Blues Walkies Dogs Welcome Art Exhibition
4 Macpherson Street, Carnamah, Western Australia 6517
Get ready Mutha Puppers, we’re installing an art exhibition for dogs!
Walking your dog makes you feel better. Looking at art can make you feel better. Why not combine the two together!
Blues Walkies Art invites four legged & two legged friends to interact with art for the simple aim of feeling better.
Explore, laugh, jump, smile, and sniff through a collection of art related activities for dogs & owners alike.
Take your blues for a walk… through art!
Pawfinity zone
Inspired by the Mirror Rooms by Yayoi Kusama, dogs move through a mirrored structure so they can view themselves an infinite number of times.
self-patting dog walk
Dogs trot along a wooden beam while moving through a gentle jungle of ribbons, feathers, and miniature balloon dog figurines.
Pawbliteration
A staged scene of a kennel, dog toys, accessories, food bowls and dog beds, all painted white to be covered with paw stickers. This experience replicates the Obliteration Rooms of Yayoi Kusama.
SMELLS LIKE TUESDAY
A hilarious wooden cubby-tent sprayed with roast chicken flavour spray for doggo’s to sniff and explore. The tent features a work of art by Western Australia artist Darren Beard, who also wrote the gorgeous picture story book Smells Like Tuesday.
DOG EARS LIBRARY
A cosy space full of dog themed books. Sit and chill out and read your dog a book! Or, simply have a break from the beautiful mayhem of a dog-engagement-exhibition.
cassatt chairs
Sit yourself on one of the posh looking armchairs and position your dog on the other. Have a snap taken. You’ve just re-enacted a super famous painting by Mary Cassatt ‘Little Girl in a Blue Armchair,’ 1878.
DOG CUBBIES
Dogs can jump in and out four, brightly coloured, cardboard cubbies. Each one features an item for dogs to ‘react’ to: vet head cone, bones, giant play balls, plush dog toys. Let’s see what happens!
Snoopy Heads & Tails
Mix & match the head and bodies of vintage Snoopy figurines. Make a Frankenstein Snoopy, i.e., match two obviously not-related Snoopy body parts.
REMEMBERING POND
Spend time by the pond thinking of beloved mutts who have passed on. Honour their memory by writing their name on a stone and place it in the pond.
Dog treats made by Chew it Over with Canine Candy are available at Dogs Welcome… for free! You’ll notice pots of dog treats are positioned all around the exhibition space to reward and entice your doggo to interact with the installations.
Let us know about other great dog walks you’ve gone in the Mid West at blueswalkies@gmail.com
Blues Breakfast Walkies - Koobabbie Precinct
Main Street, Coorow, Western Australia 6515
On a gorgeous, sunny, morning in late May, 36 people and 14 dogs rocked up the Koobabbie Precinct to enjoy a free sausage sizzle breakfast and doggy treats trail.
This was a great way to encourage visitors to explore artefacts at the Koobabbie Precinct, which offers a collection of farming & domestic items acquired from around the Shire of Coorow. It gets it’s name from the Waddy Forrest based farm Koobabbie, where majority of the collection derives from.
Hot chocolate, breakfast snags and dog pats, were in hot demand! The most popular dog treat (based on the very small amount left) were the dried Turkey Sausages from Geraldton based business Chew it over with Canine Candy.
What a great way to socialise with the community, exercise your dog, and enjoy a hot brekky! (All great ingredients for chasing those blues away.)
Snoopy dog treats trail
To encourage exploration of the vintage artefacts in the Koobabbie Precinct, large plastic snoopy figurines accompanied by boxes of dog treats were placed around the collection in both easy and hard-to-find places. Our four legged visitors enjoyed sniffing out the treats as well as the old tractors, engines and agricultural equipment on display.
THANK YOU!
BIG thanks to everyone who came along for breakfast AND to those who brought their dogs for a sniff and a play!
BIGGER thanks to members of the Coorow Heritage Group who cooked & served a tasty breakfast and the young people of the community who volunteered their time during the event.
MASSIVE THANKS to our valued sponsors & supporters: Shire of Coorow, Elders, Wozza's Carpentry, Coorow-Waddy Forrest CWA, and Coorow Primary School.
Hmmmmm, what’s in here? It smells good!
BLUES BREAKFAST WALKIES EVENT GALLERY
Dog Treat Trail Instructions
The Bodinner Boys with their best mate!
Sometimes dogs are a little cautious of each other upon first meeting, but they soon figure out that they are safe and are up for a play!
Look at the love between these two. The love and loyalty of a dog is second-to-none.
Sniff party.
Beautiful doggo.
Super cute doggo!
Poised and patient Cola.
MASSIVE thanks to the Coorow CRC publication The Magpie Squawk for putting US ON THE FRONT PAGE OF THE LOCAL RAG!
Coorow Primary School students drummed up interest and promoted the event.
The oldest dog in the pack was happy to watch from a quieter spot at the Precinct. xx
Great to local kids spending time with their furry friends.
