K9 Keg Pull at the Sandpoint Winter Carnival

Have you ever heard of a "Canine Keg Pull"? I hadn't until I moved to Sandpoint. It's an annual event here that's fun for local dogs, their owners and everyone who is up on Sunday morning in February to watch! Dogs of all shapes and sizes participate in the event pulling appropriately sized “kegs”: the big dogs pull (empty) kegs, while the little ones pull beer cans. All entry fee proceeds go to the local animal shelter.

Ben and I got up pretty early for Sunday and first headed downtown to have breakfast with Ben's mom. We went to the Readery - one of the rare places in Sandpoint that is wisely open on the weekends. I had eggs Benedict, Ben had a breakfast burrito and his mom has a sandwich. I really liked their coffee.  I had my first cappuccino in 6 months, it was pretty strong, and good. 

After the breakfast we walked a few blocks up and joined the crowd at the race.

This morning on Facebook, somebody commented that the keg pull is cruel to the dogs... Later many more people replied saying that their dogs participated and they all had fun and got toys and treats at the finish line. I personally didn't feel it was cruel. It's all for fun and there's no pressure. Some of the dogs got really pumped up at the start and ran so fast that the MC had to warn people to step away from the tracks. Other pups were more interested in the crowd and the other dogs, they would stop in the middle and go say "Hi!" to everyone.  Either way it's OK.  Also, there were no dog fights or any conflicts at all, which was kind of surprising because there were so many dogs there. What do you think? Would you participate?