On Nov. 12, the city of Buckeye will host its eighth annual, family-friendly Dog Days of Buckeye event. It will take place in Sundance Park and has many activities for families and their dogs to enjoy.
It was first started to celebrate the opening of the dog park at Sundance Park, the one and only dog park in Buckeye at the time. The event has since become an annual place to come and celebrate four-legged friends.
“It started with a goal to highlight our residents that have pets and try to highlight the things that we have in the community that is for pets,” said Kim Anderson, marketing and events coordinator for the city of Buckeye. “The park where we’re having this event has a small dog section and a large dog section.
“We are trying to highlight all of the things that we have and all of the things in Buckeye that are for pets, meaning we are highlighting vendors that are in Buckeye and can provide services to our residents that have four-legged friends.”
Some activities for dogs to enjoy as if it were an amusement park include canine contests, photo opportunities, and workshops to learn more about your pups, among many other activities.
The canine contests have multiple categories to enter, such as Longest Tail, Longest Ears, Biggest Pooch, Smallest Pooch, Best Dressed Pooch, Pooch/Hooman Look Alike and Small Dog Races.
“They’re all judged by a panel of people from our advisory board and from the city dignitaries,” Anderson said. “This panel will decide on the winners. There are prizes for winners in each of the categories. There are engraved awards with the category that they won and it says, ‘Dog Days 2022 Winner,’ and then we also have a gift bag that goes along with it.”
There will also be a trivia question contest that will include prizes for the winners.
Along with the contests, Dog Days of Buckeye will have photo opportunities for dogs and their family members with Santa and other custom backdrops.
“If anybody’s wanting to get their Christmas cards ready and have a really cute picture of their dog with Santa, Santa will be at the event this year,” Anderson said. “We’re having a custom photo backdrop made that will be at the event this year as well.”
There will be a variety of demonstrations and workshops for families to attend and learn more about their four-legged friends.
“We are having a local dog trainer for the event, Chris Thompson with Dog Training in Public,” Anderson said. “He’s going to be hosting a variety of workshops, including an introduction to training, an introduction to obedience and an introduction to off-leash training. We’re also working with Comfy Pets of AZ and they’re going to be doing a demonstration on wound care for pets and dog CPR. We’re also having the Buckeye Police Department and the Arizona Department of Corrections doing demonstrations showing how their canine officers basically do drug training and pursuits.”
West-MEC Southwest Campus Veterinary services are partnering with Dog Days of Buckeye to bring another demonstration to the event: lick print art.
“They’re providing an activity at the event where your dog can create art. It’s similar to creating your dog’s paw print, but they’ve developed a way where their dog licks peanut butter off one side of the canvas, putting their lick mark onto the other side of the canvas.”
On top of that, there will be 19 vendors at the event along with the trainers selling assorted goods for puppies and humans, plus some food and drinks. Those vendors include For the Love of Dogs, Ocean’s GlowSoap Co. and Purple Mouse.
“We have some food vendors coming out, including Vonets Bar Service serving mocktails, the Elk Brew is bringing coffee, and All-Star Hot Dogs LLC will serve snacks, hot dogs, nachos and things along those lines,” Anderson said.
The most significant part of this event is the Maricopa County Adoption Center, and other local rescue groups are invited to bring dogs in hopes of being adopted at the event.
“The focus is finding homes for pets that currently don’t have homes,” Anderson said. “So this year, we’re inviting Maricopa County, and they are bringing dogs that are available for adoption to the event.”
If You Go...
What: Dog Days of Buckeye
When: 9 a.m. to noon, Saturday, Nov. 12
Where: Sundance Park, 22865 W. Lower Buckeye Road, Buckeye
Cost: Free
Info: buckeyeaz.gov/dogdays