Americans are cuckoo for canines. Spending on pets—mostly dogs and cats—has risen to $31 billion, from $17 billion in 1994, while a recent poll revealed that 83% of pet owners often refer to themselves as Fido's "mommy" or "daddy." Companies like Dogmopolitan (slogan: "You don't need to tell him to 'get down'... because this couch is his!") even craft custom furniture for our four-legged friends.
And now it seems we're suckers for a pooch's grin. How else to explain the success of Workman's 97 Ways to Make Your Dog Smile? After veterinary nurse Jenny Langbehn's $7.95 paperback had been on the shelves for just one week, the house returned to press, bringing the total copies in print to 112,000.
Such instant success may be auspicious. "The last book we had that sold this well right from the start was The Cake Mix Doctor by Anne Byrn," observed Workman senior publicist Stacey Alper. That title, published in October 1999, now has 1,207,000 copies in print.
Each page of 97 Ways features a photo (by Pat Doyle) of a grinning dog and a tip for tickling the canine funny bone—such as renting a nature video or performing a deep-tissue massage. Author Langbehn, along with two dogs, demonstrated her techniques on Fox & Friends, the Fox News Channel's morning show, on June 27, and will do local media in Dayton, Ohio and Philadelphia.
At Schuler Books & Music in the Meridian Mall in Okemos, Mich. (one of four stores in that state), promotions coordinator Coryn Briggs reported that 30 of the 47 copies she'd ordered had sold in about two months. She credited the book's low price, as well as its subject.
At Borders, the book was featured at registers and information desks in May and is now shelved in store gift centers. Buyer Chris Carbone reported excellent sell-through of a strong initial buy. "Our customers are eating it up," she said.
The title is also available at specialty stores, like the gift shop at Biscuits & Bath, a New York City dog spa and gym where 30 people and a dozen dogs turned out for a smiling dog event. "Our sales department has done a great job of getting the book into fancy pet stores that sell diamond collars," said Alper.
No spin-off for cats (who are more likely to express joy by sleeping than by baring their teeth) is planned. But 97 Ways to Make Your Dog Smile was itself inspired by another Workman title: Jack Moore's 97 Ways to Make a Baby Laugh, which was published in 1997 and now has 762,751 copies in print—numbers that make booksellers smile as well.
