Several DOGS members manned our booth at the All Dogs Gym’s Pet Expo this past weekend.
The All Dogs Gym Pet Expo was a wonderful venue to continue getting the word out that pet owners have someone to keep them informed and aware about the pet and animal oriented legislation in our state.
The booth was set up on Friday and Saturday morning early the final additions of our literature and our items for sale were added to the tables. Saturday Jan Beardsley-Blanco came to help in the morning and had so much fun talking to people and checking out the other exhibits that she stayed later than she had planned! In the afternoon Jean Clough joined us and she stayed the rest of the day helping to talk to interested people and hand out our literature.
Sunday Yvonne Nanasi joined me doing a marvelous job in talking with the public and then even helped pack up the booth at the end of the show.
It was a great show. We spoke to not only members of the public but other exhibitors such as the folks doing the sled dog demonstrations and many of the volunteers who were working at animal shelter and rescue booths. I think both the shelter people and our volunteers were surprised to find how much we have in common in comparison to our different views on some issues.
We had a great spot on the back side of the room with a direct view up the aisle to our booth so we had plenty of exposure. Next to us the Cat Fanciers group had some gorgeous cats on display as they gave out information and on the other side was Professional Pet Sitting Etc. Down one end of our aisle were the alpacas peeking their heads up to see what was happening and on the other end the police K9 unit, dog and all, waited for their turns doing demonstrations. I was too busy to go check out the demonstrations of doggy dancing, agility, sledding and the K9 work but could hear the crowd enjoying them.
I got to meet many people who were very interested in learning about the legislation that has been presented in this state. Coloring sheets of dogs and cats and paw print stickers with our two websites on them were popular items with the children who came by our booth. I spoke with people giving out some quick advice, that I hope was helpful, to people who were having issues with neighbors who didn’t like dogs, had problems with dog park ‘bullies’ scaring their dogs, and discussed ways to keep cats safely inside of fenced yards.
I was very pleased to meet some lovely long haired whippets with marvelous temperament but I tried hard to not look at any of the cute ferrets, kittens or reptiles (and yes I find reptiles cute though my husband does not!) for fear some of them would try to come home with me! One of my favorites was the FurReal animated pony with waggling ears, tail, head etc. who topped the jingle bells booth where you could not only buy lovely sounding sleigh bells on decorative leather to hang on your door, but got free directions on how to train your dog to ring a bell to ask to be let out along with them.
All in all it was a good weekend with lots of animal friendly people and a terrific venue to get the word out that DOGS is an active group in our state. We had lots of positive feedback and even some thanks for doing the work we do!
