"I love it. It keeps you going. It is quick-paced," he said.

Lang, 38, runs Pet Chauffeur Ltd., located at 36-03 13th St. in Long Island City, which has been helping animal owners transport their furry loved ones about the city and beyond for some seven years now.

His business, one of a handful in the city that offer transportation services for animals, sprang up because pet owners have found it difficult to hail a cab if the driver sees that a dog or other animal is going to be sitting in the back seat.

He got the idea for the service after delivering medicine and food from veterinarians to pet owners and getting requests from the vets to bring the animals back to the clients. He was also inspired by an uncle who made a small fortune in the pet food business in New Jersey.

He is looking to grow the business, but wants to be sure he is ready for the growth.

"I have vehicles that I am not satisfied with," he said. "And in New York people give you one chance. I want to make sure I am ready for this."

His business has expanded to a full-service pet supply service, from food and toys, which are available online, to boarding. He even organizes the shipping of dogs, cats, birds and reptiles. The first floor is packed with shelving for food that the company sells online.

"We are hoping to move out and hold it all in a bigger warehouse," he said. The current building will then be converted to house more animals. "We are looking to make the whole building a kennel," with space for 50 to 70 animals.

He now has a fleet of seven vans providing about 60 rides on a given day. On a recent day, most of the rides were in Manhattan, but he said they do frequent runs to the Queens airports.

"We go to Florida quite often. Also California, Virginia," he said, adding that things get crazy during the Westminster Kennel Club dog show. The company has had a number of interesting passengers.

"We took chimpanzees. They were for a commercial. From JFK to a hotel in Manhattan," he said.

Although many customers use his service to travel to the vet, other use it to make appointments at doggie spas or even doggie parties.

He said he provides some services that other carriers refuse, including transporting animals on stretchers.

The prices for the transportation service start at $27.50 for the first 40 blocks, but there are no extra charges for the owner. The standard charges rise as high as $165 for picking up a pet at Kennedy Airport.

They house as many as 20 dogs and other animals at their Queens location at any one time.

Behind the three-story house - where he lives with his wife Val, as well as a rottweiler, two cats and some fish - is a dog run with dog houses, toys fenced in with a wall of cartoon paintings of famous hounds such as Pluto and Spike from Tom and Jerry fame, and felines such as Garfield and the Cat in the Hat.

The prices for five days of boarding start at $140 for a small dog and rise to $250 for a 74-pound dog for the same time period. More information can be found on the Web site at www.petride.com.

Cities will talk to the animals by going orange

The Woolworth Building in New York City was lit up in orange in recognition of ASPCA Day in 2006.

April 10th, 2007

Manhattan's Empire State Building, Chicago's Sears Tower, San Francisco's City Hall and Philly's quaint quarter-mile span called Boathouse Row will be lit in orange; the famous Wall Street charging bull sculpture will be decorated in the color; and the Louisiana Boardwalk fountain in Bossier City, La., will look to be spraying orange water.

It's the 141st birthday of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and people and groups nationwide are donning and draping the ASPCA's signature color to "celebrate the special human-animal bond," says Jo Sullivan, the organization's vice president of development and communication.

School teachers and librarians will offer special-educational programs, shelters are holding special animal events, and animal-friendly businesses have devised ways to trumpet support of the day. Pet Chauffeur in Manhattan, for example, will tie large orange bows on its cars, and Jack London Square in Oakland will display ASPCA posters.

"It was to have been a one-time event," Sullivan says, but organizers realized that they had "tapped into something."

Three decades ago, valuing animals "was not on the radar" of most Americans, ASPCA president Ed Sayres says. But society has become a more animal-conscious place, he says.

More than 50,000 ASPCA orange wristbands are expected to be ordered online for the celebration (1 million are in circulation already). The ASPCA has created 10 animal e-greetings that website visitors can send to friends and family, and the group is posting several "go orange" ideas.

