Calgary’s dog parks are central to community building

Carey Houston and her terrier mix, Indy, are enjoying a sunny if cool day at the University District’s north dog park that has become an important part of their new lives in this young northwest Calgary community.

“We’ve gotten to meet a lot of our fellow dog moms and dads in the community and we’ve been able to strike a few friendships already,” she tells New Home + Condo Guide. The Houstons moved to their Ivy townhomes by Brookfield Residential in December last year and are still getting used to the new surroundings, but having the dog park has helped them ease into their new community.

“It wasn’t the main reason we moved to University District, but having the dog park so near our home has been a great bonus,” she says.

“We love that they have separate enclosures each for small dogs and for bigger dogs, so Indy gets to play with dogs his size,” she says.

Off leash dog parks have become almost as necessary as tot lots and green spaces, and many new communities now include such designated spaces for our four-legged friends.
These include Wolf Willow in the southeast, where developer WestCreek Developments has earmarked some nine acres of lush green space for a much needed dog park to service this fast growing sector of Calgary.

Auburn Bay in southeast Calgary has one of the largest around and has been an essential part of pet life in southeast Calgary, especially for the young, growing communities surrounding it, including Auburn Bay, Mahogany, Copperfield and New Brighton.

Nose Hill Park in northwest Calgary is one of the most popular in the city, and is known for its spacious environment, plant life, and wildlife. Over a dozen residential communities surround the 11 square kilometres the park covers. A majority of the park is off-leash, but there are kilometres of hiking trails to take dogs on a leashed walk. Just watch out for wildlife, such as coyotes and porcupines that also call it their home.

Edworthy Park in southwest Calgary is one of the oldest and most popular ones. Located off the Bow River, Edworthy is a large diverse park with picnic tables, picnic shelters, playgrounds, fire pits, and even (seasonal) public washrooms. This park is not fenced in, and it does get busy. It’s where you can find Anita and her three dogs. “It’s close to home and they just love it here,” she says. Her dogs – Frankie, Bella, and Jessie – get to run around and burn off some energy.

Bear and his human, Rachel, also go to Edworthy, but she also likes to take Bear, a Bernese Mountain dog mix, to Glamorgan Park and River Park off leash areas. “Bear needs a lot of room to run,” she says.

This trend comes as no surprise though. After all, Calgary is very much a dog-loving city. According to the most recent census in 2016, Calgary has 135,079 dogs; 98,000 were properly licensed in 2015, but that number has risen to 99,515 by August of that year.

Calgary already has 150 public off-leash areas in its multi-use parks for Calgarians and their dogs to enjoy. According to the City of Calgary, this may be the biggest concentration of off-leash areas (more than 1,250 hectares) in North America. These off-leash designations make up for approximately 17 percent of the total Calgary Parks inventory and equates to almost 1,600 Canadian Football League fields.

Even so, the City of Calgary is continually working on improving and adding off-leash areas to Calgary, The City says in its website.