Arbor Dogs

The Arbor, famous in Port Dover for their Hot Dogs and Golden Glow, are the sponsors for the Annual Wiener Dog Races, run by the Port Dover Museum. I had been once before and found it to be a lot of fun. This time I shared the experience with Rick.

We started the day by dropping off donations to PDThrifts and then, as we were too early for the races, had a coffee at the pier while watching the boats and wildlife.

 

There's a small patch of grass beside the museum and the event takes place there.

Owners registered their dogs for the costume competition, races or (most) for both.

Just lying on a picnic table trying to pretend she wasn't dressed as a "disco dinosaur".

Spike wouldn't keep his sunglasses (to go with the Hawaiian costume) on."Spike", because his human Dad refused to own a dog with a "fru fru" name.

Although its billed as an event for Dachshunds, all shapes, breeds, sizes of dogs are accepted. Its a very inclusive event.

However there are lots of Wiener dogs - short haired, long haired, miniature, wire haired.....

This is Dewey, who ultimately won the costume contest in his sailors outfit. His handler wore a matching shirt.

Most were on very good behaviour, aided by the liberal distribution of treats.

This was my favorite 

and his handler, a young girl, was also dressed as a cheerleader.

While the results were tallied they had a costume parade along the pier and then returned for the prize announcements.

A couple of German Shepherds cooled off in the river, 

boats went buy,

and we were introduced to Maple, a Nova Scotia Duck Trolling Retriever, whose claim to fame was that he, as a puppy, was featured on a Purina Puppy Chow bag.

The inflatables raced,

the Coast Guard came in

and then it was time

for the races.

4 or 5 dogs in each heat, with one person to let them go and another, at the finish line, calling them.

Hilarious chaos, as some understood and others wouldn't start or turned back half way or were more interested in the other dogs or just stopped not going forward or back!

After the overall winning wiener had been declared then the other breeds got to get in on the fun too.

All in all, great fun and Rick and I finished it off by walking over to the beach and having an ice cream for lunch.