City Dog Park - How can I make it happen???

[Meg (Murphy's Mom)]

Has anyone had experience with getting a dog park started in the city you live in? I would love to take my dog to a park where I could let him off the leash to run and have fun without worrying.

[HANNAH 8/2/07 & HONEY 7/2/08]

We currently have two dog parks but are a distance to drive to now, and have been wanting to find out the same thing. I think you would have to start with your local city's dept. of recreation. They should be able to guide you from there. If you don't have a dept. of recreation I would start checking with where you purchase you dog licenses. Your city's budget will also have to approve this park unless you or someone you know will be the main supporters of it. Land is another consideration, and the weekly and yearly upkeep of this property. You also have to supply Poop bags, waste disposals, and someone to haul it away. A lot to think about.....

[Adina P]

We did it!!! I was on a committee that worked 2-3 years to help establish a dog park in our city. The story went like this:

Once upon a time there was a small group of people who wanted to let their dogs play off leash (I was not yet part of this group) and started meeting weekend mornings in school yards. Their group grew to about 30 dogs and their people and soon the neighborhood started to complain about all these dogs running loose in a school playground (AS IF anyone takes their kids out on Sat/Sun morning at 9am!). Though nothing bad ever happened, school officials warned the group to disband.

One group member named Jodi decided this was way too fun to end and decided to take up a petition of people interested in a dog park. She took the petition to the city and after a time they approved the notion of looking into this as a possibility.

This same group found a different school yard in which to meet and eventually created a small group of people that met semi-regularly to come up with an official 'dog park proposal' (benefits of a park to the community, rules such a park would have, etc) to present to the city...it was around this time Rosco was old enough to play with other dogs and I heard about the committee and joined a meeting they had.

Essentially our city's parks & recs had to approve the idea (they held a townhall meeting, talked amongst themselves, etc) and then we had to mutually agree on WHERE to place this park...what land was available for this?

From then on, our committee met weekly to discuss plans (WE essentially did the background work and communicated this to the city who had to approve everything). Our city did NOT have a budget for this so we had to raise funds, though they agreed to take over the maintenance. Once we had a completed list of what was needed financially (fencing, gates, benches, kiosk, covered area, water feature, etc...etc.) we began creating fundraisers and contacting businesses with fliers and requesting donations.

Our two big fundraisers were: Dog Walk and Pooch Pool Party. We also got extremely lucky and won a $35,000 local grant.

So my advice would be to start a petition, start scoping out areas of land in which this might work and approach the city about this. If you know any big $$$ people who love dogs they would be good to get on your side. Some dog parks are private and there is a fee to join. Others are city run. It's up to you and what resources you've got.

Good luck!

P.S. if you google "Friends of Culver City Dog Park" (Not our city) you'll find some great info about their journey to forming a dog park with financial info, etc. Worth looking at their site!

[Meg (Murphy's Mom)]

Adina, this is wonderful information. Thank you! I will let you know how I do. Your thoughts have me really excited!

[Karen & Lucy]

I would love to do this too, but too big of a project for me do to alone. Good ideas though from reading Adina's post. I live by a state park that has perfect areas to put one in. I think I will start there and talk those people and see what needs to be done. Thanks

[Adina P]

Yeah you really need a team to work on something like this.

[Meg (Murphy's Mom)]

I've started making a list of the dog lovers I know. The of Culver City Dog Park website was also full of information. http://www.culvercitydogpark.org/main/001_Home.cfm

[Leslie and Halas]

We were lucky in our town. An anonymous donor gave $100,000 to our park district for a dog park. The park had some open land, so it wasn't a problem to find the location. I don't know what they spent on the dog park itself, but I think what was left of the money is going towards on-going maintenance or general improvements. But I can't help you with the process they went through. I think it's something that was talked about for awhile, but was just going to be too expensive until the donor stepped in.