Australia brews beer for man's best friend

A Samoyed is seen during the International dog show in Budapest October 20,2007. With no age limit on drinking, a no-alcohol beer brewed especially for dogs has proved a hit for an Australian pet shop.

SYDNEY (Reuters Life!) - With no age limit on drinking, a no-alcohol beer brewed especially for dogs has proved a hit for an Australian pet shop.

Dog Beer, or DB, was designed by Sydney pet supplies store owner Elise Schumacher after she noticed her own dogs, named Louis and Vuitton, leaping for drops of beer.

"The slogan is, 'Shout your best friend a beer'," Schumacher told Reuters. "I have drunk it. It tastes like beef and smells like beer."

Schumacher, whose shop also sells liver-flavored fortune cookies for canines, said ordinary beer is bad for dogs.

The special beer is packaged in brown bottles identical to those of normal beers and is sold in local cafes and for barbecues. It also costs as much as regular beer, with customers forking out A$5 ($4.76) a bottle.

"It is popular with the guys with their dogs. Lots of people also pick up a few bottles as presents for people who have dogs," she said. "We have sold just hundreds of bottles."

($1=A$1.05)

(Reporting by Rob Taylor, editing by John Chalmers)