works I'll sell them as fake parrots. thanks!
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posted by hellbient at 5:35 PM on April 4, 2005

shit, that's what I get for trying to be cute.
that's:
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posted by hellbient at 5:37 PM on April 4, 2005

Biscotti's correct that this is harmless and that it's fine for the dogs, but there's still something sickening about it. It's probably the self-indulgence of it all.
posted by orange swan at 6:01 PM on April 4, 2005

Oh For Fuck's Sake. I hope this shite wasn't irritation-tested on rabbits' eyes. This is almost as bad, but in a cutesy-converse way, as the punks who shaved a swastika in the fur of their neighbor's cat in a college town I lived in.
posted by Shane at 6:02 PM on April 4, 2005

my first reaction was - Animal Cruelty! but ya, this is tame compared to clipping doberman pups' ears.
And what about those people who drive with their dog on their lap? Makes me want to pull a jack black (from anchorman).
posted by TechnoLustLuddite at 6:11 PM on April 4, 2005

On the bright side, idiots who are too stupid to tell their pets apart will now be able to color-code them. The blue one's a cat. Fido is red.
posted by Shane at 6:14 PM on April 4, 2005

Has anybody seen a dog dyed dark green?
posted by postmodernmillie at 6:24 PM on April 4, 2005

I can't wait until the next step - branding! (The advertising kind, not the hot iron kind.)

And now, to paint my cat in blue and white and pretend he's a counterfeit Cooper Mini...
posted by FormlessOne at 6:29 PM on April 4, 2005

One of my roomates in college dyed her bichon-frisse pink and purple alternately...we thought it was hilarious because her dog was a clown (read: dumbest dog ever.)

Shane: I hope it wasn't tested on rabbits either...there are people who would do it.

Hellbient: I thought your first one looked like a frog, or Yoda...or something...parrots. heh.
posted by schyler523 at 6:38 PM on April 4, 2005

Christ, talk about robbing dogs of their humanity.
posted by underer at 6:52 PM on April 4, 2005

Hell with dying pets. I'm gonna dye my friend's kids!
posted by five fresh fish at 7:05 PM on April 4, 2005

Or, OMG, what if I were to buy a bunch of white bunny rabbits down at the pet store, dye them bright pink and electric blue, and let them loose in the neighbourhood?

My god, the conversations between neighbours would last for years.
posted by five fresh fish at 7:07 PM on April 4, 2005

Treating dogs as accessories should be illegal. Although dying them is better than putting clothes on them. Whenever I see a pet made to look like a clown, I think the owner must be a vain and status-seeking creature with too much time to kill.
posted by ember at 8:40 PM on April 4, 2005

stevil, yep, its rude to treat your animal like a fashion accessory. Like the mention about people who carry dogs because they look good.

I can see that this is mostly harmless and silly fun. And people who beat their animals are a million times worse than someone who would want to play with it and dye it pink or blue.

Shane, there you go, they should market them as Stupid People Pet ID Kits.

On Preview: Bingo, ember, you nailed it.
posted by fenriq at 8:44 PM on April 4, 2005

Heh. I was walking my dogs yesterday and we passed the same set of dyed-pink toy poodles twice (it was a loop). The first time, my younger dog Jack barked at them, which is weird for him. The second time around, Jack, who is much bigger than a toy poodle and is not scared of other dogs, skirted as far around them as he could possibly go. I don't totally get this, due to the conventional wisdom of dogs being colorblind, but he sure as hell knew that pink dogs just ain't right.

After all, it'd be bad enough to be a toy poodle in the first place without having to suffer the indignity of being pink.
posted by LittleMissCranky at 9:15 PM on April 4, 2005

I saw a light orange dog on the subway once. The woman and her dog, a maltese, sat down next to me, and I said, boy, I've never seen a dog that color. The woman explained she dyed the dog's white fur with food coloring- mixed with water, and sprayed on with a spray bottle. It washed out really easily, she explained. And she said that the dog was going to be blue for Halloween the next day.

