Dog Party Author, DIY Expert, Kimberly Schlegel Whitman, Gives
Additional Entertaining Tips for a Great Pup Gathering
PHOENIX--(BUSINESS WIRE)--According to the 2016 American Pet Products Association (APPA) National
Pet Owners Survey, nearly 30 percent of pet parents buy their dogs
birthday gifts. PetSmart is here to serve pet parents across North
America with the launch of its first-ever Birthday Collection, an
assortment of festive toys, treats, apparel and accessories available
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year-round to celebrate birthdays and “Gotcha Days” – the day a pet was
adopted.
The collection is available at all the 1,500-plus PetSmart stores across
North America and PetSmart.com at the Birthday
Shop, with items starting at just $4. Included in the festive line
are puppy party hats, an “It’s My Birthday” bandana, “Happy Birthday to
Me” and “Woof it Up! It’s My Birthday!” tees, plush and vinyl squeaker
toys featuring colorful cupcakes, a birthday cake complete with candles
and gift boxes, as well as a range of treats like the “Happy Birthday”
frosted bone cookie, Birthday Cake Bites, the Pup-Pie Dog Treat, and the
Molly’s Barkery at-home decorating kit with biscuits, icing and
sprinkles.
“The PetSmart Birthday Collection features a range of items to make
birthday or Gotcha Day celebrations even more festive and fun with our
pets,” said Kimberly Schlegel Whitman, DIY expert and author of Dog
Parties: Entertaining Your Party Animals. “I love the
colorful and fun items in the collection. Whether you are looking for
a great gift for a pet, a treat for a four-legged friend or for ways
to enhance your next pet party, PetSmart has it all!”
Schlegel Whitman also offered these practical and celebratory tips to
throw the perfect dog birthday bash:
Invitations:
Create a fun dog-themed invitation to set the tone for the party.
Consider a headline like “Calling All Party Animals” or “Please Join
the Pawty.” Use graphical treatments like paw prints, dog bones or
dogs donning party hats. Set expectations in your invite with “please
join us with your dog on his/her favorite leash.”
Keeping it Friendly:
Limit your dog guests to 10-12 for small breed and a max of eight for
larger breed dogs.
Invite guests you know, including dogs with whom your pup has
socialized, so it’s not a first-time meeting at the party.
The Space:
Contain the doggie space with a fenced-in area. Consider using
inexpensive, easy-to-install white picket fencing to create the
dedicated pup birthday space.
Play Fun Games:
Musical Sit is like Musical Chairs. Use hula hoops in lieu of chairs
laid out in your backyard and play Elvis’ famed hit, Hound Dog. When
the music stops, pet parent and dog must be in the hoop with the dog
sitting, which also reinforces the sit command. As the rounds
continue, a hula hoop is removed each time until there is one
remaining pup – the winner of the game.
Trick for Treat: Set up a dog treat table with 3-4 different types of
treats and have each pet parent show off their dog’s skills from
sitting to more elaborate tricks like dancing.
Food/Beverage:
Create a shareable pupsicle. Take a large pail and fill with water and
some low-sodium chicken broth. Place colorful toy items from the
PetSmart Birthday Collection and freeze in layers. Tip the large
pupsicle out onto a low-standing silver platter and place it on the
ground. This will offer a tidier option for puppy hydration than bowls
of water and lots of fun as the dogs together lick their way to
festive birthday-themed
toys.
Serve up this sharable Pup-Pie
Cake complete with birthday candles and a group sing-along of
Happy Birthday To You!
Offer delicious pet-themed food for humans – like bone shaped tea
sandwiches or chili dogs and a specialty drink like the Salty Dog.
Keep the doggie and human fare separated. Today’s dog treats look so
delicious, it’s hard to tell them apart!
Décor:
Create dog-themed décor like flower vases trimmed with bone-shaped
doggie biscuits using a colorful ribbon to affix the biscuits to the
vase or create a gift table swagged with a DIY pennant streamer
featuring dog faces. Simply cut craft paper ears and tongues, use a
marker to make eyes and a nose, add pipe cleaner whiskers and attach
them to a classic pennant, transforming the triangles into doggie
faces.
Set up a “photo booth” area with hats, apparel, bandanas, toys and
more from the PetSmart Birthday Collection. Use a large picture frame
with “Pup’s First Birthday” using colorful Styrofoam letters as an
old-fashioned frame-up for the solo or duo-dog photos. This is also
the perfect spot to shoot a fun social-worthy group photo of all the
doggie guests in their festive birthday party hats with the birthday
dog front and center.
Create a take-home Doggie Bag with festive items from the PetSmart
Birthday Collection like the Squeaker
Cupcake Toy, Happy
Birthday Cookie and Birthday
Hat. Keep the Doggie Bags by the door for guests to take as they
depart the party.
About PetSmart®
PetSmart, Inc. is the largest specialty pet retailer of services and
solutions for the lifetime needs of pets. At PetSmart, we love pets, and
we believe pets make us better people. Every day with every connection,
PetSmart’s passionate associates help bring pet parents closer to their
pets so they, together, can live more fulfilled lives. This vision
impacts everything we do for our customers, the way we support our
associates and how we give back to our communities. We employ
approximately 55,000 associates, operate more than 1,500 pet stores in
the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico, as well as more than 200
in-store PetSmart® PetsHotel® dog and cat boarding facilities. PetSmart
provides a broad range of competitively priced pet food and products, as
well as pet-focused services such as dog training, pet grooming, pet
boarding, PetSmart® Doggie Day Camp® and pet adoption. PetSmart,
together with non-profits PetSmart Charities® and PetSmart Charities™ of
Canada, invite more than 3,000 animal welfare organizations to bring
adoptable pets into stores so they have the best chance possible of
finding a forever home. Through this in-store adoption program and other
signature events, PetSmart has facilitated more than 7.4 million
adoptions – more than any other brick-and-mortar organization. The
company’s portfolio of digital resources for pet parents includes
petMD.com, Pawculture.com, AllPaws, an online pet adoption platform that
helps potential pet parents find the perfect pet to adopt based on their
home, family and lifestyle, as well as BlogPaws, the world’s first pet
blogger and influencer network. Through these digital platforms,
PetSmart offers the most comprehensive online pet supplies and pet care
information in the U.S. In celebration of its 30th anniversary, PetSmart
launched its Buy a Bag, Give a Meal™ program in March 2017. For every
bag of cat or dog food purchased March 1 – Dec. 31, 2017, PetSmart will
donate a meal to pets in need and expects to donate more than 60 million
meals in 2017*.
Follow PetSmart on Twitter: @PetSmart
Find
PetSmart on Facebook: www.facebook.com/PetSmart
See
PetSmart on YouTube: www.YouTube.com/PetSmart
*Ends 12/31/17. 5 oz. dog food, 1.5 oz. cat food donated to PetSmart
Charities to feed dogs and cats in need. See details at
petsmart.com/giveameal. The actual number of meals donated is based on
dog and cat food bags sold. The meal donation estimate is based on
historic sales for similar time periods. No guaranteed amount. Rescue
Bank and Feeding America will help distribute a large portion of the pet
food donation in the U.S.
Contacts
Golin for PetSmart
Danielle Bickelmann, 469-680-2503
or
PetSmart
Media Line
623-587-2177