Bill-

Thanks for joining us again this year. You are
definitely one of the regulars and a consistent
supporter.

Thanks for the feedback. I was a little bothered by
the cycle group pressuring us from behind too.

It definitely got worse after the judges reviewing
stand by the Borough Hall. In fact the whole parade
accelerates after the reviewing stand. I don't think
that's fair to the people (and it seems to be the
majority of the people at the parade) who are lining
the streets through the rest of the town.

I'll mention it to the parade officials next year and
maybe we can find a way to make it better.

Whenever I felt like stopping so people could pet the
dogs or Cinder could do the hoop trick, I did. And the
group behind us just had to wait. And they did. The
crowd went nuts when he did the trick, so I think that
was the right thing to do.

I think if we find ourselves in that situation again
next year, we can move to one side and let the cycles
pass us. We're a pretty loosely organized (?) group,
so we haven't discussed any contingent plans for even
minor problems. I'd like us to be a little more
organized when we walk in the parade. It's been
suggested (and done in past years) that occasionally
we walk in figure 8's and cirlces like a sort of K-9
drill team. It looks good and helps boost group
cohesion. If we did that in front of the review stand
while Cinder and other dogs performed some tricks, I
think it would be well received, in stead of just
walking past the review stand. Other groups perform
there, nd the rest of the parade waits for them, so
why shouldn't we. What do others think? Any ideas?

If the motorcycle group has some place they'd rather
be, they could cut out down a side street after the
reviewing stand.

Another possible (but less desirable) solution is to
place 2 walkers at the back of the group and have them
block/slow the truck leading the cycles so the rest of
our group has more breathing room.

As to the order of the parade, everybody has to be in
front of somebody. I'm glad we were 3 spaces behind
the marching band instead of right on top of them. The
loud drums are rough on the dogs hearing. Figure if
something is loud to us, it's probably 2-3 times
louder to them. Running a parade of that size and
with so many diverse groups is a big taskand I think
the town and parade committee did a great job.

As to the shelter dogs:

I gave it some thought. The parade had a theme this
year of "Community Involvement" and so I worked with
Nancy Welsh to arrange the Adopt-A-Pet dogs and to
hand out the flyers for the Pet Pics w/Santa which
benefits the Collingswood Stray Animal fund. As far as
I'm concerned, anybody who wants to involve any
dog-oriented organization as we walk, is always
welcome to. (What do others think?) next year I'd like
to promote the US War Dog Memorial as well
(www.uswardogs.org)!

We were careful that the larger dogs (3 - Spring,
Brenna, Sandra) were walked by adult volunteers from
the shelter. The two littlest dogs were walked by 2
high school juniors who both have family dogs. Emily
(who's family dog Cinder weighs 75 lbs.) did a great
job walking Roxanne (about 15-20 lbs.), a 5-6 year old
beagle bitch who had been surrendered to the shelter
about 2 weeks ago, and was still very well socialized.
Definitely not an institutionalized dog. Lisa walked
Macho, who was a ± 5 lb. shitzu/min. schnauzer type
about the same size and temperment as her family dog,
Scootchie.

Margaret Jacobs, Director of the Camden County Animal
Shelter was very careful in her selection of which
dogs could be included. She only allowed dogs she had
gotten to know and was confident of.

Believe me, she's very aware of the potential dangers
and bad press a problem dog can create in such a
situation. The alternative to getting these dogs out
where thay can be seen is leaving them in cages until
they are so institutionalized they will never find
homes, and where very few people are even aware of
their existence. We handed out several hundred flyers
about the CC Animal Shelter and its programs.

But enough of the critical stuff. Did you find
anything positive about the event? How about our
having helped raise over $80 for the Camden County
Animal Shelter and heighted awareness of the
Adopt-A-Pet program just before the holidays?

Anybody else



--- Lone Terrier <CamcoDogpark@...> wrote:

>
> I found it extremely annoying to have a
> motorcycle group behind our group.
>
> Almost the entire length of Haddon Avenue
> we had some moron complaining we weren't
> going fast enough.
>
> And then when I finally dropped out
> from frustration I discovered that the motorcycles
> were about 3 blocks ahead of the next group !!!
>
> There was literally a gap of 2-3 blocks with noone
> there
> because morons on motorcycles apparently
> had some place really important to go at noon.
>
> I have no idea how someone would decide that
> putting dogs in front of a motorcycle group was
> a good idea. It seemed REALLY stupid to me.
>
> When we began marching at 10:15, I didn't notice
> these clowns being behind us and I'm not sure
> when that happened.
>
> After standing around for 1:15 minutes,
> I didn't appreciate being rushed down the
> street like that.
>
> **************************
>
> I wasn't that crazy about having people walking
> shelter dogs as part of our group.
> I know my little dogs extremely well but still
> watch them closely to make sure they are
> doing OK with the kids.
>
> I have them both harnessed and completely
> under control.
>
> When you have young kids walking older dogs
> they don't really know, among a large crowd,
> that seems like it could be a problem that would
> reflect poorly on the Knights Park group.
>
>
> WRZ
>
> CamCoDogPark@...
>
>
>
>
>
> >From: "richard" <argee333@...>
> >Reply-To: Knightsparkdogwalkers@yahoogroups.com
> >To: Knightsparkdogwalkers@yahoogroups.com
> >Subject: [Knightsparkdogwalkers] Annual Holiday
> Parade Dogwalk A Big
> >Success!
> >Date: Sat, 27 Nov 2004 19:34:54 -0000
> >
> >Thanks to everyone who turned out for our annual
> strut down
> >Haddon Ave. The weather was perfect!
> >
> >Special thanks to:
> >
> >Nancy Welsh (for hooking us up w/ Camden County
> Animal
> >Shelter's Adopt a Pet program)
> >
> >Margaret Jacobs, Director of the Camden County
> Animal Shelter
> >
> >David Hodges and Donna Shorr (for the use of their
> front yard
> >and electricity),
> >
> >This year we had many new participants as well as a
> few
> >regulars. (Too few regulars if you ask me!).
> >
> >But for me the best part of the event was including
> 5 great shelter
> >dogs from the Camden County Animal Shelter's Adopt
> A Pet
> >program. Macho, Sandra, Spring, Roxanne, and
> Brenna were all
> >doing their best to work the crowd and find a new
> home for
> >themselves. They represented the many other fine
> dogs back at
> >the shelter very well.
> >
> >4 Volunteers from the shelter also walked with us
> and helped
> >hand out flyers for the CC Animal Shelter, and
> Collingswood's
> >Stray Animal Fund event next week: the annual "Pet
> Portraits With
> >Santa" (Dec. 5 at Scissors & Suds! $7 donation )
> >
> >We also collected over $80 for the CC Animal
> Shelter.
> >
> >And on top of all that, we had a great time and
> made alot of
> >people smile. Parade watchers of all ages just love
> seeing and
> >meeting the dogs in the parade.
>
>
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