New York Pets

Dog days  

NEW YORK

Paws are no longer good enough for the Big Apple’s streets

IF YOU, as a human, think it is hard to hail a cab in New York , just imagine what it is like if you are a dog. Or, to be more precise, imagine what it was like, because now New York dogs have acquired what they have been panting for since the city began: a pet chauffeur.

Like many clever businesses, this one emerged from a customer’s most desperate need. A decade ago, David Lang bought an old station wagon and began delivering food and medicine from vets to their clients. Before long, veterinarians were requesting Mr. Lang to do a return trip with ailing pets. So Pet Chauffeur was born.

New York swarms with dogs that have wealthy absentee owners. Mr. Lang fills the gap, and it is a very, very, large gap. His old station wagon has been junked, replaced by a fleet of seven specially equipped mini-vans (with dog seatbelts). Given a moment of free time, an eighth would be added.

Mr. Lang’s office resembles a war room. The front wall is taken up by a vast erasable white board, staffed by two employees who constantly rub out and add new requests to each driver’s schedule. Telephones ring constantly. Mornings and evenings are always packed, as is lunchtime, as are rainy days (when, Mr. Lang says, it really does rain cats and dogs). Conversations with Mr. Lang, beyond a few key questions to confirm street and time, are impossible.

He has 10,000 clients, including many celebrities (dog confidentiality precludes disclosing their names), and more are constantly being added.

Medical runs to the vet are now just a tiny part of the business. Several owners use Pet Chauffeur to commute with their dogs to work in fancy midtown offices. An extensive dog social network also exists. They are picked up for afternoon “play-dates” with friends, or for dog birthday parties (Pet Chauffeur provides cakes). For dogs lacking close friends, there are more than a dozen designated dog parks in the city where new acquaintances are usually available, and Pet Chauffeur knows them all. Two days a week, it runs a shuttle to a dog resort in a suburb. And, for those hot days, it frequently transports clients to a dog pool on Ninth Avenue .

Naturally, competition has emerged, but such is the demand that the various firms work together during peak hours, referring customers. Prices are, inevitably higher than for the average human, but of course, to the owners, these passengers are more valuable. They begin at more than $30 for a short hop, and can reach $200 for a trip from Manhattan to Newark airport. None of his riders, says Mr. Lang, eve complains.  

May 4, 2003

David Lang, the company's founder, with Richards' pets "Suto" and his golden retriever, "Pip."

May 4, 2003 -- Owner David Lang started Pet Chauffeur four years ago with one goal: to create a recession-proof business.

At the time, Lang delivered prescription pet food for high-end veterinarians. The vets told Lang their clients lacked transport for their animals around Manhattan. Lang was surprised. "I didn't even know there was a problem with it," he said, "because I didn't live in Manhattan."

Lang realized that no matter the economy, people spend money on their pets. Then he took a closer look at his clientele and realized their problem: Few city pet owners drive and fewer cabs take Labrador retrievers.

For Lang, it made sense. If it's hard for you to get a cab, try getting one for you and a rottweiler. Not to mention that most cab drivers won't take any animals becuase the animals might "do business" in the car, he said.

Also, many cabbies have issues with pooch passengers.

"If you ask them, they'll say dogs are dirty, and we will not put dogs in our car," he said, adding, "I love it that they hate them."

In just four years, Pet Chauffeur has gone from one van to 11, and the company's 20 employees ferry from 20 to 40 people and pets daily.

Their orange vans carry animals either in crates or roaming in the back. Animals can also go with or without their owner.

Business has grown steadily. Lang said the company had $480,000 in total sales in 2002, up 20 percent from 2001.

Pet Chauffeur charges $25 for a trip of one to 40 Manhattan blocks, $30 for 40 to 80 blocks and $35 for 80 to 120 blocks.

One reason for the company's good health, Lang noted, is that his clients are among the wealthiest New Yorkers. Robert De Niro and his Burmese mountain dog are regulars. Janeane Garofalo, Sean "P.Diddy" Combs and Janet Jackson also use the company.

