Yappy Hour: Happy hour isn’t just for humans anymore

By April Corbin

Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2011 | 6:38 p.m.

For better or worse, Las Vegas will add a DJ, liquor and mailing list to everything. Take a dog park. Essentially, a dog park is a giant fenced-in yard where people bring their furry companions for exercise and socialization with other furry companions. It’s a simple concept—less fist-pump, more fetch. Yet somehow the two have found themselves happily leashed together with Yappy Hour.

This every-other-Thursday “doggy happy hour” invites owners to bring their four-legged friends to Rumor to partake in drink and “yappatizer” specials for humans, free treats and talent competitions for dogs and leash-free scampering for everyone. On the pun-filled invites (“Bark your calendar!”) it sounds like a win-win situation, and unlike so many gimmicky nightlife events, you can say this one’s bite is as big as its bark.

At its latest installment last Thursday, more than 50 dogs were in attendance, pretty remarkable considering this was late July and the shindig is held mostly outdoors. The furry crowd varied, from yippy, I-get-carried-everywhere-in-a-purse Pomeranians to spastic Heinz 57 mixes that wouldn’t stop running in giant circles. There was even this zippy little Chihuahua mix that kept humping any dog that stood still for more than 30 seconds.

My group nicknamed that last one “Jersey Shore.” Only later did we realize he belonged to an Ed Hardy-wearing bro-dude, which might prove once and for all that dogs really do reflect their owners’ personalities. With that in mind, my dog was at first terrified of the party and attempted to run away, tail between his legs, but he eventually calmed down and even sniffed a butt or two. Hmm ...