(12-31) 21:15 PST Portland, Maine (AP) —

Maureen Lafferty is anti-fur. Anti-fur in her tub. Anti-fur on her towels. And anti-fur in the drain.

That’s why she and the one big ball of fur she does love, Jackson, a yellow Labrador retriever, are patrons of the Portland Dog Wash.

“This is why I don’t do this at home,” Lafferty said, pointing to big clumps of fur at the bottom of the stainless steel basin.

In a country whose residents spare no expense on their pets, self-service dog washes represent another splurge, allowing dog owners to forgo the indignity of chasing a wet and soapy dog around the house, or across the lawn, along with the messy cleanup.

The trend kicked off more than a decade ago. Now it seems that just about every sizable city has at least one.

In Maine’s largest city, the bustling Portland Dog Wash has five tubs, which are disinfected after each wash.

“This setup is much easier than doing it at home,” said Lafferty, who wore a standard issue vinyl smock while tending to her 9-year-old dog.

There are more than 70 million dogs in the United States, and they account for a good chunk of the nearly $3 billion pet owners spend each year on grooming and boarding, according to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association.

Dog washes are a natural as dogs increasingly become part of the family, living inside homes instead of dog houses, eating hoity-toity designer pet food, going to doggie day care and traveling with families on vacations.

“I don’t think it’s a trend that’s going to go away,” said Blair Smith, who has helped to open three Dirty Dog locations in four years in Austin, Texas. “People are not going to stop spending money on their pets.”

The idea was born out of many a pet owner’s frustration.

Washing a dog, especially a big one, is messy. The dog shakes. Dirty, soapy water splashes on the walls. Your knees, your back, or both hurt from kneeling next to the bathtub. Then there’s the big lump of dog hair in the drain.

That’s what was on the minds of Francisco and Gloria Gamero when they opened their first dog wash 15 years ago in Santa Clarita, Calif. They now have three U-Wash Doggie locations. U-Wash, like Dirty Dog, offers franchising opportunities.

“Up until we opened our store, there was no facility like ours in the United States. Now they’re everywhere,” said Andres Gamero, the couple’s son.

In Portland, Mark and Greg Goodwin got the idea after hearing from a friend about a dog wash in the Baltimore area. “We just dove into it,” Mark said.

Their business features waist-high tubs with all the accessories close by ? combs, shampoos, conditioner, perfumes, towels, hair dryer. There are eye wipes and ear wipes and even dental wipes with a minty scent.

It’s a simple concept. Customers are willing to pay from $8 to $16 ? the price is based on the size of the dog ? to let the Goodwins sweat the details.

Although some might consider it a splurge, it’s far less expensive than taking a dog to a professional groomer. On average, self-service dog washes charge 30 to 50 percent less than the cost of a professional groomer, according to Stephen Mart from PetGroomer.com in Yelm, Wash.

As with any good idea, there are variations on the theme. Some, like California’s U-Wash Doggie, offer professional groomers in addition to self-service washes. Others aim even higher, or farther over the top, depending on your point of view.

In Portsmouth, N.H., the Club Canine Dog Wash and Spa lets owners lavish their pets with blueberry facials and bubble-bath paw treatments, even canine massage and Reiki, a Japanese stress reduction technique using touch.

“It’s a little new agey, I know, but people are doing it for themselves. Because their pets are also part of the family, they’re doing it for their pets too,” said Stacey Kimberly Rogers, co-owner of the business.

If that seems too serious, dogs can lighten up with a monthly “yappy hour” where they can socialize over a bowl of nonalcoholic, no-fizz, beef-flavored “Happy Tail Ale.”

“Fun is the operative word. You’ve got to have fun,” Rogers said.

Mark Goodwin agrees with the idea of having fun, but said reducing stress is important, too. He said he and his brother launched their dog wash idea partly because Mark was feeling stressed out by his primary job as an environmental consultant.

They’re trying to keep it fun, even though this is the busy time of the year because it’s getting cold outside.

As for Lafferty, she can’t imagine any other way of washing her dog and said she’d be at a loss if the Goodwins ever went out of business.

