As more pets become members of Chinese families, their owners began to invite "private tutors" for the pets to make them be cleverer and more obedient.

A new job, pet tutor, is emerging as a result in Shanghai, the largest commercial city in east China, according to a report of Beijing Morning Post.

The website of a pet tutor company shows that the tutors may offer services like basic, further and high level trainings for pets.

In the basic training course, the tutor may teach a dog to relieve itself at the fixed site, sit down, walk with and wait for its owner. And in further training, the dog will be taught to obey some simple orders such as getting objects for its owner.

The price for the training is from several thousand yuan to more than ten thousand yuan (US$1,250), the newspaper said.

The "pet economy" is booming in China. According to statistics, Beijing alone is home to over 1 million dogs. If an average owner spends 200 yuan (US$25) a month on his pet, the market is worth as much as 24 million yuan (US$3 million) a year.

Other major, well-off Chinese cities are experiencing the same "pet craze" as the national capital Beijing. In such major cities as Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chongqing and Wuhan, pet sales and services such as medicine, hair dressing accessories, clothes, training courses, and food are booming industries.

Experts predict that the annual sale of pet food and necessities in the country might top 6 billion yuan (US$750 million) in 2008, and the market potential for the "pet economy" in China could reach 15 billion yuan (US$1.9 billion) in the coming years.

(Xinhua News Agency July 10, 2006)