TORONTO WINTER WOOFSTOCK 2012

This past Sunday was a rare day for Toronto in November, mostly sunny and mild, temps in the double digits. A perfect day to put on your walking shoes, grabbing a leash, hooking up your dog and ... go inside?

Well it makes some degree of sense if "inside" refers to Winter Woofstock. Woofstock is a huge and popular dog expo that takes place in Toronto (and other cities) twice a year. In the summer it is held here in the St Lawrence Market district outside. In the fall/winter it occurs inside, in this case the Direct Energy Centre at the CNE grounds.

Hey this is Toronto, we do winter, we just do it inside.

As usual I did not take Terra to Winter Woofstock. This dog spends most of her days out in the yard and when she goes out with me it usually involves high speed long distance ball and/or frisbee chasing. Being in an extremely crowded space, kept on leash, surrounded by hundreds of dogs with whom she could not interact, well I would just get those big brown border collie eyes telling me "Really? This is it?"

But Woofstock is a good place to find bargains on all those doggie essentials: Poop bags, flashy collars for dark winter nights, a new name tag, treats. And if you are other dog owners: Dolce Cabana dog boots, real fur trimmed capes, blingy collars and that doggie essential, strap on sunglasses

Sigh

There are also dog trick contests, fashion shows, best groomed shows .... Terra reads over my shoulder and comments "When do we get to the frisbee part? There should be frisbees? Right? Frisbees? There are frisbees? Right? Frisbees? Right? Frisbees?"

You see my issue here. Anyway, I mostly go to take advantage of a lot of venders in one place offering discounts, like any trade show. And of course I love being surrounded by dogs. The owners I could do without; dragging poor doggie behind them, totally oblivious as the human moves up and down the aisles in full shopping-as-zombie mode.

I will give credit to the show's staff, the place was remarkablly clean and good smelling considering the number of dogs present. And somehow in the short time that I was there, there weren't any major fights .. and I don't mean between the dogs, I mean between a few overdressed dog owners scrapping over the very last jar of Organic Raw Human Grade Crap For Your Dog

Here's the video