2016 Gone to the Dogs Fun Run/Walk and Pet Festival

Mark your calendar! Saturday, Sept. 24, 2016. There will be signs all over Tehachapi pointing the way. If you and your family love to have fun with your dog, then the Gone to the Dogs Fun Run/Walk and Pet Festival is an event you don’t want to miss. Have a Heart Humane Society volunteers have been busy planning their annual Gone to the Dogs Fun Run/Walk and Pet Festival.

Helping Tehachapi become a “pet friendly town” has been a goal of the organization’s board and of hundreds of pet owners. This event is geared to help achieve that goal.

The day begins with on-site registration at 8 a.m., followed by Pastor Cindy Lawler blessing the animals to make sure everybody gets off to a good start at 9:30 a.m. The track around the park is an easy one. Dogs must be on a leash (no retractable leashes allowed). At 10 a.m. The free Pet Festival begins. It’s modeled after Lancaster’s Bark in the Park and Santa Clarita’s Bow Wows and Meows, where pet lovers turn out by the thousands. The Pet Festival offers a number of activities for the family, so bring your blanket, your dog and enjoy a day in the park.

Dog Sports: Rosemary Evans of Thunder Paws Dog Training will have an agility course set up for demos and for your dog to test its skill on the agility course. You can cheer the dogs as they run through tunnels, jump hoops and climb a-frames. It’s hard to tell who has the most fun--the dogs or the dog owners! In addition, there will be Fly Ball and another canine game called Barn Hunt where the dogs search straw bales for their prize.

Dog Contests: Enter your dog and win a prize in one of five contests: biggest dog, littlest dog, best singer/howler, best dressed, and best trick.

Dog Entertainment: Dasha the Dancing Doberman will perform as only she can. She loves to show off for audiences and comes in full costume.

Adoptions: If you’re interested in adopting a pet or just want to look at pets, there will be pet rescues from Tehachapi as well as from other areas. Alpha Canine, Weenie Dog Rescue, SOS Dobie, Have a Heart mutts and more will be on hand.

Merchandise Vendors: We have a number of great vendors with many dogrelated products and services.

Food Vendors: We have the popular Farmer’s Market taco man, snow cones, Little Caesar’s pizza and baked goods.

Opportunity Drawings and Silent Auctions: Tickets for the opportunity drawings are $1.00 each. In addition, you can enter our Disneyland opportunity drawing. We have 4 one day Hopper tickets. Your chances of winning are 1 in 100. Each ticket will cost $20. Our goal is to reach $2,000. The drawing will be held November 10, 2016.

Face Painting: Kids always love to get their faces painted.

Kissing Booth: Step right up and lock lips with a great dog. $1 per kiss, hosted by Wizard of Paws.

Entertainment: The Pat Strong Trio and Whiskey Jam will sing some popular songs and some great dog songs.

Sangera Subaru is our Top Dog Sponsor and they will have an information booth and some great cars on display for you to drool over.

We wish to thank our generous sponsors Sangera Subaru, Zack Scrivner (Kern County Supervisor),Hungry Howies Pizza, The Garage, The Gym, San Joaquin Vet Hospital, Carefree Moving and Storage, Bear Valley Springs Properties, Harvey Hall, The Balancing Act, See’s Candy, City of Tehachapi, Tehachapi News, The Loop, Hemme Hay, Sims Sanitation and Ellen Leech.

Pick up an entry form for the run/walk at: Rescued Treasures next to Radio Shack, SaveMart, Albertsons and Radio Shack. The first 100 to sign up are guaranteed a free t-shirt and wag bag filled with goodies.

You can also mail your entry to: Have a Heart, 1121 W. Valley Blvd. Ste. A, Tehachapi, California 93561, sign up the morning of the event (8 a.m.) at Warrior Park, cross streets Highline and East Orchard Parkway, bring cash or check to Rescued Treasures, or pay by credit card at active.com.

Registration fee is $30.