My husband and I joined South Coast Botanic Garden specifically to enjoy their Sunday Dog Walks in the park. We’ve had a great time and when Misty, our Lymphoma Lassie was still alive, we attended once in the morning with her alone and later in the morning with the two younger dogs, Mizore and Amazora. This year, the garden has added Dogtoberfest, where every weekend is a dog-friendly day with added activities for people and their doggy friends.

Buying VIP admissions on the second weekend, we found that at 8 a.m. sharp, not everything was ready–not the dog-oriented vendors, not the furry friend photo op and not the 360 photo op. Of course, the main reason for my VIP was to do the 360 which still has too many glitches to recommend.

First, our dogs, who are not rock steady and used to a lot of commotion found the experience bit intimidating. That should have been discovered the first weekend, but perhaps they didn’t have a lot of takers or the photos were of people who had small dogs who could be hand-held.

That would explain why the Dogtoberfest logo totally covered us (Mizore and I) up when we got through on one side. The logo would have been better placed on the top, even with the larger size.

The music used for this station didn’t get flagged by YouTube, but the music used for the other station (Justin Timberlake’s “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” from DreamWorks Animation’s “Trolls” did get flagged immediately by YouTube and was muted in one territory so I changed the music).

Even though the experience was a bit odd for the dogs, our older dog was calmer the second time.

Second, if you want to confirm you have the videos, unless you get a QR code, you’ll have to wait until the next day. I got a QR code from the station I was at; my husband did not at the other station. He had the videos emailed to us and they arrived about 24 hours later. I also tried to use the QR feature to send the video to my email and although I did that twice, I have not received an email.

Taking photos with a furry is a strange event for dogs. I did Santa Paws for a couple of years at the Pasadena Humane Society in the 1990s. It requires a lot of patience even with a guy in a Santa suit. It helps to have a good dog-friendly surface to bring the larger dogs up close to the furry’s head. And it might take a few minutes or ten to slowly move the dog closer to the furry. You want to calm down the dog, however, the place for this is at the entry way where all of the dogs must pass, making this a high excitement inducing area. I think a place off to the side would have been better. When I was doing Santa Paws, it worked best if the animals waiting were outside of the room.

We were looking forward to the agility field, but were terribly disappointed. When we were introduced to agility, we attended demos at local parks, including one sponsored by the then-new Zoom Room and a more recent one held in February aspart of a movie event. The Zoom Room in Torrance has since changed locations and is under new management, but they have good equipment. We did take classes through Torrance city until the instructor moved outside of the area, but he still teaches at SPCALA.

All of the equipment was for small dogs. None were sturdy enough to give you a real idea of the sport and there was little instruction or guidance. Usually, the better demos avoid including the teeter totter because it can be dangerous and even with training, dogs have been injured. Obstacles like the teeter totter should be secured with weights. When you consider that most small dogs will not be doing all the hiking required around the gardens, having  equipment meant for small dogs seems to be ignoring a significant portion of the clientele. Even with a smaller rough collie, the teeter was too small. The jumps were also too flimsy and the tire was totally deformed.

I thought this would be an opportunity for my dogs to shine, but I didn’t want them to unlearn everything they had been learning in agility classes.

The pup cup was a definite good first experience for Mizore. Amazora had to pass due to his many suspected food allergies, but next time, we’ll let Amazora try one without the biscuit.

If you go in the morning, take a towel because the plastic chairs in the Biergarten, while sturdy enough to play sitting games with the dogs, but even at 10 a.m., they were still wet. And after our chair games, the seats were also a bit dirty. Sorry about that, but this was a dog day. The chairs are very sturdy and steady and perfect for your doggie companion to sit on.

The VIP packages is great for a small dog or people only 360 experience and we loved the clear plastic mug which lights up. The string of pretzels were appreciated although the dogs didn’t get any.

While I think Dogtobergest is a great idea, not all the kinks have been worked out, even by the second weekend. I’ve reached out to the guest relations at South Coast Botanic Garden about the 360 photos and made suggestions (Torrance Zoom Room and SPCALA) about the agility course. I forgot to add what actually brought them to my attention: The Lomita Obedience Training Club.  The club holds some classes at the nearby Ernie Howlett Park.