BIGGER. CLEANER. SAFER. PRIVATE.
When I (Ally) first started dog walking I used to visit public parks two or three times a day with my pack. Over time, there were a couple of different issues that I found were becoming a problem. First of all, most dog walkers are out at the same time so there could be up to 60 dogs in one not-so-big dog park at once. Secondly, not all of those dogs were well behaved/socialized/fixed or being properly supervised by their walker. I found myself spending more time dealing with other people’s dogs than with my own pack.
All that changed when two other long time trusted Toronto dog walking companies approached me with the idea of finding a huge private space that we could make our own. Now we share our Private Acre Forest Dog Run; the largest private outdoor space available to dogs in Toronto. It is fully fenced in for safety and also has a van-sized triple gate system so there is no dragging 6+ dogs across the street from the truck to the park area on leashes like at the public parks. We drive right in, close the gate behind us and let our dogs straight into the park.
We have our park wood chipped on a regular basis and a water station for those super hot days of summer. There is a jungle gym that the smaller dogs like to crawl all over and TONS of room for the big guys to really stretch their legs and get all of that energy out!
We know every dog that comes into the park because we know every walker that comes in the park; they’re a part of our crew. We trust each other and know that we would never bring an unsafe, aggressive or unvaccinated dog into the park. We are also very vigilant about picking up ALL THE POOP that we see 100% of the time. There is NO garbage in our park and we have lined our fences with burlap/tarps to make sure none blows in from the street.
We’ve got fantastic tree shade from the rain and the boiling sun, and wind protection from our trees/fences, which provides us with shelter all year round. You really don’t feel like you’re still in the city when we are playing in our park. I know for the dogs it feels like a day out in the country. They know when we are getting near and we can see all their heads start poking up, ears alert, tails start wagging and tongues start flapping about, the barking starts… IT’S PARTY TIME!!!
SAFETY: PUBLIC VS. PRIVATE
Public off leash dog parks are regulated by the set bylaws of the City of Toronto. These state that dog walkers can only have 6 dogs per person. Aside from the fact that this rule is commonly not adhered to, there is no limit to the number of dog walkers and/or dog owners that can be in a public park at one time. This means that around midday, the “rush hour” of dog walking, you can have any number of dog walkers with 6+ dogs each, plus any number of dog owners with their dog(s) in a park at one time. Add to that, there is absolutely no screening process for these dogs whatsoever. Anyone can come in and can bring in a dog that is completely unsuitable for an off leash group play environment, and there is no way to know if any of the dogs are up to date with their vaccinations. It can make for a potentially chaotic, and certainly an unpredictable environment, which are the biggest reasons we started looking for a safer option years ago.
In our private forest there are multiple pack leaders present at one time, we load and unload within fenced barriers (not leashing our dogs and then running them into the park), we have met and assessed every dog there and they are all on regular schedules so they know one another and know/respond to our pack leaders. This is the only way that we are able to control WHO your dog is coming in contact with and WHAT KIND OF DOGS your dog is playing with. There is simply no way to do either in a public space. Our dogs are supervised 100% of the time.
