【CRI】我們都愛美寵物(有聲)

At Ruowen Pet Spa in Beijing, it was a novel idea whose time had come. It's not new in general, but new to China. Pet grooming spas have been popular in South Korea and Japan for awhile, which gave Ruowen's founder a chance to woo Beijing's dog lovers.

Ruowen's trainer and sales manager Lijingtao explains.

"The school was established 8 years ago. We wanted to normalize the pet grooming market in China. A long time ago, it cost people about 50 Yuan on dog showering and 100-200 Yuan for dog's haircutting. And people were not willing to pay that. Later, our founder brought the advanced culture of pet grooming to China and opened the first training class after having acquired the skills in Taiwan. We want to cultivate more pet grooming here."

In the next two years, they plan to open over 200 pet spas across China. They offer the service to dogs, cats and even rabbits. For now, dogs are their main clientele. Yes, even a dog can get its hair done for the right price.

Li says there are many choices, including, dye treatments.

"We mainly offer spa service, and we have pet grooming, dyeing and other special body care at the same time, but the most popular service here is the spa. Spa service combines several different routines like 'Fresh Blossom spa, hair whitening spa, and color fixation spa.' With the color fixation spa, many dogs like the Teddy dog have hair color that begins to lighten subtly. And with other dark colored dogs, when they get older, their fur turns white. So we do the color fixation spa to make them look younger.

Today, the one of the furry 'customers' of the spa is getting preferential scented treatment. He's inside a warm air box hair dryer to dry him up a bit before getting primped.

One of the spa employees, twenty-one-year-old Chang Sun explains.

"Today, we're giving him a spa, because he was a bit dirty and smelly to begin with. But now, we've made his fur fluffy and clean, and he was groomed and dyed before to look like he had two pink little angel wings. His hair is growing longer so I'm combing him."

They don't stop at angel wings. Here, you can dye your Bichon dog to look like a ninja turtle, your poodle to look like a tiger or your Shitzhu like a strawberry. There are few design limits here, and spa manager Zhang Zhi says they have gotten many strange requests.

"One of the most interesting styles of dog dyeing here is the panda. It's relatively easy to handle when the dog's hair is white, but there was one guest whose dog had all grey hair. He insisted that he wanted a "panda", so we said yes and after several super complicated processes, we turned his Old English sheepdog into a panda in the end. That was the most sophisticated service that we ever did."

In fact, dying a dog that size can cost up to 5000RMB. For those looking for a cheaper option, you can dye your dog, cat or rabbit's ears for about 50 RMB.

Many places do grooming, so Ruowen's aim is to market the pet spa. However, a spa may be relaxing to humans but Li says dogs can be anxious when they first arrive.

He says the best way to calm them is to soak them in a mildly bubbly pool bath Ruowen pet spa designed themselves followed by a massage.

"Actually, there are more than 100 acupoints on each dog. And we add nutrition and essential oil into dog's body through those acupoints which can make them look better and live longer.

But whereas humans may love soaking in a mountain of bubbles, Li says smaller bubbles are better for dogs.

So who's interested in pampering their furry friends? Li says the majority of their clients are well to do young professional Chinese between the ages of 20-35. Every day, they have around 10-20 dogs whose owners are willing to pay up to 5000 RMB for spa treatment.

If your dog is a bit on the tubby side, there are even weight loss soaking treatments that will get rid of excess body fat. Some dogs can even lose up to 2-5 kg a month.

Zhang Zhi said it's a unique job that is rewarding as well.

Definitely the hairdressing and dyeing are my favorite part of my job. You know every dog has his shape and hair type so I have to make a special dyeing plan for each dog, and every time when I finished dyeing a dog and it is perfect I will feel a sense of great achievement.

Pet spas in China are part of a trend that is far from slowing down. Ruowen's pet grooming schools have graduated around 4000 students to date. On that note, it's not just people who get to enjoy the salon and spa anymore!

For CRI, I'm Andrea Hunt.

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