Don’t Miss the Dog Days of Summer Event

It’s going to be a doggy dog world at Ewing Park this weekend!

Don’t miss this year’s Dog Days of Summer event happening tomorrow June 24 and Sunday June 25 from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., rain or shine.

The event, which is sponsored by Reeds Services, will benefit police K9s and will feature dock diving dogs, barn dogs, working dogs & k-9 police competitions all weekend long. There will also be hourly k-9 demonstrations, food trucks, crafts, vendors, kids’ zone, games, silent auction, music, and more!

Chad Reed of Reed’s Services said this is the third annual event.

The past couple of years we have raised over $75,000 to help fund K9 units in the area,” Reed said. “We are looking forward to another great event this year.”

According to Reed there will be something for everyone to enjoy from pony rides for the kids, to educational vendors who will talk about dog food and treats and other dog topics. K9 units will provide three demonstrations per day.

One demonstration will include how the units go through a drug search and another will focus on the bond between the handler and dog. He is also looking forward to the Three Rivers Dock Diving Dogs who will perform dives off a 40-foot-long dock as well as verticle jumps and the Laurel Highland Working Dogs who come from all different states to pull weights. He said the Barn Hunt Competition should be a favorite as well. It will take place on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and will also be a medaling event. The cool thing is that the events are open to the public, so “amateur” dogs can join in the fun.

There will be two special events to highlight both days including a dog walk and a hot dog eating contest.

The annual dog walk in the park will be held on Saturday June 24th at 8 a.m. Reed said it will be in honor of Ellwood City’s former police dog Ranger Police K9 Ranger who died on February 21, 2023. K9 Ranger was born and started immediately with Ellwood City Police Department on July 19, 2012. He was partnered with Sgt. Michael McBride and he was the son of Sgt. McBride’s first K9 Jozek, K9 Ranger served with distinction until his retirement on March 15, 2021 when he got to retire and live a loving life with his family, the McBrides on their family farm.

“To kick off the event we are doing a mile long dog walk at 8 a.m. on Saturday, and some of the officers will give some speeches. This year’s walk will be special as there will be a moment of silence for Ranger. It will be a nice little ceremony for him.”

And a popular hot dog eating contest, sponsored by Red Hot Restaurant on Sunday June 25th at 3 p.m.

“This is the second year that Red Hot is sponsoring the hot dog eating contest. It had the biggest crowd of all the events.”

According to Reed, this event was prompted by Ranger’s retirement 2 years ago. He said that Councilman Caleb Cragle mentioned that the borough was going to have difficulty replacing Ranger on the force because of the lack of funding for K9s. That wasn’t going to fly with Reed’s Service. They decided to start sponsoring K9 units in the area and started the Dog Days of Summer event. He said the event raised $58,000 in the first year, which was enough to buy Ellwood City’s current police dog “Nico”, to provide the training for the dog and his handler Officer Richard Kruger, and funds for outfitting a cruiser to make it suitable for the K9.

“It was an eye opener. We are a pet food and goods store, so decided it would be a great idea to get involved in sponsoring K9s. Our store sponsors 9 different units of K9s from Aliquippa to Neshannock. We donate all food, treats, and medical things sold in the store. After we raised the money the first year, and had such a huge success, we figured why not reach out to more cities and units.”

Reed said the business wants to do so much more with the sponsorship program they developed. Forces having K9s is a dying program because of the lack of funding available and Reed said that as pet lovers and advocates of community safety, Reed’s is dedicated to continuing this program into the future.

For more details, follow Reed’s Services on Facebook.