by Nancy E. Hassel, American Pet Professionals
(Updated April 20, 2021 with Covid safety tips.)
5 Spring Pet Events to Host!
As the weather is warmer, and more and more people are out and about with their dogs. Many pet parents are looking for fun spring events to do with their dogs! Especially after after a long year of lockdown due to Covid, and because there are so many new pet parents!
Here are some simple pet events you can host whether you have a pet boutique, store, or are a dog trainer, pet sitter or animal rescue. Start planning now for a successful event!
- Host a Spring Fling! – This can be something as simple as having a spring themed yappy hour at your location. Invite your costumers to attend with their pups in their best spring outfits, spring masks too, (you know people love to dress up their pups!), have a backdrop that is spring themed with your @Instagram or your store printed on it so they can take photos of their dog on (and share), give out spring decorated doggie treats, and highlight spring items for sale in your store. You can add refreshments for the humans and raffle baskets too. Due to Covid – if you can host this outside, host it outside of your store.
- Dog Trainers – Springtime is the perfect time to host a fun and dog-friendly dog-training hike. Dogs that have been cooped up all winter long may need some, (or really let’s be honest, their parents need it), training refreshers! What better way then to get out into nature with them. You can give tips along the way, show off some fun dog tricks your dog knows and at the end, give them a simple goodie bag with dog treats and your upcoming training schedules attached.
- Pup Crawl – Host a spring themed pup crawl with other local non-pet, but pet friendly businesses in your town or city where pet parents can mosey along to each location, get a pet-themed toy or item and learn more about each business, shop, etc. Have your pet store or location be the last location that they stop at and celebrate spring with their dogs(and shop in your store!).
- Easter Egg Hunt! – This should be a no-brainer for anyone looking to host a fun simple event that dogs catch on very quickly too! Put dog treats in Easter eggs and hide them in your store, in a field, doggie daycare play area or training facility. You can have this as a structured event where only a few dogs go at a time (to keep chaos from happening), or a guided Easter Egg Hunt dog walk or even timed hunts to see how many eggs a dog can find in a short time period at your store or facility.
- Spring Adopt-a-thon –This can be done at an actual animal rescue or municipal shelter or cross promoting with your local animal rescue at your store or training center. Keeping with the spring theme, you can name many of the pets for adoption with flower names, Petunia, Tulip, Rose…you get the gist. Have your staff or volunteers wear some fun flower bonnets, have a spring photo area for the adoptable dogs to be pictured in. Partner with a local florist to donate flowers to decorate and give out to adopters.
Due to Covid-19, be sure to ask your guests to wear mask, do the 6 feet distancing (use a leash to measure this out!), and have extra masks (branded ones!) for people that show up without their masks, hand sanitizer and depending on where you live abide by the capacity limits. Sell tickets to your events ahead of time if needed to ensure any capacity limits. And if you can host more events outside while the weather is beautiful!
Have an upcoming event you want to let us know about?
Click here to submit it to our Pet Events Newsletter!
New to hosting events? Not sure what to do or how to go about hosting a successful pet event? Check out our step-by-step video course at www.PurrfectPetEvents.com. We have hosted well over 600 pet events in the past decade and have attended over 1,000 across the country!
We have updated this with Covid safety protocols too!
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