Dog Park Idea Worth Pursuing

Author: Phil Trubey

Date: February 21, 2022

This is my reply to Rory based on his article Why We Shouldn't Build A Dog Park, which was a reaction to my original article, Of Dog Parks and Vacant Land.

Thanks for the email. I really appreciate feedback, good or bad.

First, you bring up good points about the process something like this would follow. If building a dog park is something the Board wanted to do, I would suggest that they instruct staff to look into the various concerns you mentioned including liability and location scouting among others. I wouldn't suggest any Board just decree something like this into existence.

You mention past community-dividing failures. I don't see them as such. They were attempts to improve our community. Some projects worked (like the fiber internet project) and some didn't (like the Covenant Club, which ended up being too large and ambitious). But attempting to enact change isn't a bad thing in itself. When you start, you simply don't know what all the problems are. Depending on the project, problems can either be surmounted, or sometimes they can't be. But the possibility of failure isn't a good reason to not attempt anything at all.

By the way, I don't recall the playground being a grade A flop. It got built and rebuilt, provides a service and doesn't negatively impact anyone.

Regarding rules, yes, one needs rules. All the dog parks I've attended are self policing. If a dog is aggressive, other owners will tell the aggressive dog owner that they shouldn't come back - but that wouldn't even be needed. Dog owners are well aware what happens to aggressive dogs (they can get put down), so that sort of situation gets quickly resolved by the pet owner themselves.

You might want to check out the Alga Norte dog park not too far away from here in Carlsbad. It's pretty chill even though it draws from a large city population. A Rancho dog park, so identified for use only by Rancho members (just like the horse trails) would be even more chill in comparison.

While liability is a concern, it doesn't seem to be an issue for Carlsbad and many other cities. You don't sign a waiver before you walk into the enclosure. It is always possible that cities have more legal protection than an HOA. Obviously this would need to be examined.

Gate crashing would be handled the same way that it is being done now with our trails. I don't see it as a big issue.

I still think this is an idea worth investigating, even if failure might be a result.