4 June 2012

A dog park for the Inner North

| johnboy
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As a dog owning inner northican I’d always thought the lack of dog parks in the dog-rich area was because we know how to walk our dogs without government assistance.

But no, Andrew Barr (still spreading pre-budget pixie dust) has announced that an as-yet unspecified locale will be getting the facility.

“The Budget provides $60,000 in 2012-13 to design a new dog park in Canberra’s inner north, which will be constructed in 2013-14 for a value of $240,000,” the Chief Minister said.

“An investigation will take place to identify a location which is easily accessible and can be fenced. The site will also need to provide an opportunity for parking, shade and interesting terrain for dogs and their owners to enjoy.

“There are currently five off-leash dog parks in Canberra – Belconnen, Casey, Forde, Tuggeranong and Yarralumla – which have all proven to be very popular places for residents to take their dogs to exercise and socialise.”

There’s also a $170,000 upgrade for the Belconnen park.

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The dog parks do provide places to sit, water for the dogs etc, paths. In both fenced and unfenced areas you get people who didn’t train their dog.

They could spend $240k on many things, but I think dog parks are a step in the right direction, compared to say the public art….

Governments need to provide for everyone and there is only so much money you can spend on things like education and health, before the gains are cost excessively large amounts of money.

Besides outside and standing up, even if doing nothing else is better than inside watching TV and totally neglecting the dog.

toadstool said :

There are stacks of dog offleash areas in the ACT. Check out the governments dog exercise area map http://www.gim.act.gov.au/website/gimmapviewer/viewer.htm?SERVICE=dog&QUERYDOG=yes&TITLE=Dog%20Exercise%20Areas&LOGO=Tams_Colour_logo2.gif

I’m all for the fenced dog parks, but unfortunately there are people that frequent such parks such as the woman with her bensenjis at Yarralumla who just laughs ‘my dogs just love chasing whippets’ when they bite and harrass them causing serious injury in one case I’ve heard. I’m just thankful my whippet escaped injury after her interaction.

Exactly why I prefer to avoid them. And yelling “My dog is friendly!” or similar when they run up to someone is usually just another way of saying “I have bugger all control over my dog, so you deal with it”. I’m all for letting dogs be dogs, but within the boundaries of good manners and common sense.

I’m not against having the parks. They would be great for little pups if there wouldn’t be so many bad mannered older dogs. But I think they could do better things with the 240K. Maybe they could use it instead to educate owners on the need to train their dogs and have them under control…

There are stacks of dog offleash areas in the ACT. Check out the governments dog exercise area map http://www.gim.act.gov.au/website/gimmapviewer/viewer.htm?SERVICE=dog&QUERYDOG=yes&TITLE=Dog%20Exercise%20Areas&LOGO=Tams_Colour_logo2.gif

I’m all for the fenced dog parks, but unfortunately there are people that frequent such parks such as the woman with her bensenjis at Yarralumla who just laughs ‘my dogs just love chasing whippets’ when they bite and harrass them causing serious injury in one case I’ve heard. I’m just thankful my whippet escaped injury after her interaction.

cross said :

If I was to let my Crossette of his leash at an unfenced area it would take me the better part of 4 hours to get him back if at all.

RSPCA has a 5 week course called ‘Recall clinic’: http://www.rspca-act.org.au/training-and-knowledge/dog-and-puppy-training/#recall

Working on achieving a good recall from your dog should be a requirement to owning one, imo.

Watson said :

ghughes said :

Corroboree Park already has an organised dog club. For others in the Inner North there is Mt Ainslie, Majura and O’ Connor Ridge. Watson has its own dog club. And there are wetlands in lyneham, dickson and O’Connor.

If the Government wants to spend $240K to build a fence, may I suggest Marsden St Dickson, in order to maintain that gated community.

Aren’t all those places you mention on-leash only?

The Dickson wetland is most definitely a gazetted dogs-off-leash area (despite wowsers covering the dogs-off-leash sign on a regular basis with hessian sacks).

Along with one of the Dickson playing fields, one of the playing fields at O’Connor is also a dogs-off-leash area, so long as no organised sport is being played.

There’s a dogs-off-leash park just up from the Ainslie shops and the bottom of Fisher Street (there’s also a community hall on site, but I’m not sure what the park’s called). It’s a bit of a strange location.

The Mt Ainslie walking track is dogs-on-lead, as is the reserve itself.

Not sure about the others.

If I was to let my Crossette of his leash at an unfenced area it would take me the better part of 4 hours to get him back if at all.

ghughes said :

Corroboree Park already has an organised dog club. For others in the Inner North there is Mt Ainslie, Majura and O’ Connor Ridge. Watson has its own dog club. And there are wetlands in lyneham, dickson and O’Connor.

If the Government wants to spend $240K to build a fence, may I suggest Marsden St Dickson, in order to maintain that gated community.

Aren’t all those places you mention on-leash only?

Corroboree Park already has an organised dog club. For others in the Inner North there is Mt Ainslie, Majura and O’ Connor Ridge. Watson has its own dog club. And there are wetlands in lyneham, dickson and O’Connor.

If the Government wants to spend $240K to build a fence, may I suggest Marsden St Dickson, in order to maintain that gated community.

And $240K, really?! That could buy a whole lot of bins in the existing open spaces. Maybe the odd new bench or picnic table too.

cross said :

These parks are great not only do dogs socialise but so do owners

But why on earth do you need a special park for that?

There is a fantastic off leash area at the top of Watson, between the old and the new part of the suburb. There aren’t even any roads near that one and it is massive so fine to take your dog to while you are still training a reliable recall.

With a bitch? Grosse.

Leave that to the roo mob thanks.

cross said :

These parks are great not only do dogs socialise but so do owners

+1

Take a few beers down and get to know your neighbours, all good for the community. And if you have a cute puppy, your chances of getting laid are increase by, like, twelvty million.

These parks are great not only do dogs socialise but so do owners

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