Paw Relations

PAMPERED pooches are not my usual sphere of interest. It's not that I have anything against them, I just don't happen to have one (our last dog, a darling Jack Russell owned in our Wimbledon Common days, died some 20 years ago). But my daughter has acquired what I should call two step-dogs (of a rather rugged country variety) and many of my best friends are besotted owners. Many of them - such as Clemmie Hambro, who owns a dachshund called Frankie take their dogs everywhere, including restaurants, cinemas and their friends' houses.

So it's plain to me that for these tiny creatures no treat is too special, no -comfort too refined for their owners to travel far and wide to track down. For these lucky pooches (and fussy pussies) there is now the perfect shop - Mungo & Maud in Elizabeth Street, southwest London (but from September the rest of the country will be able to buy online). Clearly, for Nicola and Michael Sacher, who own the shop, nothing is too good for their canine and feline friends - they started at the top by getting Seth Stein, the much admired architect, to design the shop (and very clean and pretty it is too) and they have spent about two years either tracking down or designing a range of refined pet accoutrements.

Many of these are clearly designed to appeal to the pet owner rather than the pet - I don't imagine there's a dog in the world, even the most spoilt of pekes, that would notice if it were sleeping in a bed covered in toile de jouy rather than some cast-off old cotton. Mungo & Maud is clearly the place for those who mind about co-ordinating the doggy (or cat) bed with the aesthetics of the room. You could choose an oatmeal linen bed for the minimalist interior, or striped ticking for something rather more New England, or navy or chocolate for a rather more graphic look. Come the winter there will be corduroy and cashmere, while the blankets are all made of merino wool. Choice is what Mungo & Maud is all about.

For fussy owners there is a very elegant leather purse which you clip onto your belt and which holds the "poop" bags (all biodegradable). There are dog leads and collars all made grandly in Italy, a nice little pouch for all the grooming aids (brush, comb etc) and a range of infinitely soft little cover-ups for when the weather turns foul.

Meanwhile, wash them with the hypoallergenic shampoos (choose from lavender, vanilla or oatmeal) and the best thing of all - so my dog-owning friends tell me - are the home-baked organic doggy biscuits. Clemmie Hambro's Frankie loves the home-baked cookies (although his favourite thing in the whole world is his toile de jouy toy which comes in the shape of a dachshund). My daughter's country labrador wolfed down his organic rosemary biscuits. So there is something, it seems, for all sizes and shapes.

Now all these carefully nurtured dogs clearly can't be doing with rough and ready kennels when their besotted owners are away - a sudden withdrawal of all this TLC would be too much of a shock to the system. What they need is Jenny Hytner-Brown's Paw Seasons "hotel" for dogs. It offers what she calls "five paw" treatment for dogs and it's all in the Weald of Kent, a few minutes from the Eurostar at Ashford International. The "hotel" is in a Grade-II listed cottage and is clearly of the boutique variety, since it takes no more than six "carefully selected chums for all-day fun". The play takes place in the garden and then they go walkies in 300 acres of cherry orchards, hop fields and woods - that is; when they are not splashing in the pool.

Fitness is important so there are soccer, tennis and agility exercises for the energetic and afterwards each "guest" can relax in leather sofas, comfy chairs or Cath Kidston designed beds. There are private quarters for those who don't like dormitory accommodation. As we're talking about a five-star establishment the "guests" are bathed with Penhaligon's dog shampoo in a roll-top bath, the rooms are scented with Jo Malone candles (had no idea dogs - or cats come to that - were soothed by delicious odours).

Overnight stays start at £30 a day but Hytner-Brown also runs a day centre which offers eight hours of fun and care for £20. No longer need you worry about your pooch when you're away - the Paw Seasons sounds like an idea whose time has come.