Dilemma and Equinox Champion™ were featured on the Front Page of the WALL STREET JOURNAL on July 26, 2005. 

Why Have Sponsors
Gone Barking Mad
For Deals With Dogs?

Canine Athletes Don't Do
Dope or Bite the Ump;
Morgan's 'Pawtographs'

By AMY CHOZICK
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
July 26, 2005; Page A1

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- In the world of dog obstacle-course racing, Dilemma, a rambunctious border collie, is a star. She certainly looked like one as she pranced onto the field at the ESPN "Great Outdoor Games" earlier this month wearing a Stihl black bandana, an Equinox Champion™ custom-made jacket and an orange Natura collar.

"She's like a walking billboard," says Lisa Flowers, Dilemma's owner.

s. Flowers has contracts with Natura Pet Products Inc., Equinox Champion™ animal health care and toolmaker Stihl Inc. that require her pooch to promote their brands. Dilemma must wear her sponsors' logos at events and press functions, where she tends to lick the microphone.

In return, Ms. Flowers, an AT&T service manager from Columbus, Ohio, gets a fee from each sponsor. Stihl, for instance, paid $1,000 for this event with a bonus of up to $1,000 if her dog won a gold medal. Dilemma gets all the dog food she can eat from Natura.

A new generation of canine athletes is emerging from the world of dog shows and sporting events. So it's only natural that the pet-products industry would borrow a trick from Nike and Reebok and sign sponsorship deals with them.

Merial, a joint venture of Merck & Co. and Sanofi-Aventis SA, signed on a Jack Russell terrier named Hamlet, a Frisbee-catching mutt named Calvin and 12 other dogs to wear blue bandanas promoting its Frontline flea and tick control at this year's Great Outdoor Games, held here. Their owners wiped them down with white terry-cloth Frontline towels. Between competitions, the canine stars drank bottled water provided by Merial.

Iams Co., which is owned by Procter & Gamble Co., outfits its sponsored dog teams in corporate togs. They include bandanas and T-shirts with the Iams Eukanuba logo. Iams athletes also eat free. The company provides its 50 "Eukanuba-powered" dogs with a special diet of muscle-building L-Carnitine and other energy-boosting ingredients.

The outdoor games feature obstacle-course races known as "Dog Agility" and Frisbee-catching duels dubbed "The Hot Zone." They also include sports for people including log climbing and all-terrain-vehicle racing.

Festooning dogs with logos can be easier than outfitting a human athlete. "They're a marketer's dream," says Bob Vetere, chief operating officer at the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association, in Greenwich, Conn. "You could dress them up in antlers and a wedding gown and they won't complain."

These sponsorships come as dog athletes are getting more television time. At least five major cable and broadcast networks have shown canine sports this year. The American Kennel Club's Eukanuba National Championship attracted more than 13 million viewers when it appeared on the Discovery Channel and Animal Planet in January, about the same number that tuned in to the 2004 Emmy Awards.

More than 850,000 households watched the Great Outdoor Games broadcast July 13-17 on ESPN and ABC, a 38% increase over last year's audience. Dog events consistently draw the Games' highest rankings.

Stihl is one sponsoring company that doesn't even make dog-related products. Yet the outdoor-equipment company sees canines as a way to connect with consumers. "Marketing is about touching passion points and if there's one thing people are passionate about, it's their dogs," says Roger Phelps, promotional communications manager at Stihl.

And dogs don't take steroids, brawl with fans and get caught up in sex scandals. "They're so sportsmanlike. Even when they lose, they just wag their tails and are happy to be out there," says Shadd Field, president of DockDogs. The Cleveland organization sanctions "Big Air" competitions, a sport that measures how far a dog can jump off a dock into a pond.

Big Air sponsors include Nestlé Purina PetCare Co. and Iams. Since bandanas and T-shirts on dogs would get wet and weigh the athletes down, backers are currently limited to outfitting the dogs' handlers. But later this year, DockDogs will introduce waterproof vinyl dog vests. The vests will give competitors the chance to sport their sponsors' logos as they dive into the water.

Marketers have come a long way since the days when sponsorship of dog events was limited to posting signs at events, handing out free samples and putting their names on such events as the AKC Eukanuba National Championship, begun in 2001, and the Purina Incredible Dog Challenge, which was started in 1998.

Sponsoring individual dogs comes relatively cheap. At the Great Outdoor Games, Stihl spent about $1,000 on each of its four sponsored dogs. Merial spent around the same amount on each of its 14. Both companies offered handlers bonuses of up to $1,000 for winning a medal. For year-round sponsorship rights, Iams spends up to $5,000 a dog. Dog food, wearables and fees for sponsored athletes cost Iams about $250,000 a year.

"It's guerrilla marketing at its best," says Philip Dolan, senior director of Parasiticides Categories at Merial. "We get a lot of TV exposure for a small amount of money."

Even modest payments are helpful to dog owners. Most handlers spend their own money traveling to dog competitions.

Milt Wilcox, a retired major-league pitcher in Detroit, travels to at least 20 dock-jumping competitions a year with his black Labrador retriever, Sparky. Sparky is sponsored by Purina, Frontline and Jolly Pets Inc., which makes his favorite fetch toy. Mr. Wilcox says the money is a nice perk. "An unlimited supply of Jolly Balls only goes so far," he says.

The increased interest from marketers is getting some dogs celebrity treatment. The kennels at Disney's Wide World of Sports complex, where the Great Outdoor Games were held, were set up in pristine white tents, cooled to 50 degrees. Hefty bouncers guarded the entrance, prohibiting press, fans and even friends and extended family from entering.

"The kennels are the Oval Office of these events," says Jim Downs, senior director of events at ESPN Outdoors.

At the 2002 Great Outdoor Games, Little Morgan won a gold medal in the Big Air event when he jumped nearly 27 feet off a dock. Since then, the dog's owner, Mike Jackson, has secured sponsorships with Eukanuba, Frontline and outdoor retail chain Gander Mountain Co.

The 6-year-old Lab alternates wearing a red Gander Mountain bandana and a blue Frontline frock. Morgan puts ink "pawtographs" on Eukanuba posters for his fans.

In 2003, ESPN invited Mr. Jackson and Morgan to a party at the Playboy mansion in Holmby Hills, Calif. Mr. Jackson, an outdoorsman in Shakopee, Minn., didn't think the party was a good idea. "You can't take a hunting dog to a place where peacocks are walking around," he says.

Some worry that this merging of corporate and canine could get out of control. The American Kennel Club has strict rules forbidding dog-agility athletes from wearing T-shirts, bandanas or visors during competitions. But they may wear doggie couture before and after competitions. Collars with logos are permitted on the field.

The AKC regulations prevent Kimie, a miniature schnauzer sponsored by Dog Sport Magazine, from wearing her red Dog Sport Magazine T-shirt during agility competitions. But Christine Frank, Kimie's owner, puts the shirt on the dog as soon as she completes the agility obstacle course.

"Kimie just loves schmoozing with the crowd," says Ms. Frank, a schoolteacher in Chesterfield Township, Mich. "She's a perfect spokesgirl for the brand."