Paws in the Park Survives Rain, Provides Pooches with Plenty to Do

The 13th annual Paws in the Park Dog Walk and Festival played out much like the lives of the rescued dogs the event aims to help: bleak and gloomy to begin with, but fun and warm the rest of the way.

The festival, hosted in a partnership between the City of Gaithersburg and the Montgomery County Humane Society (MCHS) at Bohrer Park, started with difficult circumstances when rain began to pour down before the scheduled one-mile walk began at 1 p.m. 

Paws in the Park, which in the past had occurred at Wheaton Regional Park, moved to Gaithersburg this year when the festival was combined with Gaithersburg’s Bark in the Park to create a larger event than ever before.

“We were growing out of the venue and the partnership just made sense,” MCHS event coordinator Ashley Kundanmal said.   

However, thanks to the rain, instead of exploring the rows of pet-friendly vendors at the “flealess” market or playing with other dogs and owners, many visitors and their canines were forced under park pavilions to wait out the weather as festival organizers announced that the rain should pass.

Once it did though, the park became a playground for the pooches. 

“[The festival] is too much fun to not wait out the rain,” Nazmia Alqadi said as she passed time with her dog Jake, an Australian cattle dog and Beagle mix.

Soon after the showers stopped, participants and their dogs strolled along the park’s concrete paths for the festivals one-mile walk.  Kundanmal said more than 200 people signed-up to take part. 

Each participant either donated $20 for an individual or $35 for a family to the humane society in order to join in on the walk.  People could also contribute and fundraise online, regardless of whether they walked or not.    

Besides the walk though, the festival also offered many other pet-friendly activities, some of which were completely new to Paws in the Park this year.

With help from Jr. Girl Scout Troop 1920, dogs and their owners searched the park in two separate Easter egg hunts for colorful eggs filled with doggie treats. 

Festival-goers could also enjoy a demo put on by the Mid-Atlantic Disc Dogs Club, a competitive Frisbee-sport organization.  The demos had the MAD-dogs running through the grass and flying through the air as they attempted to track down discs.   

MAD-Dogs’ Peter Williams said the club aims to show people they do not have to immediately bring a dog to a shelter if it has too much energy for its owners. 

“There are things you can do with them to get the energy out, even with rescue dogs,” Williams said.

NBC4 news anchor Kimberly Suiters hosted three different canine contests towards the end of the day.  Dogs could show off their skills in the “muttiest” mutt contest, the top trick contest and musical carpet squares (similar to musical chairs).

In the end, with rain or shine, the festival was successful in its mission of helping homeless dogs.  The humane society was able to raise funds while numerous rescue organizations were able to showcase pooches who needed homes.