“We’d either find a new place to wash him, or we’d have a really smelly dog. Ultimately, we’d find a new place to wash him,” she said.

___

Portland Dog Wash «www.portlanddogwash.com»/

U-Wash Doggie «www.petwash.com»/

Dirty Dog «www.dirty-dog.com»/

Club Canine Dog Wash & Day Spay «www.clubcanineseacoast.com»/

October 22, 2007 — As the entertainment industry ramps ups the pressure on Google, MySpace and other Web companies to better police the illegal online trading of movies and music, it’s already looking toward even bigger fish to join in its battle against digital piracy: Internet service providers.

Sources say the Motion Picture Association of America is talking to a number of companies that offer high-speed cable and DSL Internet service - including Comcast and AT&T - about adopting policies and technologies that would discourage users from illegally swapping movies and TV shows over their networks.

Word of the push comes amid growing efforts by ISPs over the last year to manage traffic on their networks.

A study last week by the Associated Press found that Comcast, the Philadelphia-based cable and Internet giant, is interfering with some of its subscribers’ ability to upload large files onto the Web.

The move is reportedly most meaningfully affecting users of popular peer-to-peer technologies like BitTorrent.

Comcast, in a statement, said it neither blocks its users from using any sites, BitTorrent included, nor bars users from uploading files to the Internet.

But in the eyes of the entertainment industry, such moves are driven less by a commitment to respect copyrights and more by the desire to discourage the most egregious bandwidth hogs who clog up Internet traffic with excessive swapping of music, movies and other large files.

Industry executives want to see ISPs more actively monitor their networks for pirated movies.

ISPs are not necessarily opposed to the idea. AT&T in June said that it would work with the entertainment industry to explore ways to combat piracy on its network through a variety of education and technology approaches, though it put forth no specifics.

About 38 percent of U.S. consumers are watching TV shows online, 36 percent use their cell phones as entertainment devices and 45 percent are creating online content like Web sites, music, videos and blogs for others, according to a new-media survey from Deloitte & Touche.

The findings of the online survey of 2,081 Americans, conducted October 25-31, were provided to The Hollywood Reporter before their official release next month.

The “State of the Media Democracy” notes that in Deloitte’s first edition of the survey just eight months earlier, 24 percent of consumers used their cell phones as entertainment devices, meaning that usage has soared 50 percent.

About 62 percent of “millennials” (consumers 13-to-24-years-old) are using their cell phones as entertainment devices, up from 46 percent in the previous study conducted February 23-March 6, 2007. And among Generation X consumers (25-to-41-year-olds), the number grew to 47 percent from 29 percent in the earlier survey.

About 20 percent of consumers said they are viewing video content on their cell phones daily or almost daily.

The percentage of consumers watching TV online jumped from the 23 percent figure reported in the previous study. Roughly 54 percent of those surveyed said they are making their own entertainment content through editing photos, videos or music, 45 percent said they are producing that content for others to see, and 32 percent said they consider themselves to be “broadcasters” of their own media.

“I think for advertisers one of the conclusions is you don’t make decisions to advertise either on television or the Internet when you want to hit all the demographics, but rather you need to have a multiplatform strategy,” said Ken August, vice chairman and national sector leader for Deloitte & Touche’s media and entertainment practice, which commissioned the study. “It shouldn’t be an either or proposition.”

Among the study’s other findings:

– 54 percent of consumers said they socialize via social networking sites, chat rooms or message boards, and 45 percent said they maintain a profile on a social networking site.

– 85 percent of consumers still find TV advertising to have the most impact on their buying habits, but online ads are second best, with 65 percent of consumers saying they have the most impact, beating out magazines at 63 percent.

I am an ordinary Ontarian without affluence or influence. What I write is as a result of my experiences and those of family and friends, what I have observed and read and the conclusions I’ve drawn. It will not apply to all business since I haven’t experienced all business.

Business has evolved from “the customer is always right ” to “who?”

It has one all-consuming purpose – profit – and not just profit but more profit. To this end, anything can be exploited, cut or jettisoned. This includes employees, quality, product, service, civility and competition.

