As business owner Rebecca Wyant looks on, Bonnie Dombrowski gives Bubbles a bath at Dirty Dawgs. Coco, one of Wyant's own pooches, is an interested bystander at rear. The Midtown shop features washtubs for dogs and all-natural dog foods, treats, toys and accessories.

A.E. araiza / arizona daily star

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As the owner of Dirty Dawgs, a self-serve dog wash and boutique, Rebecca Wyant is targeting customers like herself — people who want to buy organic and eco-friendly spa products and foods for canines.

"I wanted a shop for people who want to buy healthy foods for their dogs and like to pamper them with fun products," said Wyant, who opened the Midtown shop in November.

Along one wall of the shop are four self-serve washtubs, complete with aprons, towels and aromatherapy grooming products to clean dirty dogs. They include special dryers, brushes and leash lines to make cleaning dogs easier.

The store also carries a line of colorful hemp-based collars and toys, all-natural shampoos and conditioners and dog "aromatic sprays," and doggie "diaper bags" have been snatched up by local dog owners.

Almost all of its spa products are human-grade and do not contain chemicals, alcohol, dyes or pesticides, including "Dog Smog Remedy," a light mint breath spray for dogs that can also be used by owners.

The shop also sells a line of natural and healthy dog foods and treats — both in dry and freeze-dried forms — some made from organic ingredients including apples, spinach, oatmeal and chicken.

Customer Camila Martins, 26, a graduate student at the University of Arizona and owner of a 9-month-old, 110-pound Great Dane, said buying all-natural foods for dogs makes sense.

"It's like reading labels on our own foods. Who wants all of those extra additives?" she said.

Some people may question spending so much on dogs, Martins said of the foods, which cost from $26 to $50 for 15-and-30-pound bags.

"But our dog is like a family member. We want to feed him good food," Martins said.

Some of the products sold at the store are also part of one of the latest trends in dog and human diets — the raw-food movement — which promotes foods that aren't processed or don't have nutrients entirely cooked out of them.

"Dogs never cooked their game a few hundred years ago," said Wyant, who adds that some pet owners and veterinarians aren't entirely sold on such trends.

"It's a concept that's still out there for some … but a lot of people get it and it's catching on fast," she said.

While writing a business plan, Wyant found that many consumers — particularly single professionals, baby boomers and families with discretionary incomes — want to buy such products.

"There are plenty of people in town that are spending money on their dogs," Wyant said, citing a pet products market the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association Inc. estimated at $38.4 billion in annual sales last year.

Wyant decided it was time to start her own shop after 13 years of helping others set up their own ventures.

As a former AlphaGraphics executive she helped franchise owners set up stores overseas.

She later got a job with the Tucson-based Microbusiness Advancement Center of Southern Arizona, a nonprofit group serving entrepreneurs with business-plan training, counseling and micro-loans.

"After seeing local business owners, it was very inspiring to see them open. I've been teaching people for so long, I wanted to do it for myself," she said. "Nothing grabbed me until I had the idea for this place."

Wyant, a Tucson native, graduated from Northern Arizona University in the late 1980s and earned an MBA from Thunderbird, the Garvin School of International Management.

Though Wyant had a solid business background, it was her artistic and creative side that beckoned.

With soft jazz music playing in the background and its amber-colored concrete floors, stainless-steel shelves and black-and-white pictures framed along red and purple walls, the shop is intended to look like a SoHo artist's loft, Wyant said. She even painted portraits of her two dogs — reminiscent of Andy Warhol — that hang in the shop.

"I never saw myself in corporate America," Wyant said. "But this place gives me a creative outlet. It's a wonderful compromise."

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