She’s a pup culture icon.
Lamb Chop, the plush white sheep with red hooves and jet-black lashes who became a bone-a fied American sweetheart over six decades ago on popular TV shows, is suddenly the bark of the town.
Now, the stuffed animal is the hottest dog toy in America — with some four-legged collectors even hoarding hundreds of the affordable $6.99 plushie.
Enthusiasts scramble to get their hands on limited-edition drops, lest they sell out in a matter of days or weeks. Even stockpiles of the classic Lamb Chop — modeled after the on-screen sock puppet popular in the late 20th century — are scarce at NYC pet shops.
Martin Lugo, grooming department manager at Beasty Feast in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District, has never seen a craze quite like it in his 12 years in the pet business.
Lamb Chop, he told The Post, is the only toy that sells out like this.
“Anytime we got it in, it’s gone in a couple weeks’ time,” he said, adding that they get sporadic stock and the distributors are unable to keep up with the demand of the “popular seller.”
“We sell out of Lamb Chop pretty much every week,” Jeff Aviles, manager at Vinny’s Pet Shop in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, said, adding that, at the time of speaking, “we’re down to our last Lamb Chop.”
He told The Post that the suddenly hot commodity has always been a “staple” — but that, lately, it seems like every pet parent who visits the store has to have one.
At Pet Central in Chelsea, the toy flies off the shelves often, while Lamb Chop has remained “one of the most popular” toys at Canine Styles in Midtown.
The trend is taking over online, too. Allen Hughes, president of retail at the pet supply retailer Chewy, told The Post that Lamb Chop is the company’s No. 1 most popular dog toy.
Pup-ular
First put on the market 15 years ago, the dog toy — modeled after the sock puppet who became a national celebrity thanks to Shari Lewis and appeared on shows between 1960 and 1999 — comes in various sizes and colors.
But why the frenzy all these years later?
While it’s impossible to know exactly why Fido favors the fuzzy plaything, the team at Multipet International — which currently licenses the rights to Lamb Chop in order to produce the wildly pupular toy — has a theory.
“We like to think … that many dogs look at Lamb Chop not as a toy but almost like their own pet,” Multipet president Mark Hirschberg told The Post.
“I don’t really foresee the trend dying down.”
New Yorker Barrie Edelsberg, 32 — proud momager of Mango the Cavapoochon — is one of many pet parents who won’t risk any sellout situations.
“We always have Lamb Chop [on hand],” she admitted to The Post.
Her beloved 2-year-old can’t get enough of the toy — he even went out dressed as the lovable stuffed animal for Halloween — and has destroyed enough of them in his short lifespan that she keeps a few on reserve.
Stuffed stockpiles
On social media, pet parents boast their pup’s colossal collections, and the phenomenon has inspired a catchy tune and prompted an expansion of the Lamb Chop empire. Now, enthusiasts can collect Lamb Chop-themed food bowls, dog beds, collar tags, pet garb and limited edition characters, from holidays to seasonal themes.
And some dog owners have purchased dozens, hundreds or even thousands of Lamb Chops.
Kari Kramer of New Jersey likes to spoil her pup Eli — buying the Shih Tzu chihuahua “at least 30” Lamb Chops, but probably “a lot more.”
“That is one of the few things he gets excited about and brings him joy,” Kramer, 42, told The Post.
Each of the toys has a home in one of his toy baskets — which Kramer refers to as different “flocks” of sheep plushies — and he requires seven of his favorites to sleep with him at night.
Those are often the same ones that require a trip to the “hospital” for “surgery day,” when Kramer is forced to stitch up missing eyes, mangled ears and holes where the stuffing is falling out.
Kramer said she could “never throw them away,” or else Eli would “never sleep again.”
Similarly, Pierogi, the 4-year-old bicoastal pug, requires his stroller — or wheelchair — to be brimming with Lamb Chops.
Acting coach Sean-James Murphy is proud papa to the paralyzed pooch, who is unable to bark, but has found a workaround: squeaking the Lamb Chop toy.
“Instead of barking, if he gets excited, he’ll run over to Lamb Chop and start chewing its squeaker to express himself,” Murphy, 39, told The Post, adding that Pierogi has about 40.
“It never ceases to amaze me how many people will start sharing a story about their dog and then the moment they see one of the Lamb Chops in his stroller, they say, ‘Oh my god, my dog loved his Lamb Chop,'” he added.
Meanwhile, South Carolina pet owner Johnathan Lower has purchased an estimated 1,000 Lamb Chops for his dog Teddy, who constantly gnaws on his “emotional support” toy, resulting in four to five casualties per week.
“I think we’re keeping the Lamb Chop people in business,” Lower, 32, joked to The Post, adding that he bulk buys the toys for their stockpile.
And Lamb Chop is the only toy for Brittany Egbarts’ retriever Rip — nicknamed “The Lambie King” — who always plays, sleeps and greets his owners with one of his Lamb Chop toys, of which he has 115.
“It became a game for me to find all the Lamb Chops,” Egbarts, who lives in Nebraska, told The Post.
Shear nostalgia
Mallory Lewis, the daughter of the Bronx-born Lamb Chop creator and puppeteer Shari Lewis, theorized that dogs love the toy so much because its shape resembles a bone, she told The Post.
Or, perhaps, pet owners are purchasing out of nostalgia.
“I think a lot of people want to share with their children, even if their children have paws instead of hands, something that made them happy when they were a child,” said Lewis, 62, who now tours with Lamb Chop after her mother’s death in 1998.
And, not to mention, young people are foregoing having kids, she noted.
“Dogs don’t actually have credit cards,” she joked. “So it is definitely the people who are buying it.”
While the Lewis family is not involved in the production of the dog toys, Multipet’s Hirschberg told The Post that he thinks the company is “bringing [Mallory’s] mom back,” as well as Shari’s name and life’s work.
While she doesn’t get a cut of the profit from the Lamb Chop toys — Multipet currently licenses the rights to produce the stuffed animals — she doesn’t mind.
“Do I wish that I were sitting in the Riviera on the money made from the dog toys? Why yes, I do,” she said, “but I’m okay with it because it keeps my mom’s legacy alive, and that is what I have spent the last 26 years doing.”
