Hanging Out at K9 Summerfest 2015

*Disclosure: This is a sponsored post on behalf of Verizon FiOS SoCal Experience. All thoughts and opinions, as always, are my own.

Remember last week how I posted about taking Kona to the K9 Summerfest dog festival in Santa Monica? We went this past Saturday and it was a total blast! This time it wasn’t just me, my husband, Baby Awesome, and Kona. Our family was in town for the weekend and there were nine of us who went to the dog festival! Talking about rolling to an event “Italian style.”

When we arrived at the check-in stand we received our badges with food and drink tickets and got to pick a colored bandana for Kona. We chose purple to match her leash. The Disc Dogs of Southern California were up first with their demo. Those dogs can jump! There was one dog, Jet, who jumped unbelievably high to catch the frisbee. My seven-year-old niece loved it! We also ran into our friends Justin and Amanda who brought their daughter and their six-year-old Husky, Jack. We had a great crew!

After watching the frisbee demo we headed over to the Verizon FiOS SoCal Experience VW Bus. Verizon was one of the largest sponsors of the event this year and they were parked in a prime location next to the Dogtown Dogs and Homeboy Industries food trucks. Kona was sniffing around the bus and wanted to go in it, but she was afraid. As soon as I went inside to check it out she jumped right in. It was super cute and we snapped this fun pic:

There were several sponsors exhibiting at the event so we walked around and checked them out. Most of them were brands we were familiar with like Kriser’s and Healthy Spot. We spun the wheel at Healthy Spot’s booth and Kona won a free trial size of Honest Kitchen food! She also ran into her twin (another golden retriever) at this booth and of course they had to sniff each other. Hilarious.

Zoom Room was also onsite and after the Disc Dog demo was done they set up an agility course on the main floor. We missed out on the opportunity to do this with Kona, but our friends Amanda and Justin took their dog, Jack. He used to train in agility when he was a puppy. He hadn’t been on an agility course in over five years. Amanda took him through the course and he did great. Check out this video of him on the course:

Later on there was a ceremony where the Verizon FiOS SoCal Experience volunteers presented the folks from K9 Connection with a grant for $5,000.  K9 Connection is a non-profit organization that works with high schools to offer teens a chance to break through learning and life barriers by training and bonding with homeless dogs. The K9 Summerfest is an annual fundraiser where all proceeds go to K9 Connection so this was a pretty significant contribution! Love to see Verizon Fios helping out the local community.

One event we had been looking forward to all afternoon was the Doggie Fun Zone. This was an obstacle course for dogs where they chase a mechanical lure that guides them through the course. We were watching it all afternoon and it looked like a blast. When the line slowed down, we went to sign Kona up. As we were doing that, we noticed she chewed through her leash and it was hanging by a thread. Oh, Kona. We met this wonderful person from Kriser’s and she went out of her way to help find a replacement leash for us. I would like to give a special thank you to Lori from Kriser’s. That was super awesome of you!

The Doggie Fun Zone was so cool! First we got to do a walkthrough of the course so Kona knew what to expect. I walked her through the little jumps and tire hoops and she was really into it. Then it was game time! It took Kona a little bit to get the hang of it, but once she got going she did really well! Check out a video of her on the course:

There was also face painting onsite and they did such a great job. My niece got her face painted like a dog and she loved it. Here she is with Baby Awesome:

Our family had such a great time spending the day outdoors hanging out with Kona and doing fun activities with her. We already can’t wait to go back next year!

At the time of this posting the K9 Connection has raised a total of $68,000 out of their $75,000 total goal. They are accepting donations up until July 31st. If you would like to make a contribution you can visit the K9 Summerfest website here. It’s for a great cause, and it’s a tax write-off too!

What about you? Have you ever been to a dog festival? What did you think of Kona in the Doggie Fun Zone? Post in the comments and let us know!