The Dog Whisperer at Jake’s “Yappy Hour” leads the pack

It’s Yappy Hour at Jake’s, and Jung Pak is walking back and forth on the patio, keeping an eye on dogs coming through the back gate, greeting just about every one of them by name.

People call Pak “the dog whisperer,” and on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, you can find him at the head of the pack in the back patio of the Five Points bar.

“Yappy Hour’s a chance for the dog owner to come down and have a beer and allow their dog to run free,” says Jon Sears, one of the owners of Jake’s. “It kind of saves you the time of walking the dog after work.”

Sears says Jung has been at Jake’s since it re-opened in 2012. While his regular job is as Jake’s happy hour manager, “he manages more dogs than he does people,” says Sears.

And for his part, Jung can’t believe that Sears pays him to play with dogs. Jung doesn’t have dogs at home, so he says he looks forward to working the three days a week when he can enjoy the company of his furry guests at Jake’s.

Jung moves constantly around the bar patio, and it’s obvious that the dogs respond to him. In a scene that plays out over and over during Yappy Hour, he spots a dog he knows and calls it over for some petting. The dog reciprocates by licking Jung’s face and ears.

“Most of these dogs were rescues. … That’s why I like to spoil them a lot (with the attention). They came from really crappy lives. … They deserve all the spoiling they can get.”

While he has the reputation of being a dog whisperer, Jung feels he sometimes gets more credit than he deserves.

“Most of the dogs that come here are already very well trained pretty good by their owners,” he says. “The vast majority of owners are very conscientious.”

The dogs know what to do and not do, he says, and he just goes along with it. It’s his job is to reinforce the good behavior and take charge when the pups become a little over-enthusiastic. Usually Jung just has to say “knock it off,” or call the offender by name. And if all else fails, Yung asks the owner to put their dog on a leash.

Jung’s advice for first-timers at Yappy Hour is to bring the dogs early – Yappy Hours starts at 4 p.m. – so the new dogs (and their owners) can be the ones to greet and get to know the regulars and the surroundings and relax. He estimates that over the course of a day at Yappy Hour, he sees 50 to 60 dogs.

Some of the regular dogs run together in loose packs, and that can overwhelm a first-time visitor. When a dog gets tensed up or overwhelmed, that’s when Jung says he might have to step in and defuse the situation.

Yappy Hour began back in 2012, Sears said. It became so popular with dog owners that it soon expanded to every Tuesday and Thursday for “the regulars.” More recently, Wednesdays were added as “pint night” – reserved for smaller, pint-sized dogs or any dog considered to be a first-timer.

“Dogs are always welcome at Jake’s,” Sears said. “We are THE dog bar in Columbia.”

This story was originally published October 31, 2017 at 3:45 PM.