Dog cafe

A collection of photos from the dog cafe.

          Now before anyone gets confused yes Koreans do eat dog meat but that is not the kind of dog cafe I am about to write about. This cafe was inhabited by living, breathing dogs of different ages and breeds.

The dogs just climb into your lap.

          Sounds unusual right? Well welcome to Korea were unusual is usual. Unlike Ireland and many other countries pet dogs are not that common in Korea, maybe it is due to so many people living in apartments with no space for dogs, or maybe it is because dogs are were viewed as a source of food by many during and after the Korean war (the Korean war left the Korean people with nothing to eat and Koreans resorted to eating anything  at all edible in those years, from animals typically viewed as pets to roots dug out of the ground). Regardless of the cause many people do not keep pet dogs but do like dogs, therefore the dog cafes.
          Dog cafes are as the sound a cafe serving hot drinks such as teas and coffees which you can sit and drink as dogs run around your feet and jump on the couches beside you. Entrance into the dog cafe we visited cost 8,000won (5euro) with our drink included. There were dogs everywhere, bulldogs, shitzhus, dalmatians, jack russells, pugs, Scottish terriers, labradors, etc. They all just walked around happily until the found a person who they liked and then maybe settled down for a rub and a cuddle.
         We quickly abandoned our drinks on our table as our real reason for being there was of course the dogs and we realised that sitting on the floor was the best place to get their attention. We sat crossed legged on the floor and within seconds Vanessa, Kyle, Helena and I all had little dogs come over walk onto our laps and curl up as if they did this every day. Vanessa, Helena and I all had small dogs who cosily fit in the space on our laps. Kyle, hilariously, was approached by the fat bull dog who tried his best to curl up on Kyle which resulted with the front half of his body on Kyle's lap as his back legs dangles over onto the floor. We all sat happily there as other dogs came to say hello or our ones decided to move off and new ones came along. We basked in the happy feeling of being around dogs which none of us had felt since leaving our home countries.

My boldie little Jack Russell..

          Now after a while a little Jack Russell came and curled into my lap and I rubbed him as he fell asleep. I had been watching him every now and again during our visit up until then and as he was not the cutest dog to put it gentle he was largely ignored by the customers. Well it seems that the little guy wasn't used to so much attention and didn't want to give it up because after a few minutes of resting in my lap while being rubbed another dog walked by me and my little Jack Russell started to growl at it. I laughed and passed it off. Until shortly after another dog came close to me and he had the same reaction. I told Helena who was sitting beside me and we both listened to him growl as soon as any other dog approached me. It was funny because if I gave out to him for it he would stop and look up at me with the saddest "I'm sorry, please don't stop rubbing me!" eyes!
          We spent over an hour in the cafe and it was so nice being surrounded by dogs. It was a very strange experience at the same time making it so typically Korean. All in all something I would recommend though on a whole.

The very bold pugs...