Bau House – Dog Cafe in Seoul

Bau House dog cafe is a place I’ve been looking forward to going since I discovered it while researching on places to go in Korea!

Despite Japan’s super love for dogs, there are no dog cafes in Tokyo! To be more specific, there are no cafes that allows you to pet dogs.

There are plenty of dog cafes that allow the owner to visit with their dogs. But those are of no use to me seeing as I don’t own a dog T_T

That’s part of the reason why I was super excited to visit this cafe!

We went on a saturday morning, only to find them closed, because they open only at 12.30pm on weekends, and we were there before 12pm :D

We went for a walk around the neighbourhood and were surprised to find that there was a queue when we returned!

But no matter, the cafe was pretty big, so there were ample seats for all!

The cafe was divided into two areas:

Admission is free, but everyone is required to buy at least one drink.

I read that the dogs have a certain bias towards the Oreo Milkshake (meaning they will try and drink from your cup!), so I told Fu not to order it either haha.

They weren’t too interested in my Honey Citron Tea, but showed slight interest in his Banana Smoothie. His straw had to be trashed because it was so swiftly attacked lol.

There are also many other dogs running around because other people bring their own dogs here too.

The dogs were brought out for walks in batches, and the thing I was so pleased (and honestly a little surprised) to see is that upon returning, the staff will wipe down their paws with a cloth!

And then the KING strode out and I was awestruck :3

The big dogs area felt a little overwhelming, with all the dogs easily reaching chest height when they stood on their hind legs, so we chilled out at the small dogs area first.

But the small dogs got a bit too yappy for my liking so we ventured into the REAL THING. Hahaha.

He’s really King leh. His behaviour is very different from other dogs. He doesn’t go around looking for treats, and just sits there looking super indignant and bo chup. Like he has seen through it all and cannot be assed with life’s trivialities like treats.

You say Kingly not?

And then I discovered there’s a human King too…

If you have a bag of treats, you’ll command their attention like a King. Until the treats run out, that is. At that point, you will be dethroned and thrown aside faster than you can say “Sit”.

Bau House sells treats for you to feed the dogs, and here is where I have a HUGE TIP for you.

DO NOT BUY IT. Not unless you want to be like this:

Hold out treats for free also nobody wanna come!!!

You know what’s even more insulting? I personally go seek out some dogs, offer the treat in their face, and you know what they do? They sniff it, flinch and turn their heads away as if in disgust! WAHHH, I felt like I was slapped in the face in that instant.

STUPID PLACE. Why do you bother selling these treats if so many dogs there hate it?!! :A

Since no dogs come, we go disturb them hehehe.

We decided to survey the competition (i.e. other customers vying for the dogs’ attention), and we discovered the right treat to get!

The treat you should buy is this.

Seriously, this stuff works like magic. The moment we cracked open the packet, several dogs came bounding over, even those far away!

IT EVEN MOVED THE KING HIMSELF!!!

I was squealing excitedly and told Fu to prepare, cause being the haughty fellow he is, he will surely take the treat and leave.

But I still managed to cajole him into a handshake before surrendering the treat!

And as predicted, the moment the treat was in his mouth, he immediately 掉头就走 T_T

But it’s ok, since I got to shake hands with him! Besides, we have many other visitors!

I swear, this grey dog is the CUUUUTEST dog there! He’s also super smart, knowing how to act cute to get the treats. I have been wanting to lure him over, but he’s one of those that scoffed at my green treats.

Now we’ve gotcha! HAH!

He was super agreeable and happily obliged all our camwhoring! LOL :3

Special outtake おまけ

We stayed there for close to 3 hours! It was just so fun and relaxing being in their company!

The dogs are quite well-cared for and you can see the staff have pretty good relationships with them. The place is well-maintained and clean too, and any poo or pee was cleaned up very quickly.

Although I do think that eating treats all day can’t be good for them. Fu and I were discussing that it would be so much better if there were toys for people to play with them. Like fetching ball, frisbee, etc. That way. they won’t come to you solely for treats, and it’ll also help them get a bit of exercise and stay healthy!

Even better if it’s an entire area with mini obstacle courses and such! It’ll be like an indoor playground for dogs! Business idea, anyone?

In closing, here are the details of Bau House:

Address (English): 394-44 Seogyo-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul. (Je-il Building, 1F)
Address (Korean): 서울특별시 마포구 서교동 394-44 제일빌딩 후면 1층
Website: http://bau.cyworld.com (accessible only from within South Korea)

For other Seoul posts, check out the master post!