The most pampered pooch in town

JJ is a modern West London boy. He takes his morning and evening walks in Hyde Park or Kensington Gardens, has a pedicure every fortnight and is partial to Burberry accessories.

He eats organic out of preference (although he enjoys the occasional fattening treat) and favours aromatherapy or homeopathy over conventional medicine. Like all Londoners, JJ sometimes finds city living stressful, so when life gets on top of him, he whips down the M4 for R&R at his Carmarthenshire retreat. It's probably also worth mentioning that JJ is a three-year-old, long-haired Weimaraner.

'I don't see anything wrong with wanting the same quality of life for your dog that you'd want for yourself or for your family,' says JJ's owner, Andrew Edells (who also happens to own Chelsea's Pet Pavilion, the pet-world's answer to Selfridges). 'It's true that a man's best friend can be his dog - and don't all of us want good things for our best friends?'

Apparently, we do, and we're prepared to pay through the nose for them. We may be having bad times economically, but try telling the London dog lover convinced that Fido's energy levels would benefit from crystal therapy or that counselling would help Spot emerge from his emotional cul-de-sac. Edells claims he has never tried to tot up what his pet costs him every year, but a quick rundown of JJ's routine shows this urban dog's life doesn't come cheap.

While Edells likes to walk JJ himself in the mornings and evenings, like many busy Londoners, he employs a dog walker to take him out during the day. JJ apparently favours places of historical interest, and is particularly partial to Richmond Park, Kenwood House and Hampton Court Palace.

When JJ isn't in residence in London (where, naturally, he has his own room and the obligatory designer dog bed), he can sometimes be found at The Dog House in Carmarthenshire. This dog hotel-cum-retreat (just don't call it a kennel), set in 350 acres of Welsh countryside, is an ideal place for the cramped London canine to yield to his doggy instincts without fear of colliding with a Rollerblader.

Then there's the grooming - no small consideration for a long-haired Weimaraner. JJ's groomer spends four hours every fortnight shampooing, conditioning, drying, brushing and bouffing his charge. After all, when your owner is the proprietor of Pet Pavilion, it simply doesn't do to be seen around town looking like Lassie after a dramatic river rescue.

And the evidence is that JJ is not alone in having an owner with both the income and the inclination to give him the very best of everything. Although our increasingly hectic urban lifestyles and tiny urban flats should have put us off the dog long ago in favour of the smaller, less time-consuming cat, it would appear that we're as keen as ever. Last year, the Pet Food Manufacturers Association estimated that 4.8 million UK households had a dog - roughly the same statistic as for cats.

Beverley Cuddy, editor of Dogs Today, agrees that people are still canine-obsessed. 'People normally begin subscribing to our magazine when they acquire a dog, and we've just had an 11.4 per cent rise in circulation,' she says. 'I don't think the magazine's suddenly got better so, as far as I'm concerned, there's a dog boom going on.'

And once we've acquired our four-legged friend, it would appear that we're absolutely determined to spend as much money as possible on him. Woof Woof, a new pet boutique on the King's Road, is shifting Parness dog perfume and Harris Tweed coats by the truckload. And The Dog House - which relies on London for 95 per cent of its business - already has its training courses booked up until October. Meanwhile, the capital's top dog-walkers and groomers are all being very selective about which clients they take on, mainly because they can afford to be.

So why are we Londoners prepared to spend so much money on our dogs? After all, Rover won't know the difference between a Burberry bed and a bathmat, nor will he be bothered if you spray him with dog perfume or flea repellent. He's unlikely to be psychologically scarred if you fail to buy him a Louis Vuitton leash and, while you may be desperate for him to have the same hair cut as Geri Halliwell's dog, Harry, it's a fairly safe bet that he isn't fussed.

'The reason people are spending more on their dogs is quite simply because they want to show how much they love them,' says psychologist Dr June McNicholas, an expert in relationships between humans and animals. 'There's a popular theory that, as the birth rate drops, dogs have become a substitute for children - but there's no evidence for that. What seems to be true is that as our human relationships become increasingly conditional (you're only loved if you're pretty/rich/ intelligent/successful enough), we are seeking unconditional love from our pets, a caring relationship without risks. There's also the guilt factor. When owners don't have much time to spend with their pet, they'll tend to compensate by spending a lot on the animal.'

But however much we spend on our four-legged friends, we have a long way to go before we catch up with the Americans. While the London pooch still finds it hard to get into one of the capital's top hotels, his New York counterpart is welcomed with open arms and possibly offered his own room-service menu, toothbrush and shiatsu massage. The W hotel, Union Square, offers a 'Bowow Concierge' who can organise a trip to the doggy spa, a hot-oil fur treatment or a Poochie Sushi snack. The TriBeCa Grand and SoHo Grand provide pet taxi services, while the Ritz-Carlton on Central Park South woos furry guests with gold-plated ID tags and dinner served on a hand-painted ceramic plate.

Neither have we lost our grip on reality sufficiently to subject our pets to plastic surgery (although this is probably only because the UK Kennel Club rules forbid show dogs from being cosmetically enhanced). In Los Angeles, eye tucks for dogs are readily available and, for the dog who suffers a loss of self-esteem after having been neutered, help is at hand in the form of a couple of implanted 'neuticles'.

Barking mad? Clearly, but where the US leads, we have a tendency to follow. So if JJ fancies a tummy tuck or a bit of lipo in a couple of years' time, chances are he'll be spoilt for choice.

Pooch's guide to top-class pampering