Canine Cool : Fashion: Where but on Venice Beach would you find dogs sporting hats and sunglasses--and supporting a flourishing business?

These may be the dog days of summer for the rest of us.

But every day of the year is this way for Gwen Zeller, a Venice Beach resident who sells sunglasses and hats to collies and dachshunds from a doghouse-size shop.

“One day, I was out jogging with my own two dogs and noticed they were squinting in the sun,” Zeller said. “I thought to myself: ‘That’s not fair.’ So I decided to do something about it.”

Her friends wondered whether Zeller had been out in the sun too long when she strapped sunglasses and pint-sized hats to her 6-year-old Afghans, Chanel and Wolfman. The animals would not stand still for such an indignity, they predicted.

There were no hound-dog looks from the pair when they wore their new outfits for the first time, however. Beach-goers oohed and ahhed. The dogs seemed to actually enjoy basking in the glow of limelight instead of the glare of sunlight.

Zeller, a real estate investor, decided to mass-produce her hats and sunglasses. For the past two years, she has doggedly sold them from her tiny Posh Pups shop in front of her home on Venice’s famed Ocean Front Walk.

She and four assistants now sell up to 150 pairs of shades-and-chapeaux a day to four-legged customers. In the process, they are also selling Los Angeles’ enduring reputation for kookiness to the two-legged set.

“I’ve got to show people back home what it’s like out here,” said tourist Sheldon Wagner of Boynton Beach, Fla., leaning down to snap a picture of one of Zeller’s canine customers. “They won’t believe it.”

The dog in Wagner’s snapshot was Shiva, a golden retriever owned by Trish Lane of Simi Valley. “I’d say 50 people have taken pictures and videos of her in the two hours we’ve been here,” Lane said. “It’s nice watching people smile.”

A grinning Lesia Goddard of Nashville, Tenn., selected a pair of $10 glasses and a $10 hat to take to her 1-year-old mongrel, Butch. “My dog’s gonna be the coolest one in the neighborhood back home,” she said, laughing.

Customer Richard Figge of Louisville, Ky., made a return trip to Zeller’s shop. His dog loved the glasses and hat he purchased on an earlier visit, Figge said. “Now I’m getting them for my potbellied pig.”

Pet owner Mike Moore of Reseda--who was wearing a $6 pair of sunglasses--was buying a replacement strap for his chow’s shades. The dog, named Bumper, was sporting $60 Oakley sunglasses. “He’s a mellow dog,” Moore explained.

To those skeptical about animal accessories, shop employees are quick to recite their sunglasses dogma. No, dogs do not mind wearing them, they say. And no, it is not a joke.

Animal experts agree that dogs can be trained to wear sunglasses--it is not that much different from wearing a collar or leash, said Michael Chill, a Culver City animal behavior specialist who is a consultant to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. However, there is no proof that sunglasses benefit dogs, Chill said.

A veterinarian in Baltimore has endorsed the ultraviolet light protection that the glasses afford, said shop manager Marie Wang. The vet bought a supply of shades from the shop and now sells them out of his office, she said.

“Sunglasses for dogs sounds dumb. But my cocker spaniel doesn’t like to come out without his glasses on,” said Wang, of Santa Monica. “It sounds silly. I don’t even bother to tell people what work I do.”

Lots of people agree with the dumb and silly part.

Tourist Jerry Creeden of Seattle shook his head at a dog modeling shades at the shop. “We don’t have beaches like this at home,” he said.

Visitor Mary Lo of Ventura was not buying the cool-canine look, either. “There are a lot of bizarre things in L.A.,” she said.

There’s more to come, too, according to Zeller. She has expanded her line to include such items as leather-like “biker” outfits, frilly white brides’ “gowns” and a wool-lined “London Fog” raincoat. Her canine clientele has expanded, too.

Zeller recently provided outfits for four-legged guests attending a dog’s 13th-birthday party.

“It was a bark mitzvah,” she explained.