Pup of the Month at The River Shannon

A recurring monthly contest, not a one-off

The River Shannon in Lincoln Park runs Pup of the Month on a repeating cycle, and the winner ends up on the pub's Bark of Fame — a wall of Pup of the Month photographs that is a genuine feature of the room rather than a social-media gesture.

How a month works

The pub's own page sets out four stages:

1. Nominate. "Click here to nominate your dog starting Thursday, October 1!"
2. Vote, on the pub's Instagram Stories.
3. Finalists revealed.
4. Coronation Party, where "the winner will be crowned Pup of the Month" — and gets featured placement in the bar and across the pub's social media.

October 2026's dates, read from the page on 5 October: nominations opened Thursday 1 October, voting on Instagram Stories 9 October, finalists revealed 12 October, and the Coronation Party on Tuesday 13 October at 8pm.

Those four dates are this month's. The cycle repeats, but the pub publishes only the current month's schedule, so a reader arriving in November or later should treat the pattern as the durable part and go to the pub's Instagram or events page for the live dates. This listing does not guess at them.

Worth knowing before you enter

The nomination step runs through a link on the pub's own page, and voting happens on Instagram rather than in the bar — so a dog can be nominated without a visit, but the crowning is an evening in Lincoln Park. The pub publishes no entry fee and no eligibility rules beyond nominating.

Its one standing dog rule applies at the party as everywhere else: dogs must be leashed at all times. Bring a water bowl; the pub says nothing about providing one.

Lost dog? Chicago Animal Care and Control at 2741 S Western is the city's open-admission shelter and the first place to look.