Tailgate-Ready: A Few Tips for Bringing Your Dog to Game Day

Fall is coming, which around here means Friday night lights and tailgates picking back up. If you're planning on bringing your dog along this season, here's a few things worth thinking through first.

A Few Things Worth Thinking About Before You Bring Yours

• Crowd noise adds up fast. A stadium or tailgate lot is loud in a way most dogs don't get exposed to day-to-day. If yours startles easily, a shorter visit near the edges beats the middle of the crowd.
• Water and shade, always. Obvious, but easy to forget when you're juggling coolers and folding chairs. Bring a collapsible bowl.
• ID tag, every time. Big open spaces with a lot of gates and a lot of strangers is exactly the situation where a dog can slip off unnoticed for a minute too long.
• Watch the ground, not just the game. Tailgate lots collect dropped food, charcoal, and broken glass fast. Worth a scan before you let them wander on leash.

We're dog people through and through around here — Mocha, Grrly, and always thinking of Charger and Angel — so these are the things we'd want sorted out before heading to a game with them.

— Jorge