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On-leash food and fundraising events are more common, but the trend is changing
Dogs and – alcohol? There’s a new trend going around in parties, often fundraising ones, which combines these two unlikely partners. Meet the Yappy Hour.
Yappy Hours are times bars hold that allow patrons to bring their dogs along for some socializing fun. Bars realize they’ll get more dog owners (39% of the U.S. population, if the Humane Society’s statistics are to be believed) to come out to their normal happy hours if they allow them to bring their dogs, and the patrons are happy for the socialization time – both for the canines and for the humans who love them. These events usually end up being fundraisers for local rescues.
A quick Google search shows the Yappy Hour as a spreading phenomenon, one that appears to have its apex in New York City. I’m sure that many other locations across the country have been holding similar parties for years, but perhaps the “Yappy Hour” term was coined in or around The Big Apple. I can attest to the popularity of Yappy Hours, as I’ve been to a couple.
One of my Baltimore-DC area friends is very involved in local animal rescue efforts. I tagged along with her to a couple “bring your dog along” restaurant events, and I’ve been invited by her to countless others. It’s always fun to sit out on a deck at a restaurant, getting to meet other dogs and their owners, and watching your pup do the same.
The main difference I note between my dogs-and-food fundraising experiences and the many Yappy Hour listings I’ve discovered is the leash rules. Most of the Yappy Hour descriptions advertise off-leash interactions between the dogs.
Now, perhaps this works at these Yappy Hours because they’re either held on beaches in places like Asbury Park, New Jersey, or indoors at galleries in NYC. The only fundraisers I’ve been to are at actual restaurants in urban areas, where dogs aren’t allowed inside the restaurants for health reasons, and can’t be off their leashes on the patios because the location is too close to the street.
I know I’d love to attend an event where I could let my dog off the leash like that. I don’t often bring her along to restaurants where she can go on the patio because she doesn’t really enjoy them. Chihiro loves people and always wants to greet everyone she meets, so she doesn’t react well to having to stay on her leash when a bunch of humans (and other dogs) are around. She whines almost the entire time we even try to take her along to picnics, for example, where she’d have to stay leashed. So a party, particularly one held indoors (I don’t really trust my hound dog loose on a beach), would be perfect.
I am a bit flummoxed by the prevalence of Yappy Hours; not by their popularity, but by organizers’ abilities to find venues that will allow them either to have dogs off leashes outdoors, or let them inside. I know the former is possible at highly pet-friendly places like Asbury Park, and the latter is likely permissible when events are held in non-restaurant spaces like galleries, where the general health/safety rules about animals in food production areas don’t apply.
Yappy Hours sound like great events for dog lovers, especially when they’re fundraisers as well. If you think they sound like fun, try searching for ones in your area.
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*(This image by sneakerdog is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.)
