A pub in Stroud sells a Sunday roast for dogs: meat, vegetables and a gravy made for them. A company in Weston-super-Mare has spent this year driving dogs to weddings, more than 70 so far. A decade ago both were a stunt. Now they are a sector with a name, the doggy experience economy.
The money is real. UK spending on pets and pet goods climbed from 2.9 billion pounds in 1997 to 11.95 billion in 2025, per MoneySuperMarket figures reported by the BBC. Dr Stelina Kanaki, who teaches marketing at the University of the West of England, calls it the experience economy reaching the pet aisle. People are not buying more objects. They are buying afternoons out.
Social media does part of it. Watch enough dogs get professional photographs at a wedding and the idea stops feeling eccentric. Rachel Morgan at the Amberley Inn in Stroud thinks the pandemic finished the job: owners spent months at home with their dogs, and leaving one behind now feels wrong. Her pub is planning a Santa Paws event with Puppuccinos and a group walk.
What this means for your dog: a restaurant plate is not automatically a treat. Onion, garlic, leeks and chives are toxic to dogs, and salty gravy and pan fat can set off stomach upset or pancreatitis in a small dog. Ask what is in the dog dish, keep the portion small, skip the bones. If money is tight, five minutes of petting does more for stress than most purchases. The afternoon out is the good part. The gravy is optional.