10 Ways to Celebrate Your Dog’s Birthday

Our four legged fur babies are family, so it is only natural we would want to celebrate their birthdays!

1. Pool Party

If you have a kiddie pool in your backyard, you can turn your dog’s party into a pool one. If you don’t, you can always head to the beach or a dog friendly pool. In our Singapore heat all year round, most of our dogs enjoy cooling off.

Not a birthday party but a beach party all the same!

It’s my birthday and I’ll drink if i want to

2. Dog Cafe Party 

When some of our dogs turned ONE, we had a joint birthday party at Paw Pet a few years ago (time flies! Sob). We ordered a big dog boned doggie cake for them to share, and made them party hats.

Happy Birthday doggies!

Meatballs and Cake

3. Cycling Party

Head to East Coast Park and rent some bikes. Dogs love to run and they can run beside you on your bicycle. Or if you’re like us and have your own bikes, you can make a day of it. We ride along the river and then stop for everyone to have drinks to cool off. Check out one of our cycling posts.

From L to R: Olive, Lucy, Kafka, Lulu and Muddy

From L to R: Vivien with Kafka and Lulu, Tanya with Muddy, Sisi with Lucy and Vicky with Olive

4. Pup-cation

If your dog doesn’t enjoy the company of other dogs, you can treat him to a staycation in one of the few pet friendly hotels in Singapore. Which dog won’t enjoy a bask in the tub and spending the day in a lush robe and bedroom slippers. =P

When’s my bath ready?

Finally away from the hustle and bustle of everyday dog life

5. Dog Park

Round up all your dog’s best pals and head to a park where we may or may not let ours off leash. End it off with doggie pupcakes for all! We love Mount Emily Park and Fort Canning Park. Lots of shade and big green spaces.

Having a ball at Mount Emily Park

Fort Canning Park

6. House Party

The Furry Tales do this a lot. We make use of any reason to celebrate with our dogs- dog birthdays, human birthdays, etc. We order cake, make hats and lets the dogs play (supervised). Here’s a peek into one of our house parties.

Pupcakes by Furrific

TFT and pals

7. Stand Up Paddling

SeaBreeze Water Sports at Siloso Beach in Sentosa is dog friendly and rent boards for $35 per hour. Stand Up Paddling is really fun. Even if you can’t stand up, you can sit or kneel and paddle.

L to R: Sisi with Lucy, Vivien with Kafka and Lulu, and Tanya

8. Pet Cruise

If you have a bigger budget and have a whole day to spare, you can organize a pet cruise for birthday pooch and his best pals. Boat owner, Joe, started this boat company in 2012 and is the only pet cruise company in Singapore. His motor catamaran carries a maximum of 10 pax (including dogs – 1 dog counts as 1 pax). A basic cruise lasts 2 hours and costs S$300. To book, please call 96375009 or email: petcruise88@gmail.com

Lucy and Muddy went on a pet cruise with The Wong Dogs

9. Picnic Party

Pack along a picnic for your pooch, bring some party hats and a mat and head to a secluded spot like Singapore’s Little Guilin in Bukit Batok. Hardly anybody is there during the weekday mornings and you can take pictures without having to crop anyone out. The dogs will enjoy the space and water.

Our dogs enjoying their romp

Pampered pooches get a tent

10. Doga Party

If you like Yoga and you have dogs, combine the two and have a Doga party! Head outdoors, bring your mats and stretch together. Here’s the link to some easy dogs poses with your pooch.

Muddy, Olive, Lucy and Kafka doing their best downward dog poses

 

Swimming at U-Petgamart

Do you know who’s the pool dork?

Do your dogs love to swim? One of our favourite haunts is U Petgamart along West Coast Highway. Because, it’s FREE!!! For a small two-year membership fee of S$38, you get to use the pool for FREE! Did we say FREE? Kafka, Lulu and Lucy love the pool. Among all our dogs, they are the ones most excited about going to U-Petgamart. Kafka and Lucy have a strong instinct to swim and retrieve. They will jump in and retrieve for hours if you let them. Kafka’s favourite item is his orange foam ball. Without it, he would not know what to do and might be very lost.

