Every Sunday morning, in the wide green lawns of Bhubaneswar’s Biju Patnaik Park, something joyful is happening.
Dogs that spend their weekdays in apartment homes are bounding toward each other, tails furiously wagging, while their owners — IT professionals, homemakers, first-time pet parents — stand nearby with coffee cups in hand, talking about teething, vet visits, and separation anxiety.
It is part neighbourhood gathering, part therapy session, and, on the best mornings, part art studio.
These are Bhubaneswar’s dog meetups: a grassroots community movement that has been steadily building momentum in the city, quietly solving a problem that urban India has only recently begun to talk about.
One such initiative, Paw Mango Events, was founded by Sucheta Priyabadini, Maa Rama Devi Chair Professor at Rama Devi Women’s University.
The problem no one names
India now has an estimated 31 million pet dogs, and the number is rising fast. According to industry data, the pet population grew from 26 million in 2019 to over 36 million in 2024, driven largely by urbanization, nuclear families, and post-pandemic loneliness.
Millennials and Gen Z, who make up nearly 70 percent of first-time pet owners in 2024, are choosing dogs as companions rather than guard animals — and they are doing so from apartments.
This shift carries an invisible cost. Dogs, by nature, are pack animals that require regular social contact with other dogs to develop healthy behaviour.
An apartment dog that never meets its kind risks anxiety, fear-based aggression, and behavioural problems that often take owners by surprise.
In tier-2 cities like Bhubaneswar — where pet infrastructure has not kept up with the pace of adoption — there are few organised spaces for dogs to be with other dogs simply.
The meetup movement stepped into exactly that gap.
How the meetups work
Bhubaneswar’s pet community began organising monthly and weekly meetups across the city’s parks, with different groups gathering around themes — obstacle courses and group games one Sunday, breed-specific socialisation the next.
In tier-2 cities like Bhubaneswar — where pet infrastructure has not kept up with the pace of adoption — there are few organised spaces for dogs to be with other dogs simply.
The first Sunday of each month sees a bookstore in the city transform into a gathering spot for cat owners, while dog groups claim the park lawns by seven in the morning, before the heat sets in. These are not ticketed events or formal programmes. They are WhatsApp-coordinated neighbourhood affairs, built on the simple logic that dogs need company.
What sets Bhubaneswar’s meetups apart is the art element that some gatherings have woven in. Pet parents bring non-toxic paint, press their dogs’ paws onto canvas or paper, and take home small, chaotic, deeply personal artworks — bright splashes of colour that mark the morning.
The paw-print sessions have become popular enough to attract first-timers who would not otherwise have joined a meetup. For many, the art is an entry point into a community they did not know they needed.
More than a walk in the park
The social impact of these gatherings extends well beyond the dogs themselves. Research consistently shows that pet ownership reduces loneliness, but the benefits compound when pet owners connect with each other.
Dog meetups create what urban planners might call “third spaces” — neither home nor office, but the kind of informal communal ground where trust and neighbourhood identity are built.
In Bhubaneswar, where rapid urbanisation has brought thousands of young families into new apartment complexes, the meetups are functioning as a kind of social infrastructure.
Owners exchange tips on local vets, share information about animal welfare NGOs like Orissa Small Animal Care (OSAC) and People for Animals (PFA) Odisha, and alert each other to adoption drives. The dogs get their socialisation; the humans find their village.
Local pet care services like Petvetcure have also noticed the shift, actively encouraging owners in the city to join community meetup events and workshops as part of responsible pet parenting.
What other cities can learn
Bhubaneswar is not alone in wrestling with the apartment-dog problem, but it is among the first tier-2 cities in India to address it so organically. In metros like Bengaluru and Mumbai, dog-friendly cafes and events have existed for years, but they tend to be expensive and inaccessible.
The initiative, Paw Mango Events, was founded by Sucheta Priyabadini
Bhubaneswar’s model is free, park-based, and replicable in any city with a patch of green and a WhatsApp group.
The Odisha Kennel Club’s annual dog shows in the city, including a well-attended 2025 event at the OUAT campus, suggest that formal interest in canine welfare is growing too.
But what the meetups offer is something dog shows cannot: a weekly, low-pressure space where a nervous rescue dog can learn that the world is not so frightening, and where an anxious first-time owner can learn that they are not alone.
A movement still finding its feet
The meetups in Bhubaneswar are still largely informal, with no central organising body and no fixed fund.
Regulars hope that as the city’s pet community grows — and India’s pet market, valued at nearly $3.6 billion in 2024 and projected to double by 2028, suggests it will — the infrastructure will follow: more designated dog parks, more awareness about canine socialisation, more events that bring art and animals into the same morning.
For now, the paw prints on canvas will do. A dog that did not know any other dogs last month. A family that did not know their neighbours. A city discovering, one Sunday at a time, what it means to build community from the ground up.
Images courtesy of Paw Mango Events