Non-celebs use it, too. Bruno Lauder and his large poodle, Indi, use Pet Chauffeur to ferry them from his Manhattan home to his Queens business daily.

Last year, Lauder spent $12,000 with the company. Lauder uses Pet Chauffeur because Indi gets car sick, and the company's drivers are trained to drive smoothly. "David spends a lot of time explaining to them that they cannot be race drivers when you drive animals around," Lauder said.

While 90 percent of Lang's business is dog owners, he will transport any animal. A giant bearded dragon lizard was a customer - in a crate the size of a coffin - as were a pair of chimpanzees.

Now Lang wants to expand. Last summer, the firm did long-distance pet-relocation drives on a trial basis, with a pair of bulldogs going to L.A. for $6,100.

Lang said, though, despite the hefty charge, the company didn't profit on the trip.

Pet Chauffeur also has gotten into international animal shipping. After September 11, this has become tougher since airlines investigate every package.

The company does all the paperwork and even books the tickets for its customers. This might seem excessive, but as Lang knows, some pet owners will do anything for their pets. Or at least pay someone else to.

November 19, 2000

Four years ago, Mr. Lang was the delivery guy for a pet store. Today he operates a five-minivan livery service with six drivers on call to drive the city's most well-heeled dogs to their increasingly hectic weekly rounds of acupuncture, swim therapy, massage and grooming appointments. Pet Chauffeur even drove a miniature schnauzer to Atlanta recently for a man who refused to put his pet on an airplane. The dog's trip cost $1,736. The man flew.

If the word of advice for ''The Graduate'' in 1967 was ''plastics,'' in 2000, think ''dogs.'' There are 55 million pet dogs in the United States, and 43 percent of owners celebrated their dogs' birthdays with a wrapped gift. So says an American Animal Hospital Association 1999 Pet Owner Survey that also found that 84 percent of pet owners referred to themselves as their animal's mom or dad.

On Wednesday, Mr. Lang was dropping a couple of dogs off at the opening party for Biscuits and Bath Doggy Village at 227 East 44th Street. It's the latest in extreme dog services that have many dog-lovers panting for more, and the rest of the population aghast. ''A lot of people are deluding themselves that animals have the same agendas and appreciations as themselves,'' said Dr. Nicholas Dodman, the author of ''The Dog Who Loved Too Much'' and ''Dogs Behaving Badly,'' both published by Bantam. He noted that turning pets into surrogate children is the natural outcome of younger couples' delaying reproduction and empty-nesters' trying to keep a few warm dependent bodies around. ''The fact is that pets are now regarded as family, and people want to do anything they can for them,'' he added.

But for every $450 cashmere dog sweater with a Gucci logo, and every bottle of Oh My Dog perfume now on holiday display at Saks, there also seems to be a new enlightened veterinary office or health center like Bonnie's K9, which opened this fall in Chelsea offering underwater massage to ease the pain of dogs with cancer. The new Biscuits and Bath Doggy Village treads the line between excess and amenity. Petophobes, steer clear.

Housed in a former carriage house, the Doggy Village is a Health and Racquet Club for dogs and cats. Annual memberships start at $1,000. Lunch is available for both humans and dogs.

The village spreads over five floors, each with a greensward of AstroTurf the size and length of two bowling alleys. ''Why not have a wonderful place where people can play with their dogs freely and learn to be a better parent?'' said Sandy Zuchert, the co-founder, with her sons Robert Zuchert and John Ziegler, of the 28,000-square-foot facility that cost $1.3 million to renovate.

The decor is Pet Provencal, possibly in honor of the French, who treat their dogs like full citizens of the state. There are white-washed picket fences around the plastic greens, bleached red-tile floors, blue-and-white striped awnings, a cafe around a gazebo, and strategically placed cement sculptures of dogs and cats in playful postures. The 30-foot lap pool in the basement is decorated with hand-painted tiles featuring ducks. On a tour, the two Labradors didn't notice the birds. ''But did you see the cabana where we'll blow-dry the doggies' hair by hand?'' Ms. Zuchert asked, as she bent over to greet one of the Labs with a mouth-to-mouth kiss reminiscent of a similarly riveting one in the movie ''Something About Mary.''