Truth was deemed unimportant a long time ago. Price hikes can be sudden and horrendous. Excuses, I can’t term them reasons, are mostly lame and frequently seem to be unrelated to the subject. The result is misery for a great many and a ticketless lottery win for a few.

It wouldn’t seem so heartless if the commodity were not necessary to life. We need gas and oil products to keep ourselves and our pipes from freezing in the winter and we need gas to get to work and to doctors, if we can find one, and school.

The price of medications is often beyond the average person’s means. Again a lot suffer while a few reap a bonanza.

Business doesn’t seem to have business expenses anymore. Any costs they have are transferred to the customers so fast you’ll get windburn if you stand too close. I’m sure these “expenses” help lower their taxes too.

Not long ago farmers were slaughtering their pigs and burying them because the prices they were being offered for them couldn’t even help them break even. Since it was a product that was in great supply and the producers were getting very little, one assumes pork was quite cheap in the stores. That wasn’t true and again a lot suffered and a few got a whack of extra money which was unearned.

One of the saddest parts is that my grandchildren expect they won’t get value for their money. They’ve never experienced otherwise.

You buy and use 25-year shingles and they need replacing in 16 years. All that elicits is a shrug. You buy a hot water heater and it needs replacing in two years. Well, the guarantee is only for two years.

To my mind the best advertisement is a good product/service and word of mouth. The fact that we are constantly bombarded with advertisements – repetitive, idiotic and mind numbing – tells me that the product is lacking.

Recently, a large communication company I dealt with systematically ignored the wishes and needs I gave them in connection with a move. They insisted a delivery would be made on the day I moved no matter how inappropriate this was, and then delivered it the day before I moved without telling me, so I wasn’t there to receive it.

In the time leading up to the move, I spent a lot of frustrating time on the phone trying to make the move as convenient and comfortable as I could. It seemed everything I wanted was not convenient to the company. By the time I got moved, I’d had enough incompetence and rudeness and I terminated my business with them.

As a result, I paid for a month’s service I didn’t receive as a penalty for not giving them a month’s notice.

When we played monopoly as kids, when one or two people held all the money, property etc., it wasn’t fun anymore and we started over. It makes you think doesn’t it?

Jill Stevens is a retired psychiatric nurse living in Marmora, Ont. The Bottom Line is a weekly guest column. Please send your submissions to thebottomline@ thestar.ca

The bearded tycoon wrote a hard-hitting letter to all 4,800 of the long-haul firm’s cabin crew pointing out history is ‘littered with carriers that have gone bust’ because of disputes between staff and management.

Branson, whose mother was one of the world’s first air hostesses, said employees insisting on bigger wage packages should quit rather than endanger the airline.

Virgin Atlantic is braced for two 48- hour stoppages next month, on January 9th and 16th. The carrier has pledged to operate nine out of 10 flights as scheduled, cancelling three services on each strike day. Passengers on those flights have already been notified.

Virgin Atlantic offered cabin crew an 8.3% two-year wage package, but 1,400 employees voted to walk out even after Unite union bosses backed the deal.

Branson’s personal intervention is unusual given he is no longer involved in day-to-day operations.

He said: ‘There comes a time in any negotiation when a good management team has to draw a line in the sand and I agree with them that time has come.

‘To go further would result in unacceptable risks and would set a dangerous precedent to the company as a whole. It would be irresponsible of our management and they, rightly, are not going to take that risk.

‘For some of you more pay than Virgin Atlantic can afford may be critical to your lifestyle and if that is the case you should consider working elsewhere.’

Rising tensions at Virgin come at a critical time for airline passengers as workers at Heathrow operator BAA gear up for industrial action.

Crunch talks are looming this week after thousands of Unite members at the seven BAA-owned airports voted to walk out over a decision by its Spanish owners to close the company’s final salary pension scheme to new entrants.

Other stories:
Deadlock in talks to stop airport strike
Ofcom probes Virgin’s 999 data blunders
Virgin brand not the answer to Rock woes
Virgin Media halts customer exodus
City backs Virgin for Northern Rock rescue
Branson considers Virgin Atlantic float
Singapore sell-out could see Virgin sale