How to plan a great barkday pawty for your dog

We planned a birthday party for Milky back in July to celebrate his 2nd barkday & recovery from his entropion surgeries.

Planning a party for your doggo can be TOUGH. But since I’ve done this already, I’m going to detail my checklist here to make things as easy for you as possible! Here we go ?

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1. DETERMINE YOUR BUDGET

For us, we decided to co-host a birthday party with another Chow Chow owner whose dog’s birthday was the same month as Milky. Your budget will go towards:

✅ Location – any min. spending mandated by the cafe?

✅ Decoration – are you decorating the cafe?

✅ Food – are you buying food for your guests, both humans and dogs?

✅ Goodie bags – are you preparing door gifts for your guests?

✅ Cake – birthday cakes for your dog?

For us, our budget was to spend below $200. This means that we can’t choose a location that has a min. spending.

Since I am co-hosting with another owner, I did up an excel sheet to keep things clear and transparent. You can use my template here!

2. DECIDING ON A LOCATION

We don’t drive, so we wanted somewhere nearer to home (west) for easy transportation. We shortlisted Turf Club since it was along Bt Timah and had a few pet-friendly cafes there, namely WOOFTOPIA & AH B CAFE.

Eventually, we settled on Wooftopia because I’ve been there before and since we would be inviting quite a few big dogs, we wanted a larger place. I also liked that they do not have a min.spend, but reserved the tables for us.

They have 2 areas – so the large dogs (Chow Chow) were kept inside that area whereas the other smaller dogs roam at the outer area.

? Tips!

• Use the FAVE app for cashback. Get cashback when you pay via the app. Just a note that the cashback can only be redeemed on your next purchase, so what you can do is to order separately.

• If possible, celebrate on a weekday. The last I was there, they were running a 30% discount off their mains if you go on a weekday. It was really empty so I guess these promotions might help to pull in some crowd!

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3. PLANNING GOODIE BAGS

The fun part – because who doesn’t love buying stuff for our pets? ? But it can be a logistics nightmare if your guests are on different diets and/or has allergies on certain protein.

(a) Do up a google sheet and get your guests to fill it in.

(b) Plan your shopping! I was on a budget so I hopped onto Fave (no, this article is not sponsored by them haha) and bought the $30 Perromart voucher for $10 … and used another email address since it’s only for new customers (I realised they increased it to $20; it was $10 when I bought it).

I bought Absolute Holistic treats and also got some dental treats from Happy Doggi (btw, Woof Agency do sponsor treats for goodie bags. You can sign up here).

(c) I bought these Kraft Paper Bag Ziplock Resealable Bags & Brown Kraft Paper Bags from Shopee. Total cost was around $12 after using my shopee coins – I packed for 20 – 25 dogs if I am not wrong.

Zanel (the other owner) was in-charge of decoration and cake! The balloons were around $15, but the cake was pricier ($95). We got it from Onicupcakes, who is also a friend and fellow Chow Chow owner!

4. HAVE FUN & TAKE LOTS OF PICS!

It’s very fun, but also SUPER tiring. Just imagine it as a kid’s birthday party and you need to make sure everyone is playing nice (whilst not peeing & pooping) and your human guests are having fun.

I would highly recommend that you have another person to help around, and invite peeps who know each other so that they won’t be too bored alone!

Planning a barkday party is both fun and tiring. But what I really love is the smile, laughter and running after your pets that makes everything worth it.

Just look at the boy with all his birthday presents – how blessed is he! ❤️

A huge thanks to everyone who attended Milky’s birthday party and being part of his life. It’s not easy being a pet parent, but the community and friendship makes everything better.

Have fun planning! xoxo

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