Though Ms. Zuchert, 62, compares the place most often to Central Park without restraint laws, it is also a day care and overnight boarding facility. Cats are kept in a neonatal-like ward with cages overlooking an aquarium and a wicker rocking chair. Ms. Zuchert calls it the ''kitty condos.'' Drop-off dogs are taken outside every two hours to relieve themselves. While the two Labs were terrified of the steep stairs and their claws grated on the tile floors, they bounded happily out onto the turf. The indoor pool was another story. There was no way they were going to take a dip -- too claustrophobic and redolent of chlorine for a couple of outdoor dogs with webbed feet.

Doggy Village is to a kennel what Ian Schrager's Hudson is to Midtown hotels. Social chemistry will be everything. The restaurant on the top floor is meant to be a scene. Les Deux Magots in Paris it's not, but there are intimate little tables with metal chairs gathered around a gazebo where humans can buy snack meals for themselves and organic treats for their pets while they all watch each other frolic. There are plans for book readings, parties and ''lectures for children on neutering,'' Ms. Zuchert said. Animal education by way of puppy-training classes and behavior modification courses will be promoted in a big way. A veterinary doctor will be on the premises, available by appointment.

There will be agility classes -- the latest update on show-off Frisbee throwing to golden retrievers in bandanas. It's a workout: dogs race through a course, part steeple, part military obstacle. They slalom, they jump, they balance on see-saws, run through tubes, over ramparts, under bars and burst through something that looks like a collapsed parachute. The two guest Labs watched in muted horror, their tales stiff, while a visiting vizsla went berserk with anticipation. Andrea Arden, a professional dog trainer who will be conducting the classes, said any able-bodied dog can learn in a few months. Six group lessons cost $300.

Doggy Village is a vastly expanded version of the Zucherts' Biscuits and Bath Gym at 1535 First Avenue and the Biscuits and Bath boutique, a much smaller operation focused on grooming at 255 East 74th Street. But it was Ms. Zuchert's son John who started the ball rolling in 1990 with a dog-walking business he ran after graduating from high school. ''I was modeling and acting at the time and kind of neurotic about my dog,'' Mr. Ziegler, 29, said. One day he tailed the dog walker to see if she would go to Central Park, where she was supposed to go. (''Don't you ever follow your dog walker?'' he asked.) Instead, she took his dog into a nearby building. ''I knew I could do much better than that,'' Mr. Ziegler said. Last year, Biscuits and Bath Gym listed 800 paying members.

Part of the business is a nonprofit rescue fund. Stray dogs and cats on death row at the Center for Animal Control and Care will be brought in monthly for visits and cleaned up in the hopes of finding the animals homes. ''You go into the shelters and the animals are terrified and running around,'' Mr. Ziegler said. ''Who's going to take these dirty cyclones? Here, they'll look clean and smell good. It'll give them a chance to meet someone who really wants them.''

There were several homeless dogs at the opening party on Wednesday. A television crew milled around the cafe's gazebo in anticipation of a ''wedding'' to be staged between two former strays, Max and Cinder. The bitch wore an outfit donated by Vera Wang. Bruce Hammer, an onlooker who keeps his dog on Long Island, appeared touched. ''I foresee not just dogs getting married,'' he said, ''but people getting married who meet while watching their dogs right here.'' Unmoved, the two Labs yanked their leashes and headed for the door.

Saturday, May 19, 2001

PHOTO BY KRISTEN ARTZ

THE LEASH HE CAN DO

David Lang, owner of Pet Chauffeur, one of several pet transport companies in the city, keeps a couple more customers on the move and happy.

February, 2002