Meet the woman who got her dog a 'designer vagina'.

There's something to be said about the depth of our connection to our pets. 

We're not just talking about dogs wearing the occasional Halloween costume or getting a treat for sitting. We're talking about dog birthday parties, gourmet meals and even dog therapy. 

In 2023, dog strollers outsold baby strollers in Korea, a statistic that has their government worried about the dropping birth and fertility rates. 

In fact, many countries are grappling with low birth rates, and in places like China, pet ownership is also climbing as birth rates decline. 

In 2019, 61.2 million Chinese residents owned nearly 100 million pets, an 8.4 per cent jump from 2018. Similar patterns have emerged in Japan and Mexico, where rising consumerism around pets and pet accessories reflects the shift in how people are viewing and caring for their animals. 

Pets are increasingly seen as family, providing companionship, friendship and unconditional love. For many childfree families, pets are treated like children. In fact, a recent survey of over 2,000 Australians found that nearly two-thirds of dog and cat owners now treat their pets like a family member. 

But how far would you go for your pets? 

Mamamia's twice daily news podcast The Quicky sat down with dog mum Ainsley, who lives in Sydney's inner west. Her bulldog Edie is the light of her life, and she has spent years working with dog behaviouralists to better understand what our furry friends need. 

Listen to The Quicky interview Ainsley here. Post continues below. 

However, it hasn't been all smooth sailing. Joking that Edie was the 'pick of the litter', she's struggled with various issues over the years. 

Ainsley has consistently taken her to the vet to ensure these niggles are ironed out, including getting her fur baby a vulvoplasty, which her vet called a 'designer vagina', to prevent her recurrent urinary tract infections (UTIs). 

"Edie had a lot of problems… everything that could possibly go wrong with her, did. She's had multiple surgeries," Ainsley tells host Grace Rouvray on The Quicky. 

"Lots of people saw that and went, 'Oh, my God, there's so many surgeries.' 

"But I went, 'I bought this dog', and so I committed to just ensuring that anything that we could fix that would change, you know, her quality of life we would."

Ainsley says her pet insurance has been incredible to cover the costs of Edie's surgeries. 

"If you're going to get an animal, you need to prepare for the worst," she says. "One of the things that people may have been worried about is the fact that my dog has a 'designer vagina', which is what the surgeon called it. It's not what I call it."

She explains that this is essentially a vulvoplasty that removes a section around the vulva that can cause recurrent UTIs. 

Ainsley has diligently attended to Edie's medical issues with love and care. Image: Getty

"She was getting recurring UTIs, and if anyone's had a UTI out there, or we know what it can make us do. We're cranky, we're agitated, we're short fused.

"I was managing it for as long as I could, because obviously, that was something that I didn't want to put her through unless we absolutely needed to. It just got to the point where I thought, Why live like this? We got the surgery, and it was amazing. You know, she has been happier and healthier ever since."

Despite the various opinions on her dog's vulvoplasty, Ainsley says she does not regret any of the time or care she's put into making Edie's life as wonderful as it can be. 

"If your dog is in pain, if your dog doesn't like a situation, if a dog is unsure, your dog will be reactive. And reactive means can be misconstrued as too aggressive, and then all of a sudden, you're in a situation where you have a complaint," she says. 

"It is our job to ensure that our dog is, as I said before, not a danger to itself or anything else in our community.

"Dogs and humans have been together for a very long time, they are one of the longest domesticated animals," she adds. "You can tell their relationship with humans, in how their faces have evolved, to having eyebrows in order to be more appealing to us. They've evolved to fit with humans."

If you've ever felt like your dog 'gets you' on a deeper level, Ainsley says there's a reason for it. 

"There are studies that have been done where a dog actually synchronises their heart rhythms with their owner, and when they're apart, both of them, the human and the dog, have higher heart rate. 

"When they come together, it showed immediate relaxation. There is a heart connection, literally between a dog and their owner. Having Edie in my life is everything. She's literally the light of my life."

It's Ainsley's firm belief that when we welcome a dog into the home, we welcome them into our hearts and into our families. We transact: the dog gets a loving home, and the owner gets endless love and loyalty. 

"She gives me companionship, support, unconditional love, and so it's my responsibility to her to give her the best life I can. So I'm going to take it to take it to the vet. I'm going to make sure that she's in peak physical condition, and I'm going to make sure that she lives a very long and happy life, because when I bought her, that's what I promised her."

So, is this connection even healthy?

Watch this video of two dogs in a pet stroller here. Post continues below.

According to Animal Medicines Australia, more than two thirds of animal owners call themselves pet parents, as well as giving their pets gifts for special occasions, they leave the heating, cooling lights or TV on to keep them comfortable and anxiety free when they're alone. 

According to Elizabeth Shaw is the CEO of Relationships Australia, the benefits of having a pet dog are tangible. 

"Often, they are like the emotional glue in a family. Everyone gets on with the dog, even if they don't get on with each other," she says. "So I think they play a psychological role through to a therapeutic role, often in our lives."

She adds that their adoration and comfort soothe the soul, while their need for routine in turn gives us structure in our lives. 

"It's not a technique that you're doing, you know, like 'I really should walk around the block', which is very much just you alone, trying to do something for your body," she says. "But when you're working with an animal, there's also a sense of teamwork and a bond, which is quite different, isn't it.

"I think we've really gone beyond you know, a pet is fun for the family, to say, actually, they could be important for our survival," she adds. "While others might scoff at that as 'not real', the emotional connection can be as strong."

Of course, the downside to any emotional connection is that with loving also comes losing, and dogs have much shorter life spans than humans. 

Shaw explains that grieving a family pet can be comparable to grieving a person for some people. 

"It's easy to scoff if someone has never had that relationship with an animal or by a different role in their lives.

"Animals can live for a very long time, so it's really a big part of your history. You could have a family pet that's been part of your entire childhood. These are actually big slabs of time. 

"People have often built their whole lives around the animal, for example, the people that get up everyday because they walk the dog… There's an awful lot of little moments that are part of building a structure for life that can be quite shocking to unpick."

Shaw says she's seeing some companies even include 'death of a pet' as a part of their leave provisions to include those with 'fur babies'. 

So, maybe our attachment to fur babies is good for us, but Shaw warns to always make sure that it is also good for the dog.

"Of course, we can also disadvantage animals by babying them, because that's not always in their interests, and sometimes it can set people up for real problems in how they're managing their animals," she says.

So, there's a flip side to every coin. But if you ask a pet parent in this day and age, they'd probably tell you they won't be changing a thing.

Feature image: Getty