Dog Café

Yesterday Kristen and I went to Myeongdong to get some shopping done. While we were there (and after loading up on some clothing essentials), we were dead set on finding the dog café there. Since most blogs are very vague or completely unhelpful on giving directions to find the dog café, we were lucky that the giant snoopy costume was out and willing to point us in the right direction! The snoopy costume is a great way of advertising the café, as it really is a hole-in-the-wall, hard to find place. (I’m going to make a video of how to walk there from the subway station soon for those who go to Korea and want to find this place!) It's called Kangaji Cafe~

It’s similar to a cat café in the way that you buy a drink and that’s your ticket into the dog café. It’s the same price, $8, as the cat café. But it’s also very different…the dogs actually want to come to you. They want you to pet them and play with them, you’re allowed to hold them, and it’s extremely fun. When you walk in, it does smell like dog. But for me, it was somewhat comforting. You don’t see many dogs here, and coming from a home where I grew up with three dogs over my time growing up, it’s been difficult without a furry companion who craves my attention and love! It was a very cute place and the dogs all were really happy to see each new person!

The first thing I noticed after sitting on the floor was that there was a dog in a little car! It was so cute!

The bottom was a bed, and this dog really enjoyed being in there. The man in the plaid shirt in both of those photos must have been the owner of the dog café. When he walked in the dogs went crazy and wouldn’t leave his side! They jumped on him and whined for his attention, and he gave each and every single one a pat on the head and some love. He really seemed to love the dogs and wanted them all to be very happy and comfortable.

We sat on the floor because it was a lot easier for the dogs to come see us and give us some love! Even though sometimes dogs would go potty on the floor, the people working would instantaneously clean up the mess and sterilize the area very well. After the owner sat down and the dogs mellowed out again, we finally started getting visitors~

They had both big dogs and small dogs. This border collie was very strange, but he did come see us a few times. He always was looking at the floor and kept digging. He chased other dogs when they were playing, too.  Then there was this small dog that was absolutely adorable. It wore a little vest, and it was actually someone else’s dog.

See, visitors to the café can bring their dogs to play! It was so sweet and loved having its butt scratched. It even played like my dog back home did, chomping down gently onto your hands and wanting to wrestle~ I actually had a life-long friend made within ten minutes of walking through the door.

This little girl was one of the smallest dogs in the café. She came over to me and I picked her up, and that was it. She was set on me for the entire three hours we stayed there. Within five minutes she had curled up in my lap and dozed off. Eventually the male dachshund found Kristen and we had a staff person snap a photo for us~

You can’t really see mine because she’s so burrowed into my stomach sleeping like a baby! After a bit, the owner was playing with one dog and he laid it down on its back…

And it just stayed like that! It just laid there for a little bit. These dogs must worship him because my dog would be squirming like a maniac if I even tried to lay her on her back! Then, all went crazy. The owner started giving handfuls of doggy treats to people in the café, and the dogs went nuts!

They were all so excited! It was really cute, he kind of just threw some around us and the dogs swarmed in. The little girl in my lap wasn’t pleased and she looked around rather unhappily before burying her face into my hoodie again and dozing back to sleep. Then, after the treats were all eaten, this dog came and made friends with us. It had a little heart on it!

It got really close with Kristen, it loved sitting in her lap. (I’m sorry that I got an awkward picture of you in the background, dog café oppa! I didn’t know you were staring directly at my camera! >_< ) But this dog was a real sweetie.

When I put my camera real close, she didn’t move much at all and looked very curiously at the lens. That dog eventually left and another took its place on Kristen’s lap! This one really was one of the calmest dogs in the café.

You might notice that Kristen has gotten to experience love from many different dogs and I’ve not mentioned the puppies I got to hold. It’s because of her.

I wasn’t kidding when I said she didn’t move the whole three hours! She conked out and I was hers for the entire day! She even got mad at this dog

when it came over and I started to play with it. She growled and barked at it until I stopped playing and gave her attention again. She was really spoiled on me…I even tried to move once to get a picture of the Pug, but when I set her aside quickly and moved to the booth the Pug was sitting at, she followed me and chased the other dog away!

She made her way onto my lap again proudly. Just before we left, someone brought in their Boston Terrier to play around. Can you see it? It’s behind the chair! It was a ball of energy…for being such small dogs, they really need lots of exercise to survive well!

It was so hard to leave here….but I’m going back again Sunday~ I think one of the best parts about the dog cafe was that the owner and staff seemed to really love each dog a lot. They even had a few dogs who they said to be careful with because they could bite. One was in a small standing circled off area in the middle of the room, I think because it wasn't very social or because it could bite. But I liked seeing those things, because it means that they didn't get rid of a dog just for nipping or barking at people. In a place where it's hard to own and take care of a dog, they could easily not care and throw it out or into a pound, but they don't. I think it's very sweet and caring of the staff to love all the dogs that much!