Hollister Dog Owners pull off pup-friendly event
Dunne Park went to the dogs Saturday with the first-ever Dog
Days of Hollister hosted by the Hollister Dog Owners along with the
Gavilan Kennel Club and the Hollister Downtown Association.
”
It was pretty crazy,
”
said Kim Nores, the chair of the demonstration committee, on
preparing for the event.
”
It’s been fun and exciting. We had a lot of good help from the
HDA and Gavilan Kennel Club.
”
Hollister Dog Owners pull off pup-friendly event
Dunne Park went to the dogs Saturday with the first-ever Dog Days of Hollister hosted by the Hollister Dog Owners along with the Gavilan Kennel Club and the Hollister Downtown Association.
“It was pretty crazy,” said Kim Nores, the chair of the demonstration committee, on preparing for the event. “It’s been fun and exciting. We had a lot of good help from the HDA and Gavilan Kennel Club.”
The group has already set a date for the 2010 event.
“We have a list of things to do and not to do,” she said. “The role of dogs in the community is changing.”
Nores mentioned that dogs used to be working dogs, but more and more they are becoming part of the family.
“So far, we are really happy [with the turnout],” she said, at noon on the event day. “The sun hasn’t even come out yet.”
Dogs of all shapes and sizes made it out – fluffy ones and short-haired ones, Chihuahuas to great Danes, and even a few wheezing bulldogs made the rounds at Dunne Park.
“We thought it went really well,” said Tammy Ballew, a member of HDOG and the event chair person. “We had close to 500 people come through the gate. We didn’t have all the exits blocked, but we know we had at least 500 people.”
For the event, Seventh Street was cordoned off between Monterey and West streets, and orange netting was put up around the perimeter of the park to encourage people to enter the event by the clubhouse at Sixth and Monterey. Admission was $3 per person, or $2 with a donation of dog food. Well-behaved dogs six months or older were welcome with proof of rabies.
The first 100 visitors received a doggie bag with free dog treats, fliers about dog-related businesses and information on community groups. Pet owners had the chance to peruse pet-friendly vendors who sold items such as dog clothes and treats, or to visit Rescue Row. Owners could enter their dogs in a pooch parade and costume contest as well as the running for King and Queen of Dog Days.
“The contests were probably the most fun – watching people show off the different dog tricks,” Ballew said. “We crowned a king and queen, and there was an especially cute little boy who gave a little story about how his dog was his friend.”
In addition, the group offered a dog safety class for children to teach them about interacting with dogs. Dog owners were also able to take a Canine Good Citizen test with their dogs – a test that requires a dog to wait quietly while their owner interacts with another person who has a dog.
Two demonstration rings were set up across Seventh Street at Dunne Park, in the baseball diamond and field area.
Lt. John Nores, of the California Department of Fish and Game, worked with his dog Jordan, a Labrador retriever. As 5-year-old Melanie Navarro and 2-year-old Joshua Navarro watched from outside the net fencing, he showed how he could throw a tennis ball across the field and command Jordan to wait until he gave the signal for the dog to retrieve the ball.
“We live on Powell [Street] and the children wanted to look at the dogs,” said the children’s father.
John brought the dog up to the fence and showed the kids how to shake hands with Jordan.
Other demonstrations included an agility course presented by Raquel’s Dog School, of Hollister. Becky Reid took dogs Blacky, Teddy and Diesel through the agility tasks, which include jumping through a hoop, walking a plank, running through a tunnel, and other obstacles.
Sandi Pensinger, of Living with Dogs, out of Santa Cruz, offered pet owners a chance to try their dog out on a lure-chasing course for $4. For the course, a white flag is attached to a thin line that goes around a track. The dogs can be trained to chase the lure as fast as they can. Some of those trying it out for the first time where more successful than others, including a great Dane, Athena, who gave up a quarter of the way around the track and Cassidy, a mix-breed dog who got distracted with sniffing the ground.
Julie Carreiro, Hollister’s animal control supervisor, brought her dog Rooster for a herding demonstration. With three white and brown goats, Carreiro demonstrated Rooster’s knowledge of left and right, and his ability to move the goats by slowly circling in on them. The black and white dog crouched close to the ground each time he prepared to make a move.
“He’s 5 years old and I started training when he was six months,” she said. “These dogs are bred to do what they do. I’m please with Rooster. He’s an awful nice dog. He’s good with people.”
Carreiro enjoyed the chance to see the other demonstrations and groups.
“This is an awful fun day,” she said. “I see all these people, but I never get to see their dogs.”
Ann Azevedo, the founder of Bad Dawg rescue, organized a Rescue Row for the event. Some of the groups, such as Pet Friends, take in dogs of all kinds while other groups are focused on one breed. Azevedo planned to bring Cupid, a dog rescued in February after being hit by a car on Hwy. 101 to Dog Days to meet people who had helped raise money for his surgery. Though Mel White, a mobile veterinarian did the surgery for half-price, the vet bill was still $700.
“I was worried about taking this dog on because I didn’t know how to pay for his surgery and care,” Azevedo wrote in an e-mail before the event. “But I really wanted to help him. …What the community did for Cupid renewed my faith in people and makes me want to keep going with rescue.”
Cupid has since been adopted, though Azevedo and the other groups have other dogs available.
