Take place in middle of row C with dog (5)
I believe the answer is:
occur
'take place' is the definition.
('occur' can be a synonym of 'take place')
'middle of row c with dog' is the wordplay.
'middle of' says to take the centre.
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'dog' becomes 'cur' (cur is a kind of dog).
The middle letter of 'row' is 'o'.
'o'+'c'+'cur'='OCCUR'
'in' is the link.
(Other definitions for occur that I've seen before include "Come to pass" , "appear" , "Spring to mind" , "crop up" , "Turn up" .)