A Dog Among Us: June 2011

A doggy birthday cake

      Isn’t that what dogs do to people? Bring them together and leave happy memories behind?

      What do you do at a doggy birthday party? When we put up a dog school at a local park, my dog Spotty’s birthday was 3 months away. Thus, we launched the dog school at our star mascot’s 5th birthday.
      We had a growing clientele because the school was a popular Saturday morning hangout of dog lovers. My associate Sally and I envisioned lots of ideas for them. The school was new, we were inspired, and we were pioneering dog agility sports in the metro. We were the newest attraction in the park.
      The trouble with party planning is that you initially brim with bright and witty ideas – some good others way off. But as time passes, the list shortens, or you adjust as you go along. But the big day is coming and time runs short. So from among our list of ideas the following (realistic) activities survived:
      1. School blessing of the grounds and facilities
      2. Fun Awarding ceremony
      3. Dog agility demo
      4. Snack time
      5. Birthday Cake blowing and group photo
      6. Mini competition in basic obedience
      7. Great Dog Games
      8. Awarding ceremonies of winners

      Pet companies are often eager to sponsor high-visibility events such as ours in a public park so we had prizes galore. But you have to send your proposals way ahead and follow them up diligently so they don’t end up informing you of your pickup time the afternoon before the party (or worse – the morning of the big day!). But since these sponsors may sometimes send a representative to attend, these officers may bring the goods over on that day.
      We had prizes for the games, prizes for the contests, and bags of giveaways for guests to bring home. Other sponsors we contacted were an events-party supplier that agreed to do our party décor and a popular restaurant in the park that agreed to handle a snack buffet table.

Spot had two birthday cakes that day. The chocolate cake (left) was given by a friend named Byron.

      On our side, Sally and I worked furiously. Sally designed the invitation cards which we gave to students and friends. She also designed the awarding certificates. We had two kinds: certificates to give to every student, and another for the winners in the competition. But I had to add a gift from the school: a promotional wall clock with every student’s dog printed on the face. Sally and I spent days on this as we purchased the wall clocks and photographic paper, worked on the layouts, edited endlessly, and disassembled each clock so we could paste the dog’s photo (we’ve never done this before so we had to have test samples first of the wall clocks at home).
      For weeks also we researched on doggy birthday cakes, studied various menus and debated if we will bake one – or just buy a regular cake for human consumption. The doggy cake I liked had yoghurt as icing but yoghurt icing will run in tropical weather. It might not even survive a photoshoot!
      In the end, we trashed the doggy cake. We were advocates of “Don’t feed your dog when he goes out,” policy so why feed him at a party? Why risk feeding him tidbits of food all because it’s a birthday occasion then have him poo around the premises? We decided to ignore the dog. A doggy party is for people with dogs, not the other way around.
      But the décor had to have a doggy theme and it was here I had the "great idea" (sarcastically expressed by me) of doing our famous cracker house. I hadn’t done this in decades. My friend Malu had volunteered to do this but on the afternoon before the big event, she called to complain that the sugar wouldn’t caramelize. That was alarming. If the sugar won’t caramelize, it won’t stick the crackers together.
      I rushed to her house all frazzled already by the approaching event. Good thing I called an SOS to a chemist friend of ours named Francis to assess what could have happened. Malu explained that the usual white sugar (I probably did a cracker house 20 years ago and used only white sugar), upon being cooked with a little water to high heat, refused to turn to that familiar brown gooey substance which would be the cracker house’s glue. Instead the sugar would stay white but dry up and become crumbly. That reaction of the sugar was new to me and it was bewildering. Francis remarked that our white sugar may be full of chemicals already. He suggested we buy the raw brown sugar (muscovado) instead.
      Francis and I waded through late afternoon rush hour traffic to go to three supermarkets just to look for that raw brown sugar. Though I still toyed with baking a carrot cake for the dogs, we were faced with a cracker house crisis. We bought a large chocolate cake with butter icing and had a birthday greeting to Spot lettered on top. That decided things. -- a cake for humans to eat but with a doggy decor. Then it was home where we had to struggle with that cracker house.
      We were still up at midnight working. Francis was right; the raw brown sugar was better (less chemicals, obviously). It caramelized and we built the house up by panels. Finally we decorated it with candies and carefully propped it on top of the chocolate cake. What a night. All for the love of a dog.

A sight for sore eyes: party decor! Especially one that matched the birthday dog.

