Is a dog an effective marketing strategy for a women’s clothing store? What if that dog was an adorable little pug named Simon?

Simon wasn’t any part of shop owner Tracey Gabel’s business plan for Relish, the store she opened in Traverse City’s Warehouse District in 2012, but he’s the best thing to ever happen to her marketing strategy.

“I do a lot on social media, and I’ll post an outfit and it’ll get some likes," says Gabel. "And then I’ll post a picture of Simon and the outfit, and the likes triple."

Gabel has thrown a birthday bash at the store for Simon every year. This January he turns three. “It’s my best sales day of the year,” Gabel says.

The shop owner started bringing Simon to the store out of necessity when he was just a pup, and customers quickly fell for him. It was then that Gabel saw the power of the little black pug.

“People come in only to see him…and he saved me during the renovation project here when I was the only store open,” she says. Regulars would pop by to visit him, and end up doing a little shopping, too. "He’s the smartest thing I never planned,” she says of the dog, adding he has a consummate shop personality – welcoming, low-key and always appreciative of a little attention.

In addition to being regularly featured on the Relish Facebook page and website, Simon also has a Facebook page of his own: Simon the black pug with 190 friends.

Other businesses are also taking advantage of the good vibes pets can bring to their stores.

The duo of Falcor and Lola at Green Island in downtown TC gives the home décor store that extra-comfortable appeal customers frequently comment on.

“People tell us it feels very homey with them in here,” says Manager Heather Busch of her “co-workers.”

They also make for great conversation starters with customers, she adds. Falcor looks like a Wolfhound but he’s actually a 10-year-old, first-generation Labradoodle, so staff find themselves telling his story often – a rescue who was living on the streets in Florida before Green Island owner Sean Burns brought him to Michigan a few years ago. You’ll find him hanging at the store most days with his sidekick Lola, an 11-year-old yellow-and-chocolate Lab.

At Square Deal Country Store on Woodmere Avenue, store mascots Mystique the McCaw and Goldie the cat may not directly help sell dog food or horse supplies, but customers (and the neighborhood daycare kids) get a kick out of them. In fact, customers were responsible for bringing Mystique to store owner Larry Street some 12 years ago.

“These people came in and said they had a young bird and were moving to California,” says Street. “They said, ‘We think this is the perfect place for her.’”

Turns out, they were right. Mystique is now in her mid-teens and and lives in the store fulltime, greeting customers when she’s feeling chatty, occasionally picking up and repeating human phrases and showing off her routine of tricks for admirers.

The store’s UPS delivery person once tried to teach Mystique to say something less than flattering about FedEx, but she has never uttered it, Street says with a smile.

Mystique will, however, occasionally say, "Here, Kitty Kitty." Kitty is Goldie, the shop cat who Street adopted from the Cherryland Humane Society two years ago after the last cat – a feral-turned-tame feline who showed up at the store 20 years ago – passed away.

During business hours, customers often find Goldie snoozing on top of the pop machine, but come end of day, she becomes social and affectionate. Like Mystique, she lives full-time in the store, where closing time means dinnertime. Goldie used to have her run of the place after dark, but not anymore.

“She was getting into the dog and cat food bags,” says Street.

Other "pet shops" around town include McMillen's Custom Framing - featuring Chip the Cocker Spaniel - and Front Street's beauty boutique Venus, where French bulldog Ozzy is a frequent fixture.