This Guy Established The “Stick Library” To Make Walks In The Park More Fun For Dogs And Owners

It’s easy to make dogs happy. Try giving them a delicious treat, squeaky toy or a good belly rub and you might even give them zoomies. But do you know what the majority of dogs probably love the most? Sticks! No matter how small or large, canines just can’t stroll past a good piece of wood without grabbing it. The best part about sticks? They are sturdy enough and won’t get chewed up fast, they are easy to carry and so much fun when the owner throws them. If you’ve ever seen a dog with a stick, you’ll know exactly how happy it makes them.

A 59-year-old dog owner named Andrew Taylor knows it very well. His dog’s excitement about sticks brought him an interesting idea. The crafty man decided to create a ‘stick library’ and place it in the park so all local dogs could borrow a stick to play with. “Our dog Bella had become a stick lover because she ripped to shreds any balls or toys,” said Taylor’s daughter Tayla.

The man who lives in Kaiapoi, New Zealand, collected quite a few sticks after trimming trees at the side of his house. He sanded them to make them smooth and clean for the dogs, then proceeded to make a box to put the twigs in.

“While trimming the trees, my dad found himself with a lot of dead branches, and knowing from experience how hard it can be to find a good stick, and that the new dog park was opening soon, he had the idea that he would save them and put them in some kind of box,” Tayla said.

He engraved the box with “Stick Library” encouraging people to return them once their dog is done playing. “He decided to call it the stick library because it implied that you return the stick once you’re finished with it,” Taylor’s daughter explained.

After the box was put in the park, Tayla even invited people to attend a meeting to try out out the new box. Around 50 people with their pets showed up.

Local dog owners loved the simple but very useful idea. “As people started to arrive, there was a disbelief of how simple the idea was, but it’s one of those ideas no one had thought of. ‘All the dog owners appreciate it as they all have experienced the ‘good stick search’ which isn’t always fruitful, it’s an idea that just makes sense to them, she said.