The Dog-friendly Pub Awards are well under way and already 100s of you have been voting, nominating and commenting on your favourite dog-friendly pubs. With your help we’re getting closer to finding the UK’s best dog-friendly pubs, and we can barely contain our tail wagging!
To help decide between our 12 regional winners – as decided by your votes – which pub should be crowned the overall winner we’ve enlisted the help of some expert judges. Please give a big woofy welcome to Ed Bedington! As editor of the Morning Advertiser, it’s literally Ed’s job to be a professional expert on all things pub. (Now there’s a job to make even the happiest dog sitter go a slight shade of green.) He’s also a dog lover, so we’re bound to be good friends!
We wanted to get to know Ed a little better and find out what makes him tick. Over a swift half pint of our favourite amber nectar, here’s what we discovered…
DogBuddy: If you could pick one breed to own for the rest of your life what breed and why?
Ed Bedington: We’re talking cats, right…? My first ever dog was a border collie and I’ve always had a soft spot for them since, so possibly one of those. And a Jack Russell. And an Irish Wolfhound. I’m not very good at this, am I?
DB: Can you help settle this one for us… ale or lager?
EB: Well, that all depends on the time of day, location, weather etc…. As a Northerner in exile, I’d always plump for an ale, but only one that is well kept and well served with a decent head on it – not something Southerners are well versed on. Lager is great on a hot sunny day sat in a beer garden surrounded by dogs. You forgot to mention craft beer there as well….!
DB: If you were creating a new brand of dog beer, what would you call it?
EB: The Dog’s Bo…. Maybe not! A quick discussion with the team has suggested a few: German Shepherd Neame, Kronenbark, Butt Sniffer, Bass-et
DB: What’s your reaction to the stats from the DogBuddy dog-owner survey?
(70% of the UK’s dog owners search for dog-friendly pubs, 1/3 of Britons struggle to find dog-friendly pubs and nearly 1/4 of dog owners left a pub that wasn’t dog-friendly)
Great news that people are wanting to bring their pets to pubs – there are a lot of dog-friendly operations out there and we need to do a better job of communicating that fact. Sad news indeed (that ¼ of dog owners have left a pub that wasn’t dog friendly) and a trick those pubs are missing – of course, not all pub customers will embrace our furred friends, but with a bit of careful zoning, they can ensure that dog lovers and non-lovers can be served happily.
DB: What’s your reaction to this image?
a) “Aw, a puppy in a glass”
b) “Ew, a puppy in a glass”
c) “Great, now I have to clean another glass”
d) “Mmm… dog hairs in my beer”
EB: e) there’s no room for my beer!
That’s all from Ed (for now)! We’ll hear from him again when all the votes are counted and we reveal the judges’ choice of the UK’s ultimate dog-friendly pub. Watch out for our ‘swift half pint chats’ with the two remaining judges, Lisa and Richard – coming soon!
Think your local or favourite dog-walk-pit-stop for a pint deserves to win? Why not nominate, vote and then share on Facebook or Twitter to stack up your pals votes, too?