Doggie Day Picnic a treat for pets and owners

PALMER — For a few hours Saturday, it was a dog-meet-dog world for pets and their owners at the first Doggie Day Picnic at Rusty’s Restaurant.

As people gathered on the lawn behind the restaurant to socialize and catch up, their canine companions were doing the same.

Boone came nose-to-nose in a playful greeting with another dog, Che, before settling down with his owner, Jeanette Gardiner of Palmer, for a picnic lunch. A 2-year-old Rottweiler/hound mix, Boone was rescued from the Mat-Su Borough animal shelter and is working on becoming more sociable with other people and dogs, Gardiner said.

“He’s a shelter dog and he actually does really well on our walks,” said Gardiner, a petite woman who weighs nearly as much as the large dog. “He’s actually just very distracted here today with all the new smells and the dogs and the people. But that’s something we’re working on. It’s a chance for him to get around other distractions and for me to practice getting him to focus paying attention to me.”

While pet owners who paid $30 for a picnic lunch, with proceeds benefiting Valley-based Advocates for Dog and Puppy Wellness, enjoyed a home-cooked picnic of fried chicken, baked beans, potato salad and rhubarb upside down cake, the pooches pigged out on dog food and treats.

“Well, we have human and dog food available,” said Liz Thatcher, co-owner of Rusty’s, which recently celebrated its one-year anniversary. “We are not cooking for the dogs.”

The event is close to her heart, said Thatcher, who has two dogs of her own — Sadie, a cockapoo mix, and Maggie, a shelter rescue.

And there was much more to Saturday’s picnic than dining with doggies. Valley Arts Alliance was there painting dogs’ paws and making paw-print T-shirts, pets could get microchipped and romp with their owners through a small agility course.

“There’s all kinds of stuff going on,” Thatcher said. “They’re making the T-shirts, taking photos with the dogs, there’s a dress-the-dogs-up contest, all kinds of stuff. It’s a lot of fun.”

Another contest, called “leave it,” places hot dogs in front of the animals and tests their self-control. The dog that leaves the frankfurter alone the longest wins.

“That would be about two second with one of my dogs,” said Julie Johnson, founder of Advocates for Dog and Puppy Wellness. “We have three rescues at home, and there’s one of them that’s very good, so obedient. But that other one would go for it right off.”

As a volunteer at the borough shelter for about 2 ½ years, Johnson said she got the idea for canine advocacy by observing how dogs react to socialization.

“The first thing I notice there is when dogs get more socialized with people, they become a better pet, more calm,” she said. “This is one of our biggest fundraisers of the year, and what our group does is raise awareness for local animal shelters and encourage participation.”

While the picnic benefits the advocacy group, it’s also good business, Thatcher said. Because Rusty’s borders a city park, it’s able to host unique events, like a recent kite rally and the doggie picnic.

Although there was plenty of socializing and gabbing going on among their owners, it was unmistakably a dog day afternoon Saturday at the restaurant.

As for the leave it contest, Gardiner wasn’t sure how Boone would fare. He would be tested, but might be able to let a tempting hot dog lie.

“Actually, he might do OK, because that’s one of the things we work on in training,” she said. “I don’t know about hog dogs, but if they put a tennis ball out there, that might be harder for him to leave than a hot dog. He loves tennis balls.”

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.