How to teach an old dog park new tricks: sparking citizen interest is the key to continuing a successful dogpark.

The village of Wellington, Fla., neighboring larger Palm Beach, is getting a real pat on the head this summer. The popular Wellington Dog Park is receiving a nose-to-tail renovation, including such doggie amenities as drinking fountains and walking paths throughout the fenced-in play area that will soon double in size.

"It's a very well-used park," says Gary Clough, the village engineer overseeing the renovation. "We talked with the users and they told us that they wanted shade and benches. They came to us and the plan we have is pretty much what they wanted."

Dogpark upgrades aren't an unusual request. Considering that the boom in establishing dogparks took place in the late 1990s, enough time has elapsed for a new generation of dog owners to make demands for their park-wandering pups.

Wellington Dog Park has been pretty typical since it opened in 2002. Clough says that there is a chain-link fence, minimal landscaping with a couple of benches and an unpaved gravel parking lot. Clough describes the early park as nothing more than a "quick stop-gap" to have something in place in order to gauge its success before substantial money was put into it. After the renovations, shade trees will overhang six acres of roaming area, fenced in with vinyl-clad chain-link. The park will have an improved entrance, drainage system and a parking lot.

But one improvement at Wellington indicates an increasingly common request for dogparks. Not only will dogs have a place to socialize, but it will segregate dogs into four areas. An area will be dedicated to small, medium and large dogs, as well as animals in recovery from surgery or injuries. Clough says size segregation is becoming a trend in dogpark design.

Trudy Wakeman, director of recreation in Lake In The Hills, Ill., is making similar changes at the Bark Park Dog Park. But it's out of necessity. An unfortunate incident involving a larger dog--with no history of aggression--that killed a tiny dog weighing less than seven pounds has caused a stir of potential changes. Wakeman says that park officials are considering adding a small-dog area to the park, although there are challenges to doing so.

"We've talked to some small dog owners and some want it and others don't," she says. "Some say that if you have it, there won't be any dogs in the small dog section or just a couple dogs there, with the majority in the other area. So that defeats the purpose of interaction between the dogs."

Another improvement that Wakeman says is essential to calming dogs' emotions is to buffer the entrance gate from the open area of the dogpark. The parking lot is near the entrance to the dogpark, resulting in the opportunity for all the dogs to excitedly greet any newcomer to the park, canine or otherwise.

Renovations like those that Clough and Wakeman are overseeing come at a price. And every community seems to have a different funding scheme for providing open space for off-leash dogs. Wellington is lucky that its local government budgeted for dogpark improvements. But some communities looking for upgrades to their dogpark often have to search for someone to throw them a bone.

Tim White with the Fairfax County Park Authority, located in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., provides insight into the typical dogpark partnership. "Most of the dogparks we have in Fairfax County originate with an idea from the citizen groups that come forward and say we want to have a dogpark in 'Park A.' We provide the land and they are responsible for funding the development of the dogpark."

White says that it is important that interest stays high with the dogparks for this kind of arrangement to work. Only once has he dealt with an instance where there was so little community involvement in a dogpark that he had to organize a new group to sponsor it.

"The groups really have a commitment right off the bat from the development phase of this because they've bought into the whole thing," White says. He adds that the groups responsible for any of the six county-maintained dogparks often have programs, events and fundraisers that give them an opportunity to fund new amenities and park upgrades.

Suzanne Bolton, co-chair of Arlington Dogs, a citizen dogpark group neighboring Fairfax County, sees this premise of citizen action eye-to-eye. She stresses that the importance of a citizen group extends beyond establishing a dogpark, which is a popular misconception.

"The problem that you run into is that once each park is established, there isn't quite the need in the minds of citizens for the umbrella group as there was when they were trying to get a park established," Bolton explains.

She goes on to say that an unfortunate cycle continues with dogparks, beginning with the initial excitement of establishment and ending with users of the park becoming dissatisfied with the way things are being run or the county having to step in and say that the group needs to take responsibility or the park will be shut down.

"Everytime we get lackadaisical, I send out an e-mail and say 'hey, if you want this dogpark, we're going to need people who are going to step up and be responsible.' Usually a few people come forward. All you need is a core," Bolton says.

This core is what can facilitate bringing in more funding, she explains. It is important to Bolton that dogparks in the Arlington area remain free to citizens. While some dogparks charge fees, Fairfax County dogparks avoid this because groups in the area often use existing community events--things like Earth Day or a community gathering--to perform community canvassing. Other groups have held fundraisers, including one called Barks in the Morning, at which they sold coffee to raise money for dogpark needs.

Within close-knit areas home to multiple dogparks, core groups representing individual dogparks come together to support each other. White says that the consistency in the county's dogpark operations and rule enforcement due to these support networks make for a more comfortable pet recreation atmosphere.

"It's good that there are networks between groups and Fairfax County because much of our citizens use several of the dogparks. People like to go to various ones. The consistency the groups bring is important," White says.

Fairfax County has an elaborate network of citizen groups and a number of successful dogparks to show for it. After about a decade of expansion and refinement, the best examples of dogpark success are ultimately based on the interest and dedication of the citizens who use them.

Article and photos by Terrence Nowlin