I said, if the retouch is just cover the temporary imperfectoins, that is fine! But makeing a teenager from a 40+ women is too much. I know that, women dont like wrinkles, eye bags, etc. but just because you make them dissapear on a picture, the woman still have them on her face! So the picture gonna lie!
These pictures not gonna be on a magazine cover! These picture gonna hang at home in a family room, where family members, and frends gonna see it. But frends and family members know, the women on a picture actually have wrinkles and eye bags! So the picture is lie, and became unnatural too!
I believe, you can sell more picture if, instead of retouch the wrinkles or eye bags, you find the way to show on your pictures the subject's real ego, and the real connections between the subject and his/her pet.
To this, you have to study more about portrait photography than Photoshop picture manipulations.
You have to observe your subject as soon as their step into your studio. You have to observe and study the subject personality, the mental connections between the pet and owner, etc. The portrait photography much more than technical picture making.
Myself, I would no pai for a picture which just shows me and my pet even it is technically the most perfect picture which shows me 20 years yunger! I want to see on a picture how I feel to my pet, how I love it, how close we are each other.
The technical perfections only a part of portrait photography.