Scarborough has gone to the dogs

Costumes, cuteness and a little more room to run around

At Glenn De Baeremaeker's Cutest Dog Contest at Thomson Memorial Park, Scarborough's best trick winners, Sugar and Sophie, are doing what they do best.  

Scarborough’s best dog-trick winners, Russian poodles Sophie and Sugar, won by doing their favourite thing: Chasing a yellow balloon.

On Oct. 6, city councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker held a Cutest Dog Contest at Thomson Memorial Park. Owners brought their dogs to compete in a few friendly competitions, including best trick.

Sophie’s owner Joanne Pearce, who works at the University of Toronto, discovered their trick when she was blowing up yellow balloons for a lab at the school’s Scarborough campus.

“I blew the balloon up… (Sophie) started barking like crazy, so I tossed the balloon at her and she tossed it right back,” Pearce said. “So we took it outside and she just went crazy and bounced it around for five minutes.”

Winners were chosen by what De Baeremaeker called a “Clap-o-meter” and they received a trophy as well as a $50 gift card for the Scarborough Town Centre.

“I love dogs. I don’t have a dog, so I invited all the people in Scarborough to come and bring their dogs so we could have a really good party and that’s what we did today,” De Baeremaeker said.

Demetra Patsis and her daughter Christina, brought their 13-year-old Pomeranian, Zena, to enter her in the cutest dog competition after they received a flyer about it in the mail.

“It’s great because you get to bring everyone together and it’s a lot of fun,” Patsis said. “We’ve made friends and now Zena can make friends.”

De Baeremaeker also took some time at the beginning of the event to announce that along with making some changes to  Thomson Dog Park, there are also going to be three new dog parks in Scarborough Centre.

“This is the largest dog park in the City of Toronto; we’re going

[googlemap src=”https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=204946647360847203931.0004e847b2bb56a4d7643&msa=0&ll=43.771466,-79.243183&spn=0.034956,0.077162″]

The red points on the map outline where De Baeremaeker says the three new dog parks will be located.

to make it one acre larger,” De Baeremaeker said. “We’re also going to put a dog park at the Hand of God Park by Scarborough Civic Centre, one at the Centennial Recreation Centre on Ellesmere that will have lights for the evening and they’re building one as well at the Scarborough Animal Shelter on Progress Avenue.”

Diane Anderson and her four-year-old beagle mix Sam have been coming to Thomson Memorial Park everyday for two years. She was pleased to hear the news that their dog park will be gaining a light near the entrance as well as a water supply so that dogs – and their owners – can get a drink.

The local Global Pets Foods franchise at Ellemere and McCowan Roads had a booth set up for the event, they provided three $50 gift cards for raffle winners, and everyone at the event got 15% off purchases and as many dog biscuits as they wanted.

De Baeremaeker called the event as a “smash success.”

“People just laughed and laughed and laughed,” De Baeremaeker said. “People got to see people’s big and small dogs, there was a dog dressed up as a spider… It was everything we wanted it to be.”

About this article

By: Jamie Anderson
Copy editor: Tamar Atik
Posted: Oct 21 2013 10:11 am
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