AKRON, N.Y. — There isn't an obvious connection between rescue dogs and whiskey, but Dean Hyder is a big fan of both.
"Every dog I've ever had has been a rescue," he said.
Hyder and his wife opened up the Old Scotland Road Distillery on his family's land in Akron back in 2020.
"Within the last probably five years or so, the wheels started to turn and I thought, well this would be fun to do, a bucket list idea," he said.
Their signature product is handlebar whiskey, inspired by Hyder's own handlebar mustache.
"The mustache, the mustache came first," he clarified.
Along with branding his spirits, when it came to spreading the word about their Friday night cruise nights, Dean decided to re-brand the month of August.
"I got to thinking about how cool it would be to put dogs in this whole mix with the cruise night," he said. "So then of course I like to play on words a little bit, it had to be 'Dogust.'"
Every Friday night in "Dogust," Hyder has invited a different local animal rescue to bring adoptable dogs and puppies to meet with potential families.
Julianne Richards from Open Arms Rescue is hoping to find the 12-week-old German shepherd mix puppies she's fosterting, Minnie and Micky, a loving home.
"They both came from Tennessee," she said. "They did have their brother Donald with them for the first two weeks. He did get adopted his name is now Josh Allen."
Richards says in-person meet and greet events can be a good primer to lead to an adoption.
"Seeing them on a picture is great and you do connect with a picture, but it's nice to see them right in person," she said.
"There's nothing better than matching a dog with their adopter and seeing that they're going to be loved forever," said January Vaughn, who runs Be Their Voice Rescue out of Grand Island.
Vaughn says with people surrendering dogs they adopted during the pandemic, plus rising inflation making it cost more to care for a pet, it's recently been a challenge to find dogs good permanent homes.
"Right now every rescue, every shelter is full and we're facing a real problem in this community, because we can't keep up," she said. "So we're just trying to work together, I think more than ever, in rescue."
Which is what "Dogust" is all about.
"It's something fun that we can all do together and it benefits the rescue in the sense of they get to see the adoptable dogs that we have, and maybe somebody that comes here wouldn't have seen this dog if it wasn't for this event," she said.
Remaining Dogust events will happen on Friday, Aug. 19 and Friday, Aug. 26 starting at 5 p.m. at Old Scotland Road Distillery, located at 7010 Scotland Road in Akron.