Toni Eichholz, Coordinator
Website / Public Education
816.520.8029
email: editorwcgkc@yahoo.com


How do you wear out your Weimaraner? Take them to the pet expo for two days! During the weekend of April 19 & 20, The Weimaraner Club of Greater Kansas City had its first booth at the Kansas City Pet Expo.

After 16 hours on our feet and our dogs on theirs, (Ok, sometimes our weims were on their backs getting belly rubs or taking a quick bit of a nap or sitting in their owners lap) our club members had spoken with over 200 families about Weimaraners. Some were interested in getting a dog and quite a few already had one or even two Weimaraners at home and wanted information about our local club. Our dogs all behaved as we’d hoped they would, they received tons of pats on the head, ear rubs, butt rubs and tasty treats over the course of two days and even a few kisses from absolute strangers!

We were even able to educate a couple of local animal control officers on Weimaraners, who honestly said they cringe when they see one come into their shelter. They were happy to hear that they are all not crazy and it’s normal for them to not “show” well in a caged environment.

Our 50/50 Expo raffle was a huge success. The basket held many nice items, from healthy dog treats, fun dog books, lots of dog toys and even a gift card to a local “Dog Health Food Store”, Brookside Barkery and Bath. We decided in an earlier club meeting to split the proceeds with the WFF (Weimaraner Foundation Fund) earmarking the donation to rescue, and with the Humane Society of Greater Kansas City. The basket was well received by everyone. At 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, we drew the winning ticket and the basket was awarded to a person from a local obedience club's booth that has Corgi’s. It was nice to see that someone that had worked hard all weekend go home with a great prize! Our Dyson Root raffle also benefited as well, we added approximately 250 tickets to that drawing! The Dyson Root Drawing has been a yearlong event, with the proceeds being used for Public Education events like the expo. This raffle will end at our Specialty & Obedience Show on Friday, August 22, here in Kansas City. Tickets are available online at www.wcgkc.org, so you aren’t too late to get tickets.

Overall this adventure was a long time coming, and we feel was a great success. The goal of the The Kansas City Pet Expo was to provide the public with an opportunity to learn about both common and not-so-common animals that are found as pets, and the products and services that are available to provide optimal care for these animals. We encourage (challenge) all other local weimaraner clubs to attend similar events or to hold a public education event for the breed in their area. Without public education on the breed, Weimaraners will continue to be “impulse” purchases and not life long family companions as they should be.