PawsAbilities 2012:
A Dog-Gone Good Time

PawsAbilities was a weekend for the dogs! On March 10-11, 2012, dogs and dog lovers came together for a weekend full of games, contests, demonstrations of canine skills and vendors offering items to delight canines and humans alike.

Dog Olympic Games

Canine Olympians competed in games such as the Temptation Tower, Musical Hoops, Leave It, Marathon Down, and more! This year, we added a new game called Par for the Course. Dogs started in a down or a sit at the tee, while their handler stood at the hole. The handler then had to call their dog to them. Points are added each time the handler has to call their dog. To make it even more challenging, we added some obstacles in that the dogs had to ignore. The object of the game was to have the lowest score at the end of the round.

Find SSD Fire Scavenger Hunt

New for this year, we held a scavenger hunt. We hid images of SSD Fire at vendor booths throughout the event. People had to follow the clues to find Fire to receive their prize! All scavenger hunt entries were entered into a Grand Prize Drawing. Attendees and vendors both had a great time hiding and tracking down SSD Fire!

Contests

Once again, we found the cutest dogs in Central PA in the Cutest Dog Contest! It’s always a challenge because all of the dogs are just so cute! Here’s a tip for next year: The Cutest Dog Contest is limited to the first 50 entries, so if you’d like to participate, make sure you get there early.

We saw lots of great costumes in the costume contest, including an astronaut, Uncle Sam, Yoda, nurses and Batdog. There was even a skateboarding dog!

Attendees also competed in the Great Biscuit Bite Off to see who could make the best homemade dog treats. The Bite Off was judged by our service dogs in training, and they certainly enjoyed it. Watch SSD Rossi, SSD Midge, SSD Buster and SSD Fire judge the competition.

Demonstrations

The weekend was filled with other exciting presentations and demonstrations. This year, we welcomed lots of working dogs to the stage! The Pennsylvania State Police talked about their police dog program, Summit Search and Rescue demonstrated how their bloodhounds follow a scent, The Seeing Eye presented about raising and training guide dogs and Detective Dennis Woodring demonstrated how K-9 Loki detects fire accelerants. We also learned about doga (yoga for dogs) and puppy socialization from Smart Dog University.

Abrams & Weakley Parade

The Abrams & Weakley Parade at the end of each day is always popular. Sponsored by Abrams & Weakley General Store for Animals, the parade wound through the event to the spritely music of the band. Prizes were awarded in 20 different categories, including most Irish, longest ears, shortest tail, tallest, most attentive and more.

Vendors

Everyone enjoyed shopping at the vendor booths. There were over 60 booths to choose from! Our vendors had something for every dog and human – homemade dog treats, leashes, collars, pet clothing, caricatures, photography and more! Thank you to all of vendors for supporting us!

Thank you to everyone who joined us for PawsAbilities 2012! Many thanks to our sponsors and our volunteers! Without you, this event would not have been possible.

We hope to see you and your dog next year for another weekend of canine fun!

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