      The following morning, the view of the party venue took all of my stresses away in a snap. Fluttering up in the air as festive buntings were Dalmatian-printed balloons and white curly ribbons over the dog agility playground. What a happy sight for sore eyes. We had specified a black-and-white color theme for the décor to the party specialist but I didn’t know they would go the extra mile by using Dalmatian prints. They also created a big black-and-white balloon arch over the entrance to the school. We walked under that arch our faces glowing with delight. The party venue never looked this good.
      Jonathan was there, dressed in a Dalmatian costume. This Dalmatian costume has gone far. I had this sewn two years earlier when I entered both Jonathan and Spot at a Lookalike contest (who else won but them!). The "Dalmatian Duo" made it on many newspapers after the contest. With Spot in a red party hat and his lookalike handler at the gate to receive our guests, I had two mascots. It was party time!
      The morning started with a blessing of the school and training grounds. Fr Ron started the blessing prayers then with him and his yellow Labrador named Scooby at the head of the line, we trooped around the playground while Fr Ron sprinkled the premises with holy water.
      As we all gathered back to the central area, Fr Ron said a group pet blessing prayer. But I didn’t know he was blessing the dogs until it was all over. I had expected a pet blessing like the one I attended sponsored by PAWS (Philippine Animal Welfare Society) a year ago. In that event, each owner and dog was given a special blessing by the priest (we were over 100!). Anyway, that was a detail I failed to tell Fr Ron so that oversight was my fault.
      After the prayers the spirit of the party took over and it was a Happy Birthday song to 5-year-old Spotty with his lookalike handler. Then it was time for a group picture taking at the table where the birthday cakes were and the Dalmatian Duo sitting in the center.
      First in our agenda was an Obedience Trial.We were a dog school and it was time for us to show what we’ve done the past 3 months and what we have to offer. There were enough students for this basic obedience trial with three categories: Long Sit, Long Stay, and Fast Recall. Within the categories were 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners so there were some students who collected more than one winning certificate (and its accompanying gift bag).
      After the trial and to give us time to prepare the certificates with the winners' names, a dog agility demonstration followed next. There were only 3 dogs who could do this and they were Scooby, Fr. Ron’s yellow Labrador; birthday boy Spotty; and a Belgian Malinois named Booger, a dog of our friend Byron (who sent the chocolate cake).

Fr Ron and Scooby

      The demo was successful because just in time, the president of the park decided to answer our invitation that morning and appeared at the school just as the demo was beginning.
      The agility demo seemed to be just a break because it went by so fast. Each dog would round the circuit in seconds and there were only 3 dogs. Booger obliged the audience with some tricks, also a Beagle named Kimchi owned by a friend Mariel for the enjoyment of the guests. Finally it was time for the Obedience Awards and the Fun Awards ceremony.
      The Fun Awards ceremony was our way of saying thanks to our students. We thought up of gifting each student with a comically worded certificate to describe their dog. This was paired with a wall clock with a photo of their pet on the face. We created such certificates as, “Sexiest Black Labrador,” “Fast Learner Award,” “I Love My Boss Award” (a mastiff with separation anxiety), “Karate Kid Award” (a Boston terrier that tended to fly in the air in a fit of aggression against the other dogs), “Most Promising Toy Dog Award” (a quick-learning Mini Pinscher), “Loyalty Award” (a student that enrolled her dog in Basic Obedience then Agility) “GRO Award” (or Guest Relations Officer, addressed to a friendly Beagle that was always accommodating to the male dogs) and “Good Behavior Award.” It was a time for laughs and amusement for everybody and plenty of picture taking. But because the awarding ceremony seemed long, we divided this into two parts to hold off boredom.
      The interactive portion of the party was what we called The Great Dog Games – parlor games designed for the participation of both owner and dog. The first game would have been Musical Chairs but after we saw that most of the dogs at the party were not yet trained for basic obedience, we scrapped that game out. We moved to the next two games called “Tail Wag Game,” and the “Come Here, I Say.” The Tail Wag was a challenge to each dog owner participant to try to make his/her dog’s tail wag by saying ridiculous words to the dog such as funny-sounding vegetables without saying the dog’s name. There was a secret trick to this but if I divulged it, everybody would win. (The secret was to say the vegetable in an excited tone so the dog would absorb the excitement and consequently wag his tail). The “Come Here, I Say” was a recall command with tempting treats along the way. The dog that came to its owner without stopping along the way to pick up a treat was the winner.

It is a source of much hilarity as dog owners try to coax their dogs to wag their tails spontaneously while saying an outrageous word.

      The Fun Awards resumed again, bringing the morning to the much-awaited portion of the party: the Snack Attack. Some of the students had contributed pastries and other food items to add to the buffet. The restaurant sponsor put up a nice long table complete with skirting and floral centerpiece. They served finger food, as per our specification (knowing every student had one hand connected to a dog leash). This was time for bonding and lots of talking, while some guests tried out the equipment with their dogs. Pet companies that sponsored the event had their representatives in attendance – a promise of more sponsorships up ahead for us.
      Finally the party came to a close. It was 3 hours of an eyeful of doggy fun and activities, bonding with friends, photos to take, and food to cap the event. As the sun rose higher in the sky, the day got warmer. It was time to go.
      For weeks after that, I kept receiving photos in the email of the party taken by others. Fr Ron even sent me a cd of Spot’s birthday celebration in powerpoint presentation.
      Now isn’t that what dogs do to people? Bring them together and leave behind happy memories?
      Happy Birthday to Spot!


Spot sits like a sphnix atop the dog walk near a string of his similarly printed balloon decor.


Fr Ron and Scooby lead the line in the blessing of the training grounds of the school as birthday boy Spot follows with his lookalike handler and the other guests. People thought Fr Ron was in "costume" like Jonathan who was in his Dalmatian getup until they found out he was a real priest -- and a student of the school!


Jonathan in his Dalmatian getup gives last-minute instructions to the Basic Obedience participants before the trial begins.


A mini pinscher named Hero (in arms of owner) was our "Most Promising Toy Dog" awardee. Note the computer printed wall clock which we did ourselves. At left is Marco, our emcee.


Spot demonstrates what he had been trained for since he was 10 months old.


Here are some of the party guests. The dog at extreme right is Toby with his master Roy. Three months later, Toby will lose Roy and the dog will go home to me (see my post, "The Lesson of Toby on Separation.").