Now that I’m getting back to the blogosphere, I’m enjoying catching up on friend’s posts and enjoying all of their interesting thoughts, finds, and tips. Jodi Stone’s blog about her dogs, Sampson and Delilah, has always been a favorite of mine. In her most recent post, Jodi blogged about an ideal dog park, and asked what value readers would put on such a haven.
Dog parks are a big point of desire for me and for Arie. So far, we still haven’t conquered our dog and leash aggression issues, so dog parks are off limits until Arie can learn to play nicely with others. I still love reading about parks and about their features, as when the day comes that her training has progressed far enough for Arie to go off-leash with playmates, I want to take her to the best parks in the city to let her get her run on.
This thought trail, along with Jodi’s post, reminded me of a recent topic in the Nutro Knowledge Network, a community project by Nutro to help local dog parks called “Room to Run”. (As a reminder for all of my posts regarding the Knowledge Network, this post was written by a Nutro Knowledge Network Member and sponsored by the Nutro Company.)
The Room to Run Dog Park Appreciation Project works to support local community dog parks and off-leash areas so that pet parents and pooches everywhere can enjoy exercise and socialization with their peers. In the past two years, Nutro was able to work with 60 dog parks in the US and Canada to better their facilities for those using them. In 2012, the program is enjoying a change of pace and is now a grant application program, with a focus on working closely with park departments. Here are just a few people speaking out about last year’s program to give you an idea of its impact:
Do you know of a park that could use the help from Room to Run? Submit a Grant Application by August 31 to the program for a chance to help improve your park! For more information, check out the Room to Run Facebook page.
What changes would you make to your local dog park?
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for the shout out Katherine, I did submit the idea (from Julie’s comment) to the dream dog park contest. It ends tomorrow so I didn’t make it my best pitch but nothing ventured nothing gained right?
Neither one of my dogs particularly enjoys the dog park. Delilah can get snarky at times at barriers and Sampson just wants to hang out with the peeps, at least in the dog park we went to not far from our house.
I like the idea of an area of hiking trails, but no chance of my dog escaping on me. I also would love a place for them to swim and ideally it would be at the same spot.
Is Arie always reactive to other dogs, or is it under certain circumstances? At the park we went to, there is an entrance and I’d always make sure there we no dogs in that area as we entered. It made it a bit easier.
I am going to check out your grant link.
Again, thanks for the shout out and it’s good to have you back.
I’d just be happy if we had a dog park in our town! We have to drive a bit to get to our favorite one, and I wish we had something closer so the dogs could go more often, especially Morgan and Kuster!