And as for all the, oh, how horrible that some people (like Paris Hilton) treat dogs as fashion accessories, I really don't think there's any truth to the argument. Paris Hilton has a job (in her case, being a celebrity) that allows her to bring her dog wherever she goes. We see her walking around in public, carrying her dog down the street, like any good chihuahua owner might (you shouldn't let your small dog walk across the street, it could get hit by a car)- we don't see her in her house with the dog running around. If I was able, I'd bring my dog everywhere with me, too, but I can't, so she stays home with her toys, and ya know? I still think she's pretty happy. City or country, walking or being carried, I think any dog that isn't being abused or neglected is happy. It's sort of comforting to me- sometimes I feel like a "bad mommy", like maybe my dog doesn't have a nice enough collar, or she hates me because I put t-shirts on her, and then I think, you know what? She never has to go to school. Or get a job. She would be happy eating poop and shredding kleenex for the rest of her life. I give her food, water, a bed to sleep on, some love, and a t-shirt every now and then, mostly for my own amusement- and she's healthy and happy. My job is done.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 9:49 PM on April 4, 2005 [1 favorite]

Someone gets their business ideas from Arrested Development.
posted by drezdn at 10:59 PM on April 4, 2005

I've seen a few dyed dogs around town, and I think it's pretty ridiculous. Doesn't really seem to bother the dogs too much, but I don't think I would submit any of my pets to such an indignity. My cat is pretty evil. He would find a way to get revenge.

fff: You don't have to bother dyeing the rabbits before releasing them in your neighborhood. Any large amount of rabbits in a city neighborhood will spawn talk for ages as well as spawning more rabbits. Trust me. I speak from experience. We will never get rid of the rabbits. I have no doubt, one day soon they will be living in the houses, and we'll be hopping around in the street. :)
posted by Orb at 12:23 AM on April 5, 2005

Those dogs look f##king stupid. We're a world who has its priorities right, hey!
posted by sjvilla79 at 3:19 AM on April 5, 2005

postmodernmillie: Has anybody seen a dog dyed dark green?

Yeah, 'bout two inches tall, with a strawberry blond paw...wearing sunglasses and a bonnet and designer jeans with appliqués on it?

I think I saw her with a Great Dane...
posted by Katemonkey at 3:45 AM on April 5, 2005

you shouldn't let your small dog walk across the street, it could get hit by a car

Huh? A properly-controlled dog on a lead is in only as much danger of this as you put them in. Size doesn't matter, dogs have legs for a reason.
posted by biscotti at 5:24 AM on April 5, 2005

I don't totally get this, due to the conventional wisdom of dogs being colorblind, but he sure as hell knew that pink dogs just ain't right.

Could be the smell of the dye. Or the change in color could have registered weird with the dog's eyes, just not in the way it registered in our eyes, as pink. However a dog sees a pink dog, chances are it's not something it's used to seeing.

Frankly, I don't rrust sscience whe it postulates on the senses of animals. If we can't see through their eyes and experience their senses, we don't no what the see and feel. Bottom line, for me.
posted by Shane at 6:19 AM on April 5, 2005

Geez, that should be "I don't trust science when it postulates..."

I wish I could typp.
posted by Shane at 6:20 AM on April 5, 2005

we don't no what the see and feel.

My God, on Mondays I become thomcatspike ;-)
posted by Shane at 6:23 AM on April 5, 2005

My black animals are being discriminated against.
posted by rainbaby at 6:28 AM on April 5, 2005

Right. Thank god we've got world hunger taken care of. Now we can get to the pet coloring.







...wait, what?
posted by craven_morhead at 8:11 AM on April 5, 2005

I've always wanted to put a set of red and yellow flames on my white Boxer...
posted by Irontom at 11:28 AM on April 6, 2005

Do, Irontom, do it! My god, you'll be as famous as that guy with the ugly little teacup-sized dog with the bizarro eyes.
posted by five fresh fish at 2:08 PM on April 6, 2005

Irontom, as an owner of that most spaz-tastic breed.. Anything that makes a Boxer the center of attention is, to them, good. Do it, do it!
posted by cmyk at 3:27 PM on April 6, 2005

pet owners get to make lots of decisions for their animals, many of them even more consequential than how they look (like, what they eat, where they live, what sort of medical care they get...). I can't imagine manic-panicking my dog (if I had one. such a thing would not suit my cat at all.), but I also don't think it's evil. I did it to my own hair plenty of times in high school.

I think a lot of people respond to these things more due to taste than actual ethical disagreement (ie, if the owners make a dog where a sailor suit it's abuse, but if they make the dog wear a tuff leather collar, it's just stylish...)
posted by mdn at 5:10 PM on April 6, 2005