Longboat dog park popularity has a muddy by-product

Sue Paulson says she wants to bring her puppy, Frannie, to the Bayfront Park every day.

But she doesn’t.

“I don’t bring her because it’s muddy. She gets so filthy, and I have to bathe her when we get home,” Paulson said of her white-coated English cream golden retriever.

About one quarter of the large-dog park, which was once covered with grass, has turned to dirt. The entire vestibule is devoid of grass and parts of the small-dog park are beginning to turn from green to black.

All of this dirt gets stuck in dogs’ paws, dog owners at the park say. Dog park users blame two factors: shade from trees and the popularity of the park itself.

The Public Works Department is aware of the issues, said Streets, Facilities, Parks and Recreation Manager Mark Richardson. But it’s waiting until the spring and “trying to see how bad it’s going to get, then see if there’s something we can do next season,” Richardson said.

Possible solutions could include concrete slabs at the entrance before entering either dog park, shells or mulch, or closing down the park every so often to let the grass recover.

“We’re really not wanting to close our park down if we can get through March,” Richardson said. “I think we’ll see it grow back once the traffic goes down.”

But the wait-and-see method doesn’t help Kristin Rahman, who brings her Labrador pointer, Lacey, to the dog park a few times a week.

“It’s just a lot of work,” Rahman said. “I’ve got to take her home, wash her off; I have a bucket by the door where I wash her paws.”

There is no wash station at the dog park, which could end up causing more of a mess by creating mud on dry days, Richardson said. 

There is a wash station at the kayak launch a few hundred feet away. Richardson said dog owners are welcome to take their dogs by leash there to clean them before taking them home.

“We wash his feet off, but he doesn’t like it,” said Jennette Quincy, who owns a bernedoodle named Quincy — a Bernese mountain dog and poodle mix. “There was a little grass then it turned to mud,”

The large-dog park, which opened in June, has seen as many as 30 dogs at once, said Angela Falknor, who said she bring her Great Dane, Emma, to the park every day, sometimes twice.

Falknor said the park is “such a great spot,” but mud is an issue.

“The grounds, due to the high volume, is getting chewed to pieces,” Falknor said. “The grass isn’t going to come back.”

Richardson said this is a reality of dog parks.

“If its a very populated dog park the grass is going to get worn out,” he said.

The department wants to avoid using alternatives such as shells or mulch because those can get stuck in dogs’ paws. And artificial turf is expensive and difficult to maintain when dogs relieve themselves.

“Even though it’s not looking that good, the reason it’s looking like that is because it’s getting so much use,” Richardson said. “And that’s a good thing.”