Dog lovers from within and outside the city of Yogyakarta participated in the dog festival entitled Dog Lovers at the court of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine on UGM campus in Karangmalang on Sunday (19/9). Various kinds of dog breeds joined this festival, from the type of Siberian Husky, pit bull, pom, Chihuahua to golden retriever.
Since morning, the visitors flocked to the dog festival. The festival presented a number of contests, such as a dog talent contest, fashion show, eating competition, obedience competition, and talk shows about how to care and train the pet dog.
Chairman of the Committee of 64th Anniversary, drh. Setyo Budhi, M.P., mentioned this festival is an event for exchanging information. Having a pet dog has become a lifestyle that to share information and experiences with other dog lovers become a necessity. “Clearly, this is an educating event for us as veterinary professionals to provide information to clients of how to raise a dog in a good way," said Budhi Setyo when we met him on the sidelines of the event.
According to Setyo Budhi, raising and treatment of dogs can not be done carelessly, especially in terms of health maintenance, which is feeding, vaccinations, and grooming.
The community of dog lovers also expects a lot of events like this because the event could be used as a means to increase knowledge, particularly relating to treatment.
Mora (25), one of the members of the of dog lovers community, intentionally brought her three favorite dogs in this festival, a pit bull dog and two golden retrievers. The girl who lives in Godean, Sleman, claimed that it was her first to bring her pit bull dog. The brownish black dog called Delta has been intentionally brought along in order to meet other dogs. "Yes, for us it is a refreshing event for dog lovers community, to let our dog meet other dogs. It was quite a long time since the last time he met other dogs," said Mora.
To participate in the fashion show contest, Mora intentionally put on a soldier dress on Delta and a hat. Mora said, "It’s cute," she said smiling. Although Delta did not win, Mora was still proud that one of her purebred golden retriever won the contest of eating and obedience category.
The Dog Festival which is one of the series of Veterinary Expo was opened by the Dean of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Prof. Dr. Sumiarto Bambang, M.Sc., along with healthy walk event, remembering the old campus in Sekip. As planned, Veterinary Expo will take place from 19 to 23 September 2010, with various activities, such as a mini exhibition of wildlife on Monday (20/9), people party on Tuesday (21/9), PE goat contest on Wednesday (22/9), and turtles and hamsters race on Thursday (23/9)