Standard Poodle Party!
Who says you can only have a party for people? If you’re like me, your Standard Poodle is part of your family, so why not throw your Poodle party! It’s an excellent way of socializing your dog.
Party Theme and Planning
It can be for any occasion, not just for a birthday. If you don’t know your Poodle’s birthday, you can have one for its adoption date. Other party ideas include: Halloween, Christmas, obedience graduation, agility winner, best of show or breed winner, or any other idea you can think of!
Planning a Poodle party is a lot like planning any other party, except since you’ll be having dogs as well as their owners; you’ll need food for two mouths.
You can spend as little or as much as you want for your Poodle party, it just depends on your budget, accommodations and time. You can go with just a few doggie treats to a full-blown catered affair if you want!
Once you’ve decided on your budget and where you plan on having your party, you’ll want to work on your guest list. You can keep your list to just family, a few friends with dogs, your dog obedience or agility class members and dogs, or whomever else you want!
When you are planning your guest list, be sure to take into account and not invite people who don’t like dogs or are allergic to them. Small children may also not be a good idea around a bunch of large Poodles or other dogs, since they may tend to get knocked down. You probably don’t want to invite any aggressive dogs either.
If you are artistic, you can make your own party supplies and invitations with software on your computer or with scrapbook paper and embellishments. If you’re not crafty, you can buy invitations and party supplies at party supply stores, online, or at some pet stores.
If I was going to have a party for my female Poodle Meg, I’d love to have a Poodle theme party like I’ve seen for little girls called "Pink Poodles in Paris". You can go crazy with this stuff, there is tons of it!
Poodle Party Food
If you’re having food for your people guests, make sure you keep it separate from the doggie food so the foods don’t get mixed up. You don’t want any surprises! Make sure you keep any foods with onions, chocolate or avocado away from the dogs, as these can be toxic to them. Also, be aware of any food allergies among your people guests and doggie guest as well.
Dogs, of course, shouldn’t have people food, but no problem. You can find all kinds of dog treats and cakes at your local dog bakery or at online dog bakeries. If you have the time and energy, you can make them yourself.
You’ll need plenty of water for the pooches after chasing each other around! How about a nice cold beer for your people guests and a non-alcoholic “doggie beer”
for your dog guests! You could have personalized or different colored bowls for each dog.
During and after the party, you’ll want to be sure to have plenty of cleaning items on hand to clean up any unexpected accidents. Stock up on paper towels, cleaning spray, and plastic bags. It’s also a good idea to have a first aid kit nearby in case of any minor injuries, as well as veterinarian phone numbers.
Poodle Party Fun and Games!
Keeping your people guests entertained probably won’t be as much as a concern as keeping your pet guests entertained. The adults will probably by happy just sitting around talking.
If there are children there, you may want to have some videos on hand to keep them occupied, or some video games if you have any.
Several suggestions for entertaining your canine guests include:
- Lots of dog toys for them to play with, balls, rope toys, kongs filled with cheese or peanut butter.
- A costume contest relating to the theme of your party, with a prize for the most original.
- Have a contest for the dog that knows the best trick.
- Have a contest for the dog that can do the most sit and down commands in a certain amount of time.
- You can play a version of musical chairs with hula hoops. You and your dog walk around the hoops to music and when the music stops, your dog has to sit in the circle.
- You can also have a Bob for Hotdogs contest.
- If you have plenty of room outdoors, you can buy a few kiddy plastic swimming pools and let the dogs play in them.
Capturing the Moment
Of course you’ll want to have lots of memories of the excitement of the day. If money is no object, then you could hire a professional photographer to take photos of the event.
You may even want to pass out one-time-use cameras to your people guests to get involved in taking the photos.
In parting
When everyone is ready to leave, a nice idea is to give everyone a doggie bag filled with dog treats and even a toy.
I hope this has peaked your interest of all the ideas you can come up with for your Poodle Party. I’m sure you can think of lots more! |
