Lucky Dogs

The festival area will also feature a stall with five dog trainers to help train your dog to behave appropriately with other dogs and people.

Apart from his routine walks,Disco,a less-than-two-year-old golden retriever,is mostly stuck at home. So Smriti Chhabra,the dog owner,has planned a surprise for him. She is taking him for an outing,except that its not to the usual park or quiet bylanes near her home,but to the Bacardi NH7 Music Festival being held in the city till October 20 at Laxmi Lawns,Magarpatta.

Disco is very well-behaved around people and he is enthusiastic about outings. But there are hardly any places in the city we can take him to, says Chhabra. A regular at the music festival,Chabbra adds that she was informed about the festival being open to dogs last year too,but Disco was too young. This year,she has him ready for three days of music and fun.

While Chhabra is eager to know how her dog responds to the ambience at the festival,Maitri Doshi is sure that she is going to have loads of fun with her dog Kiki who she took along to the festival last year as well. On the first day,I saw people bringing their dogs to the festival so on the next two days,Kiki joined me. She is a cute Lhasa,so other visitors were clicking pictures with her and giving her lots of attention. Needless to say,she had a nice time, says Doshi,who learnt a very important lesson at the festival last year. I learnt to trust my dog. I was told by the trainers at the venue to take her leash off and let her roam about. They reassured me that she will not wander off or get lost. And just like they said,she was curious so she went about exploring the place,but came back to me wherever I went, adds Doshi.

This year,the organisers have gone a step ahead to organise special facilities for the dogs in collaboration with Party Barky Hai. When a dog owner applies to take their pet to the festival on the NH7 website,they are asked to download and read a booklet containing the dos and donts about the activity with their dog. The organisers have limited the number of dogs to 50 per day,and are flooded with applications.

The festival area will also feature a stall with five dog trainers to help train your dog to behave appropriately with other dogs and people. The Spolit Brat Barkery,a confectionery for dogs based in Mumbai,will be giving away free cupcakes to the dogs at the festival and each stage will have a designated area for dogs to enjoy the stage performances. The area for dogs is kept far from the speakers,which would make them uncomfortable. It is also strategically placed keeping in mind that they get a proper view of the stage. The heavy metal stage does not have an area for dogs,and we discourage the audience from bringing their dogs near this stage, says Shivani Mathur,owner of Party Barky Hai.

Every dog who attends the festival will also be given a complimentary subscription to Woof magazine.

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