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Community Corner

Pebbles in the dog park?

I visited the new dog park for the first time this week and was very surprised to see that the surface was made of several inches of pebbles. Pebbles are NOT a good surface for a dog park. 

1. It provides little traction for the animals and the people. Dogs attempting to run or turn corners are much more likely to slip in the pebbles, possibly injuring themselves. People trying to walk to control an excited animal are also more likely to slip on the pebbles and fall or twist an ankle. In the snow and ice, this problem is going to be 10 times worse. 

2. Pebbles get stuck in between dogs' toes and foot pads. This can cause discomfort or even more serious pain or injury if it's a sharp pebble. In fact, if you visit the dog park you'll notice that the dogs don't run nearly as much as they would on grass. It's just not comfortable for them. 

3. When the dogs do run or play or jump, pebbles get sprayed into the air. These could easily hit a dog or person in the eye, and in a few weeks there will be pebbles scattered all around the outside of the park's fence. 

4. They are hard to keep clean. Dog's are going to poop in the park- it's inevitable. Even if the owner goes to clean up the poop right away, it's possible it could be partially covered or buried by pebbles. Once it is cleaned up, that residue is left all over the pebbles- there's no way to pick up each one and clean it off.

It's very unfortunate that no one thought this through before the town wasted what was certainly a significant amount of money acquiring, transporting and laying all of those tiny little rocks down. This park was in progress for the entire summer and most of fall. A nice layer of soil and some grass seed would have been all that was needed to create a fine, grassy park for dogs to run and play. I'm sure that the greatest motivation behind the pebbles was the fact that no one would have to mow the park. How sad that the desire to save a little maintenance work resulted in a mediocre park. 

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