Pet Show Party Ideas

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I thought of this idea when watching the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show with my daughter. All little girls love dress up. How about dressing up their pets! Since I don't have the room, nor did I want to manage dogs, cats, and other furry creatures in my home, I thought stuffed animals would be a good alternative.

Set up: The party would contain 4 different areas: a registration desk, a grooming area, a judging table and an agility competition.

Registration Desk: In the front of your home or entry way, set up a table where guests can register their pet. Give each child an armband and a collar with a tag. The simplest way would be to cut out tags with numbers and a rubber band for their stuffed animal, and another paper tag that would be pinned around their arm. Create a simple form where the child would write their name as handler and their pet's name. You could also have the parents write their email address if you want to send them pictures of the party. If the child is having a birthday party, at the registration desk, you can collect the presents from each child.

Grooming Area: After registration, direct the child to a special room to groom their animal.Set up a table with hair ties, stuffed animal clothes (doll clothes), and other accessories. To keep them busy while guests arrived, I also would set up a special area where the girls can make their own collars out of beads. You can find great inexpensive beads either at bead or craft stores. You can also find little charms to create "tags" or pre-make the tags for each girl. For instance, you could engrave "Lindsey's best friend" or "Katie's cutie". I would recommend another parent be in the room to assist the girls tie and string their creations.

The Judging Table: Once the girls have dressed their animal, the competition begins! Have a well dressed judge (willing parent) call a the corresponding number to each pet. Set up a clothed covered table where the handler (girl) places their stuffed animal in front of the judge. Just like at a real dog show, have the judge examine the stuffed animal and give them a clip board to write their results. After every animal is examined, have all of the girls march in a circle with their pets, displaying their perfectly groomed animal. Take a group picture of the girls to send to parents for thank you cards.

The agility competition: In your backyard, set up an obstacle course. You can use things as you would find in a regular agility competition. Time each girl as they go though the obstacle course, holding their pet. For instance make the girls crawl though a tunnel created by chairs and a sheet, a balance beam out of a 2×4 and bricks, a bar to jump over made out of chairs and a broom and have them use the hula hoop 3 times. Record the time of each pet/handler.

The award ceremony: After you collect all the results, it's time to hand out the awards! Purchase ribbons or certificates you can hand out to every contestant so no one feels left out. You can create categories such as most creative, most colorful, furriest, 1st-3rd in the agility competition and 1st -3rd in the showing competition. For best in show, you can purchase a larger rosette ribbon and award the best handler/pet for both competitions.

The food: I decorated the table with more stuffed animals of dogs and cats and served the food in dog bowls or cat snack jars I found at the dollar store. For easy serving, use dog food scoops.

• Puppy Chow Mix - melted peanut butter and chocolate chips drizzled on chex cereal then shaken with powdered sugar


• Cat Treats - goldfish crackers


• Just for the big dogs - coco puffs in a dog food bowl


• Dog snacks - combos


• Pet sandwiches - use cookie cutters of dogs and cats to cut out sandwiches


• Fish drink - use blue punch in a fish bowl and freeze candied fish in ice cube trays


• Bird Seed - mixed nuts, especially sunflower seads


• Hot dogs and buns


• Bone cake - combine a loaf cake with 2 cupcakes at either end. Frost to create a uniformed bone shaped cake.


• FISH AQUARIUMS - floating fish in blue jello.

The presents: An alternate idea instead of gifts is to ask your guests to bring donations for an animal shelter. It would not only help other animals but also reinforce kindness and giving to others. If your willing, you could always take the donted gifts to the shelter and let your child pick his/her own pet!

Party favors: You can stuff doggie bags filled with bone candy and any dog/cat favor you can find.

With a little bit of imagination, a pet show party can be a a fun way for little girls to share their special friends with one another.

Going Nuts is a family service owned and operated by Kimberly. She works to parter with like minded businesses offering support, tips and tricks, and innovative ideas for parents. For more information please visit [http://going-nuts.net]