The Zim Family Cocker Spaniel Forum

I need the help from the wonderful brains on this forum. Our local dog rescues are putting together an event in the park for dogs and owners. One of the things we would like to have is contests and or activities for the dogs and owners. Can anyone suggest some things we could do? We have a few suggestions but would welcome anything you may have done or seen at your local dog events. Thanks for any help you can give.

Lynette

Dog & owner look-alike contest
Best kisser contest (dogs only!)
Bobbing for hot dogs (it doesn't sound like the dogs would love dunking their heads in water, but many dogs will do ANYthing for a hot dog)
Tricks contest
Costume contest

This is one I did with my beagle, but it was best barker. With her howl everyone loved it!

Dogs bobbing for hot dogs is a hoot!
We did this at the 1st Pacific Northwest Looza several years ago.
My Louie dunked his entire muzzle in the water to get the hot dog pieces that sunk.
When the other dogs were dainty and hesitated to get wet, he tried to get in the action again and get their hot dog pieces.
Needless to say, Louie won the contest.
We all laughed so hard! Great fun!

I helped at an event my neighbor put on for our local pet food bank ... we did many ideas that Kelly suggested (but not the bobbing for hot dogs that's adorable!) we also had several people who did talks .. example... a vet who talked about pet health, an author/behaviorist who talked about training and fielded questions from the audience, a local trainer who talked about what you can do with your dog for fun. (agility, rally, obedience, dock diving etc) We had kids swimming pools all around for the dogs to grab a quick wade or drink. We had a lot of donated prizes so one of the games of chance we had was called "pick a bone". We tied a ribbon around dog biscuit and hung them in a jar you couldn't see through. People would pay a donation of a$1.00 for the chance to pull a ribbon and see if they won. We wrote Winner on several biscuits the other were plain. Winners got one of the donated prizes ... losers got the biscuit for their dog. We had a silent raffle with baskets filled with the donated items. We had a bubble machine going for the dogs (and kids) to enjoy. There was a pet photographer who was taking pictures for a donation.

One thing we heard a lot was that people would have liked to have a safe place where the dogs could be off leash ...and many wanted to be able to try some agility equipment.

Good luck!

Biggest nose,
Longest ears,
ugliest dog,
cutest dog,
biggest dog,
littlest dog,
treasure hunt (dog must touch the treasure before it's picked up kinda like an Easter egg hunt)

longest sit

egg race (spoon/egg in one hand, dog on non-retractable leash in the other)

Have fun!!!

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I think there are some very good suggestions here. I really like the bobbing for hotdogs. I can see a couple of my own dogs doing this and just in my minds eye it is so funny. I will not get to be there because I will be attending Clicker Expo in Nashville but I am working on putting it toghether with the other rescues. Hopefully I can post some pictures from the event for everyone to enjoy. I really appreciate all of your input.

Lynette

OMG--this brings back memories from a long time ago ! Some time in the late 90s we attended a cocker spaniel get together (didn't know to call them pupalooza) in Southwest Wis. My husband was a member of a cocker discussion list (this was long before the internet as we know it). Our black cocker Joe won longest ears (measuring only the ear leather). Susie Q (our rescue) won best wiggly butt. I had my husband hid behind a car and then walk back to the party. Susie about wiggled out of her tail to see him.

But the absolute BEST was my heart dog, Sarah Lee, winning the bobbing for hot dogs. I don't know if this is common, but the hot dogs were cut into 1" pieces -- which means they drop to the bottom of the pan.

The male dogs (2 of them) drank the water so that they could get the hot dogs without getting water up their noses .
None of the females, except Sarah, would put their faces in the water. Once the water was up their noses they were out of there. Sarah was incredible -- some place deep in her sporting dog DNA, she knew how to blow bubbles out of her nose as her head submerged. She would dive in, blowing bubbles, get hot dog pieces and come up for air ! Repeat, Repeat, Repeat! She won an Outward Hound Fanny back with people and pet water bottles. I still use that fanny pack to this day (you can see it many of Rosey's tracking photos.)

God I miss that girl!

Colleen