We were delighted that local children were happy to pitch in and volunteer their time to turn snags, flip onions, serve sausages, make hot chocolates, give out dog prizes, take photos, AND DO THE DISHES! Little legends! Thank you so much!
SPONSORS & SUPPORTERS GALLERY
to our high calibre sponsors & supporters We shout:
“thank you for your pawesome support!”
Let us know about other great dog walks you’ve gone in the Mid West at blueswalkies@gmail.com
2024 CA DOGGY PLAY
COMMUNITY DOG SOCIALISING IN CARNAMAH
Its so important for dogs to spend time with other dogs and we love to see them run-a-mock on the CA Footy Oval a few times each week.
Drinking tubs & trays are supplied as well as toys for the dogs to play with at the oval. On the hotter evenings we set up a sprinkler or small plastic pools full of water for the dogs to frolic in. The kids are welcome to run through the sprinklers and splash in the pools too.
All are welcome: locals, visitors, contractors, blow-ins… just pop in and give a dog a pat!
For more information contact Herby (Shiona Herbert) via blueswalkies@gmail.com or, contact Shiona directly via facebook messenger.
“I’m not sure how my dog will go interacting with other dogs!”
It's so PAWesome to welcome new doggos (and their owners) to our CA Doggy Play sessions. We understand however that it can be a bit daunting taking your precious fur baby to engage in a new experience… WITH OTHER DOGS!
From running these sessions for a while now, we're seeing a typical pattern with new dogs:
1st session: they are happy but overwhelmed and show a lot of submissive body language and/or defensive barking. It can be a bit anxiety provoking for the owner, but the first step is always the hardest.
2nd session: they're more comfortable with the energy of dogs around them but are still a bit wary and hesitant.
3rd session: the new doggo shows more confidence in their dog interactions and we start to see their true personality come out.
4th session onwards: they are initiating play with other dogs; confident to grab a toy, and are ecstatic to run with the pack!
It's beautiful to see their confidence and social engagement grow over time! 😍🐾💙😍🐾💙
Massive CHEERS to all those who make the time to bring their dogs to Doggy Play sessions (whatever your location). Our dogs are so much healthier for it! 🐾🌞🐾🌞🐾🌞🐾
DOGGY CATCH UP’s in THREE SPRINGS
If you’re closer to Three Springs, be sure to join their doggy play sessions held on weekends.
Three Springs cater to the needs of smaller dogs playing with smaller dogs and big dogs running-a-mock together, so that play styles are tailored to dog size. (Although we know plenty of small dogs that love to rough and tumble with the big beasts.)
Check their play schedule via their facebook page Three Springs Pooches. Woof!
MIDWEST WA DOGGY PLAY SESSIONS - how it ALL started
It all started with this basic flyer pinned to community notice boards and uploaded to facebook.
CA DOGGY PLAY 2023 Reflection
Meeting up on a regular basis at the local footy oval between 5pm-6pm for our furry friends to run & sniff has been a wonderful social experience for dogs and humans alike. We kicked the idea off in August and it went from 3 dogs & 4 people turning up on the very first session, to some nights where there were 12 people and 8 dogs attending. It’s been fantastic!
Locals and out-of-towners rocked up.
Visitors staying at the caravan park with their dogs rocked up.
Tradies & contractors staying in Carnamah who brought their dogs with them rocked up.
People without dogs rocked up!
Those who attended exchanged phone numbers for extra dog catch-ups and made arrangements for informal Doggy Day Care sessions. Local kids and teenagers came along to enjoy the safe, fun, social environment of happy dogs. We created a Sunday Session doggy play schedule to meet the needs of those who just couldn’t make it on week-day-evenings. Even a romance blossomed between two attendees of CA doggy play sessions. (Awwww.)
The Carnamah Lions Club generously donated dog toys and locals gave up their old, plastic, sand-pit pools to create Doggo Water World for our fur babies on those ruddy hot days when its still 38 degrees at 5pm! (Dogs still want to run around even on scorching days.)
From August to December, we saw 60 different people attend a CA Doggy Play and we met A LOT of dogs, so we’re really looking forward to cranking up these sessions again in 2024!
CA Doggy Play session when we set up Doggo Water World for the beasties to jump and splash around in. THEY HAD A BALL!
DOGGY PLAY SESSIONS IN COOROW… ON THEIR WAY
We’ve been putting diplomatic pressure on the Shire of Coorow to establish an official dog exercise area as we sometimes get people travelling all the way from Coorow to attend the CA Doggy Play sessions. We don’t mind the extra furry play-mates that turn up, but we believe it would be beneficial for Coorow to have its own dog park so that money can go to dog treats rather than petrol costs. We’ve heard on the grapevine that its on the cards. Fingers crossed it will be built in 2025!
If you’re in Coorow, ask a local where they exercise their dogs. The more we talk about it, the more likely a dog park will come to fruition!
Thanks for your support. xx
Let us know about other great dog walks you’ve gone in the Mid West at blueswalkies@gmail.com