By Jill Draper
You lucky dog! You, whose owners haul you to social outings, outdoor eateries and pet-friendly shops to keep you entertained.
You mini-dachshunds, pugs and corgis with your breed-specific meetups. You Heinz 57 mutts who get your cheeks swabbed for ancestry tests.
“It’s a dog’s life” isn’t always miserable these days. Sometimes it’s pretty good.
Want to celebrate your dog’s birthday, or make your own special day into a dog-themed event? Zoom Room, a growing franchise of indoor dog training gyms, offers parties in the gym starting at $250 at its one-year-old business at 135th Street and Quivira Road. A second Overland Park location at Metcalf and 99th Street is set to open soon.
Rachael Yaw, general manager, says she recently planned a birthday party for a young girl who invited her friends and relatives to bring along their dogs, ranging from a Great Pyrenees mix to a corgi puppy.
Parties usually happen after hours. During the day Zoom Room offers basic, intermediate and advanced agility training, scent workshops and urban herding using large fitness balls in place of sheep. Yaw says the trend of indoor dog gyms “has started to really pop in the last several years.”
All Star Dog Sports in Blue Springs, Mo., plus a couple of businesses north of the river, also offer indoor agility training.
Public off-leash dog parks are another place for fun, exercise and socialization, and some have separate enclosures for large and small dogs. Kansas City Parks and Recreation lists five dog parks, but none south of Swope Park. Instead, Telegraph readers probably are more familiar with Leawoof Dog Park in Leawood, Tails & Trails Dog Park in Grandview and Markey Dog Park in Belton. Wayside Waifs in south KC runs a fee-based dog park, charging $5/day or $80/year.
Katie Mehan is the unofficial leader of the Leawoof Dog Park dachshunds who gather to play on Sunday mornings. “These dogs are high-energy and I wanted mine to have friends and socialize,” she says. Her 9-pound longhair red miniature dachshund named Vivian sometimes attends a more widespread group, KC Dachshund Friends, but they usually meet farther north. “I wanted to start something closer to us,” Mehan says.
She’s planned a full end-of-summer social calendar for Vivian, including a Long Dogs Breed Meetup at Bar K Dog Bar in downtown Kansas City, Bark at the Park at Kauffman Stadium, and a self-organized day at the beach at Shawnee Mission Park Dog Beach. Meehan creates acrylic fashion pet tags, and her dog often models various styles on her website (chonkandcharms.com) or on Vivian’s own social media page, @vivitheteenieweenie.
Some dogs enjoy shopping or eating out, especially if there are treats at the cashier’s counter. Nearly all hardware stores, pet supply stores and sporting goods stores allow dogs on a leash, as well as various clothing and craft stores. Check first, of course, but businesses listed as dog-friendly include Bath & Body Works, Hobby Lobby, Michaels Arts and Crafts, Hallmark, Pottery Barn, Marshall’s and TJ Maxx. Small pooches riding in shopping carts will appreciate a folded towel or yoga mat to sit on.
Many restaurants and bars allow dogs on patios. The Kansas City Health Department loosened regulations about this in 2019, but still asks business owners to apply for a variance permit which contains a14-requirement checklist. Conditions to be met include an outside service sink and a separate entrance.
Sometimes there’s a water bowl on the patio, but more extravagant refreshments can be found. Dogs are offered free Puppuccinos (whipped cream in a cup) at Starbucks, puppy cones at Andy’s Frozen Custard and pup cups at Dairy Queen. Crows Coffee at Red Bridge Shopping Center offers a good-sized dog biscuit.
According to various surveys, two-thirds of U.S. households own pets and spend hundreds of dollars a year on them. In fact, Americans now spend more than half a billion dollars each year on pet Halloween costumes alone, says the National Retail Federation.
And why not? Nearly all pet owners say their pets are part of the family, and about half say their pets are as much a part of the family as human members, according to the Pew Research Center.
For the past 20 years National Dog Day has been celebrated on Aug. 26. Look for special events, stop by Blue Bicycle Health & Fitness at Red Bridge Shopping Center for a meet and greet and treat with Gracie, the owner’s 12-year-old lab, and start thinking about Halloween costumes. It’s just around the corner, and the competition could be fierce.