NEED HELP with Dog Park input!!!!

    • Bronze

    NEED HELP with Dog Park input!!!!


    I am posting this note in several locations because I am seriously looking for help and information with some important questions in regards to specifics for an off leash dog park.  Our community is looking into building an off leash dog park.  I do not have much knowledge of dog parks.  I am curious about sizeshould location take into consideration possible future expansion as additional funds become available?  One of the sites that the community is looking at is very small and it is a floodwater catch basin.  There would never be any option to expand plus it often has a large pool of standing water, which would be beside the fenced in area…not in it.  It is also located on a very busy road.  What should the proximity to neighborhoods be?  I love dogs, but I also believe in being respectful to the families that live in our community and I would really not want the dog park to interfere with the quality of their lives.  Some of the locations being looked at butt up directly to homeowners#%92 back yards.  Any help that you could send my way by giving your opinion on these questions or just sharing your knowledge of what a quality dog park has would be greatly appreciated.  If we are going to build a dog park…. I would like to do it right.
     
    Thanks so much.
    • Gold Top Dog
    Did you see the answers to your previous post?
    • Bronze
    Yes I did.  Thanks for checking.  I appreciate the ideas that people responded...in regards to things that they liked or would like to see.  I am also looking for the size aspect...thoughts of expansion as well as the respect of the neighbors in the close neighborhoods.  Any thought on either of those two issues??
     
    • Bronze
    Your response to my question when I posted before was probably the most specific in regards to size.  Thats what I am looking for.  When someone says big... do they mean 1 acre or 10 acres....  I am glad that you were specific when sharing that your favorite smallest park was 10 acres.  Some individuals in my community want to put one on a very small piece of ground... Less than 2 acres when I know for a fact there are other much larger pieces of city land that could be avaliable.  I would rather think big and do things with the future in mind than settle on something small just so it could be a quick fix.    I just don't have any information to back up my feelings.

    Same with the neighborhood issue.  I think it should be away from city neighborhoods if possible...  and living in the midwest .... it is possible.  Why not have space for those dogs to roam and still be respectful to the families....???
    Again I don't have any info to back my feeling up on that either.
    • Gold Top Dog
    Could you maybe canvass the areas around the proposed sites to get a feel for what neighbors would like.  I personally would love a dog park in my back yard if it was done properly.  But I realize I'm not a normal person. lol.  Our dogs have never been noisy at the dog park.  But my experience has been with the same 6-8 dogs since I first got my big dog, so I don't know if this is typical.
    • Gold Top Dog
    All of the dog parks I've been to have been part of other city/county park lands, so they naturally have some amount of buffer. 

    My current favorite dog park is only about 8 acres (soon to be expanded), but thats because our dog goes exploring and loses us.  We find each other easier in a small park!  The other nearby park is probably 4-5x larger. 

    Something like 2 acres seems like such a waste.  Not only is it not much room to move around, but if its at all popular I expect there would be issues with groundcover.  (Mulch will get eroded, grass will die, etc.)  In a city, 2 acres might be hard to find but in the suburbs or rural there should be more available.
     
    Edit:  I dont know if its relevant but one of our parks has a catch basin type pond within the dog park.  They do some sort of aeration.
    • Bronze
    Thanks for your reply.  I am glad that there is someone else out there that can see my point about larger size and respect for neighbors.