By LISA GUTIERREZ McClatchy Newspapers
Sept. 30, 2008, 6:00PM


Sharon Young has designed and sold political buttons and T-shirts for about 15 years. But maybe she's been barking up the wrong tree.

Her newest creation — campaign buttons for canines — is leading the pack.







Patriotic Pets buttons come with slogans such as "Bark Obama for President" and "100 percent McCain9."

"I've never seen anything like this," says Young, a Smithville, Mo., resident and founder of www.politicalshop.com. "I think it's probably the biggest product line we've ever had. It's at least a conversation piece. It's the only one out there."

For Young and other purveyors of political merchandise, sales have been strong this campaign season. Young says her sales have been double every month what they were in 2004. Since last fall she's sold more than 100,000 


campaign buttons, including more than 2,000 of the $5.95 dog tags.

She took a few dozen tags to a political rally in Minnesota in June, and they sold fast. Web site orders began pouring in.

"People are ordering them in quantities," she says. "I guess they're just giving them out to all their friends who have dogs, because I don't know many people who have 20 dogs."

She knew she had a hit when one woman ordered a bunch of Obama buttons for her pet goats.

Campaign buttons for pets cost $5.95 on her Web site, www.politicalshop.com.