For Canines (and People, Too)

Dog Parks Are Becoming the Preferred Place to Meet and Greet

by By Daniela Deane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 28, 2007

Sherrard Foster's marriage of 30 years broke up recently, and she's now going through a painful divorce. Her elderly father died a few weeks ago after a lengthy illness. And her multiple sclerosis is advancing again after years of remission.

In the midst of all that heartache, though, there's still one thing she looks forward to every day: spending a couple of hours with her best friends, and her golden retriever Abby, at an Arlington County dog park.

"I'd be suicidal if I didn't have this park," Foster, 62, said recently as she sat on a picnic table surrounded by friends -- and dogs -- at the Fort Ethan Allen park. "Coming here is the central part of my day. I couldn't live without it."

The local dog park has found a permanent home in the Washington region, evolving into a place where people can find and build a community in a sprawling metropolitan area that offers few venues outside the workplace to make friends, particularly for baby boomers or for those who find themselves alone.

Once a bone of contention in some communities, local officials are catching on to how important these parks have become, not so much for dogs but for their owners. In recent years, two dozen have opened across the region, including eight in Arlington, seven in Fairfax County and three in Prince George's County. The District and Prince William County, which have no designated public off-leash areas for dogs, are set to get on board.

"At first, people questioned why we were building parks for dogs," said Tim White, acting director of the Fairfax County Park Authority, which has opened seven dog parks since 2000. "But they're not for dogs. They're for people. Saying you're building a dog park for dogs is like saying you're building a golf course for golf balls."

In many instances, the dog park has become the equivalent of the neighborhood bar for people looking to socialize, expand their circle of friends -- or just have a pleasant conversation with someone after work. Dog parks are usually busiest from 5 to 7 p.m.

"Some people go to happy hour and have drinks," said Mariesa Barros, sitting at a picnic table recently with friends in Georgetown's Rose Park. "I come here."

Barros, 46, got her current job and her apartment through friends she made at her local dog park.

Like others in the city, though, her dog park isn't official, a fact that scares the dozens of dog owners who use the park -- and depend on it as a social lifeline.

Barros, who is single, said she goes to the park "365 days a year -- rain, sun, snow, sleet, whatever." She usually heads there right after work. "I get all my socializing done here. Then I go home and have dinner."

Barros recalls one couple who met at her dog park and later got married. After the wedding, they showed up at the park in their wedding clothes with champagne -- and their dogs -- for an impromptu reception with their friends.

"She had a cocker spaniel, and he had two mastiffs," Barros said. "They fell in love here."

Barros recently befriended Alexis Maurikakis, who moved to the District from London with his partner over the summer.

Maurikakis, who's writing a book at home, said having the dog park nearby for his boxer Daisy -- and himself -- has been "fantastic" because his partner travels frequently for work and he didn't know anyone in the area.

"Everybody I've met in D.C., I've met at the dog park," Maurikakis said. "For people whining about being alone, I say, 'Get a dog.' You meet far more people very quickly."

Arlington is a dog-park pioneer among area jurisdictions. It opened its first "community canine area" 10 years ago.

"We realized a long time ago that these parks weren't about the dogs so much but about people coming together and building communities," said Steve Temmermand, division chief for Arlington Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources. "There are potluck supper clubs, book clubs, people exchange movies, all kinds of stuff. It's an entire social network. People have met their boyfriends, girlfriends and spouses at these parks."

Temmermand said a 2002 survey commissioned by the county found that more people use its dog parks than soccer fields.

In the survey, 9 percent of those who frequently use county facilities put dog parks at the top of the list. "That means 18,000 people in Arlington use these dog parks frequently," Temmermand said, noting that the county has 30,000 registered dogs. "That tells you just how very popular they are." The Shirlington dog park has a group just for pugs, with owners and their dogs meeting there one Saturday a month.

Temmermand said the Arlington parks tend to attract an older, professional and highly educated crowd.

Kelli Holsendolph, a spokeswoman for Montgomery County's Department of Parks, said the county's planning board recently decided to incorporate dog parks into its park system. The county's first dog park opened in Wheaton in 2003 as a pilot project, she said. Now there are three, with two more planned.

In Prince George's, there is one official dog park in College Park, plus two municipal ones in the cities of Bowie and Greenbelt.

Prince William is scouting locations for its first after a countywide survey showed that dog parks were the most frequently requested amenity not currently provided, according to Rick Washco of the county's Park Authority. Finding a location suitable to most people in the area can be a lengthy process, he said.

"These parks seem to be a trend all over the country," said Anita Pesses of the Prince George's Department of Parks and Recreation, especially in more urban, rapidly developing areas, where housing is close together and many people living in condominiums and apartments have no place for their dogs to play outdoors.

Cathy Salgado, director of parks and recreation for the town of Vienna, attributes the rise in popularity of dog parks in part to heightened awareness about pet care.

"People are expected to do all kinds of things for their dogs these days," she said. "It's blossomed into a whole industry now, with pet spas, grooming places, doggie day care, specialty care places. When I was growing up, my mother would kick the dog out the back door and say, 'Go do your business.' "

Salgado said Vienna has one of the best dog parks around -- set in the woods, with shaded areas and benches for the pet owners and water spouts and a wading pool for the dogs.

The one urban jurisdiction conspicuously behind is the District, but that's about to change, according to Clark Ray, the city's parks director. Ray said the District is in the process of opening some dog parks, an action approved by the D.C. Council in 2005.

He said authorities realize there are already de facto dog parks in the city. "We're going to try to make the de facto parks official," Ray said. "We've set up a task force to see where we can open these parks. We're not going to be at the end of the line for very much longer."

Most dog parks in the region are established, funded and cared for by dog owners, who form groups such as RestonDogs, for example, which sponsored the dog park at Baron Cameron Park in Fairfax.

Judy Pedersen of the Fairfax County Park Authority said the sponsoring groups raise funds to build the parks, write matching grants if needed and then make sure rules are enforced, including that owners pick up their dogs' poop.

"We've got a system that manages itself and works very well," Pedersen said. "There is such a passion for these parks that these groups really take care of them. We don't get a lot of complaints about the dog parks."

The dog owners seem to do a pretty good job of taking care of one another, too.

Sherrard Foster's dog park friends recently helped her arrange her dad's funeral reception. And because her MS means she has difficulty walking, someone always helps her get Abby into the car before she goes home.

When she feels low about the demise of her long marriage, she also turns to the friends she has made at Fort Ethan Allen park.

"Someone's always there with a sympathetic ear," she said. "They know what I've been through. These are all my best friends."