She’s behind me, isn’t she?

Kafka wants to keep both his balls.

Lucy fetching for the 100th time.

The pool is about 6m long, 3m wide and 1m deep by our estimates. By the way, our estimation abilities are as good as our driving, map reading, wood work and plumbing skills. We really like the pool because it is usually clean. Wednesdays are the best day to visit as it is closed on Tuesdays for cleaning. Lucy is content with the size of the pool but it is like a bathtub for Kafka. We really appreciate having a pool to take our dogs to. However, there are a few things that could be improved on. We find the area around the pool quite slippery and we always worry about our dogs getting hurt. The slopes in the pool are also too slippery for Kafka to get out on his own. If you want your dog to fetch in the pool, we suggest you ask them to get in the pool before you throw the toy. This prevents them from running and slipping while they dash for the toy. But hey, it’s FREE!!! There are tables and benches in a separate corner of the pool area for humans to put their things or have a snack. There is also a shower area with two hoses for you to wash the chlorine off your dogs after their dip in the pool.

Lulu and Kafka need a little help getting out.

Lulu is not pleased.

For Lucy, not drowning is more important than looking cool.

Muddy and Olive on the other hand, are land creatures! These Singapore Specials don’t like to swim, period. Tanya has tried a few times with different tactics – having other excited ‘water dogs’ around, forcing him in by just blind dragging, tricking him to fall into the pool and even coaxing him with treats and herself into the water. It still isn’t a pleasant experience for Muddy, but what always works are having other dogs around and, if it’s only his mama Tanya, PATIENCE is the way to go. Giving him time to sit by the deck, slowly moving closer while giving affection and treats. He generally warms up well enough to go half way in – for him, that’s an achievement. So hopefully one day he will be willing to go in half way without so much work and start to enjoy the experience.

Olive has been in the pool with a life vest on. Frankly, she would prefer sitting on a cactus. Like Muddy, Olive will take a few steps into the pool if you bribe her with chicken. It will take her a long time to appreciate the cold wetness of the water. Vicky has pretty much resigned herself to the fact that Olive is not going to be part of the swim team.

Olive is not joining the swim team.

Muddy is REALLY not pleased at having been tricked into the water

Olive: Get outta the way Lucy! I want to get OUT!

After waiting on our dogs hand and foot under the hot sun, we like to have some food and enjoy the A/C. U Petgamart provides a breakfast and brunch menu up to 1pm for humans and a small selection of snacks for dogs. A few months back, they had Chinese and Indian food on the menu. The Indian food was very good; the Chinese food was not as good as we hoped it would be. When we went back a few weeks ago, Indian food had been replaced by Western style brunch and we did not get to order anything because the food service stopped at 1m. That was really unfortunate because we usually go at 11am and feel hungry by 1pm. It would be nice to have the full experience of swimming, dining and shopping all at one location. If you are someone that gets “hangry”, hungry and angry, you can consider packing some lunch and sitting at the benches at the pool area. It can be a nice wrap-up to your dog’s swimming session.

Apart from FREE swimming, you get a discount of up to 20% on many of the already reasonably priced accessories (not applicable for special offer items). U Petgamart’s retail store has a large selection of pet products, food, treats and accessories. We really enjoy our fortnightly visits to U Petgamart. No other place offers so many activities in one location and does not burn a hole in your pocket. Only members get to use the pool so we highly recommend you take that S$38 out of your wallet and hand it over to U Petgamart ASAP.

We want our drinks, thanks.

Lucy : Mama, Hyper took my float. I be drown now?

My mama said I’m a pool dork!

This is life – my beer, my Lucy and my Mama.

And how could I forget, my ball!

U Petgamart is located at 27 West Coast Highway. They are open everyday from 11am – 8pm and they are contactable at (65)6583-7858. The pool is closed on Tuesdays for cleaning.