Woofers: Twanny Farrugia with his guide dog Val. Photo: Emma Carmichael
Picking up your dog’s poo is not the most enjoyable task, but when there are 50 of you carrying doggy bags it really isn’t so bad.
Kate Bradshaw started the Melbourne Dog Walkers group in 2011 when she first got her cavalier King Charles spaniel Harry.
“He was a puppy and I didn’t know anyone that had a dog that lived in the city, so I thought I’d see if there was anyone around who might like to meet up and do social things with dogs and that’s how it all started,” she says.
“It has hit a chord with a lot of dog owners.”
Happily sporting an elephant patterned bandana, the get-togethers are an obvious hit with Harry too.
“I think he views them as like party time, once a month he likes to attend his party for dogs,” Kate says.
In the group’s early days, Kate thought she would be lucky to have 10 people come along. Today, it has walked its way to more than 700 “woofers”. The group’s only prerequisite is friendliness and doesn’t reject any size, breed or number of limbs.
“I don’t know why it’s funny, but a three-legged dog always makes me laugh because they are kind of stoic and they always enjoy themselves despite the fact that they look funny,” Kate says.
The group has explored Melbourne’s dog-friendly locations like Port Melbourne and Altona beaches, Caulfield Park and Fawkner Park.
Kate said Albert Park’s Carousel Café is perfect for a coffee date with your dog and the Flying Duck Hotel in Prahran is a great place to eat out. Being popular with the pooches, the venue even held a raffle with a meat tray as the prize. And in Brighton, Dendy Park’s Breen Drive Café was remembered for providing plates of dog biscuits.
View Melbourne’s best dog-friendly nooks in a larger map
With an increasing number of “woofers”, the group’s dynamics have changed and Kate has had to think about choosing locations to suit larger numbers.
“There was an experience we had, where I thought we’d go to Carousel and we had about 40 people and we all turned up and totally clogged up the place with our dogs, trying to buy our cappuccinos,” she says, laughing.
The group meets once a month on a Sunday. Regular woofer Twanny Farrugia has had his guide dog Val for three years.
“Because she (Val) works really, really hard when she’s guiding me, she doesn’t get much opportunity to socialise,” he says.
“Being in this group, I can come along and let her off her harness and let her run. Luckily most of the members I’ve met so far are really helpful because I can’t see her, but they keep an eye on her for me.”
Kate clearly remembers when she first met Twanny and Val.
“The first time he came he let his dog off and it sort of ran off and we couldn’t work out which black labrador was Twanny’s,” she recalls.
“We all headed off trying to bring back the black lab which turned out to be a different one to the one which is Twanny’s guide dog. That was a bit hair raising at the time, but it all worked out and we got all of the black dogs reunited with the relevant people.”
This is not the only time Val has starred in a case of mistaken identity.
“I’ve only got a little bit of vision, when she runs I can see her, that’s about it,” Twanny says.
“Anyway it was time I put the harness on, I went up and put the harness on her and I got this very angry man telling me: ‘What do you think you are doing?’”
“It was another black dog running in the park that wasn’t Val. And he thought I was stealing his dog. She was off sniffing somewhere,” he says.
Twanny says his main motivation to join the Melbourne Dog Walkers was for Val, and also it is nice for him to get out on a Sunday and meet new people with a similar interest.
Pug life: Portia enjoying the outing. Photo: Emma Carmichael
“We all share the one thing, love of dogs,” he says.
And this is perhaps why the group has been such a success.
“I think anyone that has a dog loves going somewhere you will find another person with another dog, because firstly it’s nice for your dog to get out, secondly, it gives you straight away something in common with other people around you,” Kate says.
“As a way of interacting with people it’s actually quite a wonderful thing to have a dog, because dogs are so friendly towards one another usually and it gives you just an opening to talk to a lot of people you wouldn’t normally.”
