Making Doggie Dates Fun: Celebrating Wolfenoot

There are plenty of creative ideas out there for celebrating the holidays with your significant other and your dog. My husband and I always get our pup her own little doggie Christmas present for her to unwrap, and she loves it! It’s usually a basic present since the main fun comes from watching her pull her new toy out of the bag. It’s super cute when she “unwraps” her present, and it makes Christmas morning extra fun.

However, annual holidays with traditional themes can only go so far. Since we’ve got human obligations to attend to for the rest of the day, we can’t go all-in on the doggie fun. So, we’ve adopted a new annual tradition that focuses more on the pup so we can have fun celebrating together. We’ve even been able to get some friends in on the celebrations for more fun with their pups as well.

The holidays are going to the dogs!

Our favorite new holiday to celebrate together is Wolfenoot. A few years ago, a 7-year-old boy in New Zealand made up a holiday that has since gained traction. He wanted to have a day set aside to celebrate dogs and the people who love them. His mom made a post about it on Facebook, and that’s how a new international dog-themed holiday was born.

According to “tradition,” there are a few key elements to a proper Wolfenoot celebration. However, the youngster and his mom seem to agree that any celebration is acceptable if it keeps with the spirit of the holiday. The official holiday is on November 23rd every year – the creator has been pretty clear about that.

Some common elements of a Wolfenoot celebration include:

Cakes decorated like a full moon (extra cool if it’s a dog-friendly cake so the pups can eat it too)
Roasted meat, since dogs love meat (vegetarians are welcome to sub their meat for something else)
Presents for the dogs and people who love dogs
Activities that are fun for the dogs as well as the people

Celebrating Wolfenoot

My husband and I were on board for this holiday immediately. We love our pup, and we love doing new things together. So this was perfect! We already celebrate Christmas together and cook her a special dinner on her adoptiversary, so Wolfenoot was a great addition.

The first year, we kept it pretty simple. We told a few friends about the new holiday, and we set up a play-date for all of our dogs at the local dog park. Everyone met at the dog park and brought dog-friendly snacks to share when the pups were done playing. All of the humans just hung out together and kept an eye on our furry children while they played. When they were done playing, we migrated back to the parking lot for snacks.

Everyone agreed: all of the dogs passed out in the car on the ride home. They had a blast! It was super fun for everyone involved, so we made it an annual tradition.

Last year, we decided to raise the bar a little bit. We both like to exercise, and our dog LOVES running. We’re part of a local running group (my husband walks, I jog, and our dog wishes that her humans were faster). So, we set up a running event with the club to celebrate Wolfenoot. We hosted a dog-themed run followed by pet-approved snacks for the pups and libations for the humans. Everyone also chipped in $5 as a donation to our local animal shelter.

Again, the dogs had a ton of fun and were completely worn out by the end of the event. All of the people who attended had a great time together as well. My husband and I loved hosting it and plan to do it again next year.