Canines in cyberspace

Forums and marketing
And for curious owners, local organizations are going online with discussion forums and marketplaces that make sense of the proclivities of the dog world.

Citizen Canine, an advocacy group working for increased access for Victoria dogs, created an online discussion forum to help dog lovers share struggles and triumphs; some compare frustrating apartment-hunting experiences, while others take up training headaches or breed bans. "A Web site and an e-mail listserv was an initial way to start transcending neighborhood geographies, and creating a like-minded cyberspace community of dog folks," says Colin Carson, president of the group.

Because of these cyberspaces, Carson says the group has been able to co-ordinate events, curry interest in guest speakers and provide a virtual meeting place for other dog-loving groups. Now the site gets close to 250, 000 hits every month, and sends e- mails to a 1,200-strong listserv.

Jennifer Ross-Tolton, founder of an online directory for Vancouver dog owners, RaincityDogs.com, says she saw the need for online help for dog owners after adopting a troubled dog from the SPCA. "After being tossed out of dog training classes because the dog was too much trouble, I knew I had to find some serious help."

After nearly seven years online, RaincityDogs now gets 8,000 visitors per month, and has inspired Ross-Tolton to create sister sites in Toronto and Ottawa. Now just a hobby, the sites still help "keep us in kibble," Ross-Tolton says.

The dog days continue
After his first year, Rheingold is amazed at the skyrocketing popularity of Dogster.com. But he says Dogster (and companion site Catster) taps into a powerful force: "the love of your dogs or the love of your cat."

Besides being an online meeting-place, Dogster also works as a kind of "mental vacation" for Web surfers, Rheingold says. Dogs "represent free will...they do whatever the heck they want."

Among the thousands of Dogster dogs, Rheingold is pressed to come up with his favourites. But he eventually settles on two: CornNut, a French bulldog that Rheingold calls "3.5 pounds of wonder," and Olivia, a Chinese crested from Milan, Italy, that Rheingold says is "just Andy Warhol of the dog world."