Chihuahua dogs

"Million Dollar Listing's" Starla (the Chihuahua) is Sitting High

After all those years of discouraging my dogs from hovering near the table come meal time, a new product sold by Hammacher-Schlemmer pulls up a chair for them.

The Pet High Chair fastens to the edge of the table and allows dogs up to 10 pounds to sit comfortably suspended while you pass the kibble their way. Retailing for about $50, the chair is constructed of 600-denier nylon fabric and securely clips to tables up to two-inches thick. Its height can be adjusted without tools. The frame is powder-coated 5/8" steel tubing and the arms are rubber-coated so they won't mar table surfaces. Retailing at about $50 from the famed Hammacher Schlemmer -- "America's longest-running catalog offering the best, the only and unexpected for 162 years" -- the chair permits your dog or cat to accompany you at the dinner table at near eye level. I am resisting the urge to ask why this is a good thing and will accept on face value that for many, it apparently is.

From the catalog: "By providing an alternative to sitting on your lap, running disruptively underfoot, or outright banishment, the chair assuages a pet (and its owner's) frustration, and promotes more refined behavior."

The Pet High Chair folds easily for storage and travel and is machine washable. It has adjustable tethers for pet safety and to ensure there will be no leaving the table until excused, not to mention any breaches of table etiquette. It weighs about four pounds and is 12" long, 9.5" wide and 10" high.

Pet Gear Inc., which manufacturers the product, is a division of Vermont Juvenile Furniture -- a company that has been making baby care products since 1936. Pet Gear Inc. also makes pet playpens, bike baskets, ramps, strollers and car seats.

Since my 90-pound Golden Retriever couldn't diet his way down to fit in the chair, we invited Starla, the chihuahua who stars with Chad Rogers on Bravo's "Million Dollar Listing" show to try the product out for us. Starla, all four pounds of her, needed a seat pillow to perch up high enough to reach the table but once settled in, promptly fell asleep. Perhaps there is a dual marketing opportunity here: Suspended pet bed, anyone?