Category Proposal: Dog Parks

[+ibycus]

In the flurry of new categories, I was thinking the 'pet friendly' category was crying out for a "Dog Parks" sub-category.

 

Benefits of such a category are obvious. Logs would probably want to include 'features' of the park (river, lake etc) popularity etc.

[+balloonatic]

Ahh, you should have posted this one under Quantum Leapers ID!

 

Great idea, this list would be huge!

[+ibycus]

I would have, but he isn't a premium member...

[+Thot]

I'd probably limit it to "leashless" dog parks. Parks where you can take/walk a dog are everywhere, but parks where you can let your dog play off-leash with other dogs are not so plentiful. In fact, I don't know where the nearest one to me is.

Edited August 16, 2005 by Thot

[+ibycus]

This is exactly what I had in mind. Around here, "dog park" is synonemous with off-leash park.

[+KKTH3]

Sounds good. I also think the term "leashless" makes it a bit more clear as to what type of park it is. I only know of one such park in town where I live.

[Jeremy]

I was considering something like this. I called it Off Leash Dog Areas - some of which aren't parks per-se.

[fishiam]

I vote yes on this one. In Seattle, I believe there are just 4 or 5 leash free dog parks. thus it is likely this category would be manageable and not incredibly large. peace, fishiam

[Not So Lost Puppies]

We vote for the 'off-leash dog park/exercise area' category also. We like to travel with our dog, as do many others we know, and it would nice to have a place to get a listing of them. It is often difficult to find them with online searches.

 

It should be findable by several search terms, such as 'dog park' 'off leash' 'dog excercise' etc. since different regions know them by different terms.

 

Will the search feature let us search on just Dog? the forum search does not allow 3 letter word searches.

 

Mike, Candi and geo-pup Midnight

Edited September 8, 2005 by Not So Lost Puppies

[+The Yoyo Man]

I give "Off-Leash Dog Parks" category two thumbs up. It would be great to have a list of off-leash dog parks when taking a road trip. I have two Boxers, Charlie & Emma, that would love exploring different dog parks.

 

A big YAY from The Yoyo Man & eight paws up from Charlie & Emma.

[+garri]

I like this one. I will add this gpx as a POI for my TomTom Go.

[+Geo-Bishop]

Wow. This sub-category proposal was brought up early Aug and it still isn't there.

 

How will Waymarking.com handle categorys that span categories.

 

i.e. A dog friendly park (leashless) falls under the park category, but it also falls under the dog-friendly places. We've got about five dog-parks in Albuquerque, but I've got nowhere to put them because the sub-categories haven't been created in either category.

 

Thanks.

 

Geo-Bishop

[+ibycus]

I think there was some mention of it over in another thread. Basically the two listings get somehow linked together (I think) so it gets listed under both. Not sure of the details, but I know its been thought of... (they aren't actually adding any 'new' categories yet I don't think, this is just a place to bounce ideas around...)

[+Team Joco]

YAHOO! Love this category. We travel in our RV a lot and with our two dogs. it would be great to be able to have a list of ENCLOSED off leash dog parks. Our Whippet really needs to run free at least once a week as does our Whippet/Lab mix.

I emphasis Enclosed dog park, because there are off leash parks that are NOT totally enclosed. One such park is in Sante Fe New Mexico. I will not allow the Whippet to run totally free of an enclosure for the obvious reason...there goes a rabbit so goes the Whippet.

This is a grea idea.

[+Team Beer]

Great idea!!

Another idea for pet owners, might be a sub catagory under lodging for pet friendly hotels.

[+ibycus]

I emphasis Enclosed dog park, because there are off leash parks that are NOT totally enclosed. One such park is in Sante Fe New Mexico. I will not allow the Whippet to run totally free of an enclosure for the obvious reason...there goes a rabbit so goes the Whippet.

Hmmm, good point I wonder though exactly how to strictly define 'totally enclosed'. There are a number of parks around here with rather steep embankments on one side of them and rather isolated in general, and not much danger for the dog in any case. Then there are other areas where there is a small opening in the enclosure at a couple of points (parking lots, pedestrian exits etc).

 

I know of no parks around here that I would define as strictly being 'totally enclosed' (i.e. latched gates covering every exit), then again, there aren't any parks here where I have a problem letting my guy run either as they are all 'enclosed enough' for my purposes.

 

Maybe a text field defining exactly how the park is enclosed, along with a radio button field of 'totally enclosed, partially enclosed, enclosure not worth mentioning' would make sense (actually come to think of it there are a couple of off leash areas that border main roads, with no enclosure, wouldn't let my guy run there...)

[+Geo-Bishop]

Maybe a text field defining exactly how the park is enclosed, along with a radio button field of 'totally enclosed, partially enclosed, enclosure not worth mentioning' would make sense (actually come to think of it there are a couple of off leash areas that border main roads, with no enclosure, wouldn't let my guy run there...)

Definitely. I noticed when I added a fountain, there are other options specific to a fountain to describe it, same with wi-fi hotspots.

 

We have a couple of completely enclosed dog parks here in Albuquerque (one just a two to three minute walk from my house) that are fantastic. The other three or so vary between high embankments to nothing at all in terms of an enclosure.

 

Maybe a few other options to describe the park which could be radio buttons as 'Yes', 'No', 'Discouraged/Minimal':

 

- Young children allowed

- Children's playground nearby

- Segregated area for first-time / skittish animals

- Provides benches / seating

- Provides trash / "doggy bags"

- Provides drinking water (for dogs)

- Terrain - grass, trees (shade), water-play, dirt

- Area size (either in acres or small, medium, large, very large)

 

The enclosed dog park by my house discourages very young children (toddlers), and there are actually two sections to it with the smaller section being for dogs that might be too skittish to be in with many other dogs in the main area.

 

I think it would be good to list "terrain" because if I had a choice of grassy with trees vs. a dirt area, I'd opt for the former.

 

My .02 worth..

[+ibycus]

Provides trash / "doggy bags"

 

Slightly off topic, these make great caches... I've got a cache in my favorite spot to go with Erwin with nothing but plastic shopping bags in it (the park doesn't provide any). I visit it far more often than any other cache I've placed...

[+ibycus]

Category just went live here . I welcome suggestions as far as variable choice, clarity, and what not goes (oh and of course I welcome your waymarks and positive votes )

[+Team Joco]

I like the ideas from both Geo-Bishop and ibycus. I also like the cache with plastic bags for obvious reasons. There is nothing worse than going to a park and picking up after other folk's dogs as well as our own.

 

The "radio button" is a good idea but also we should be encouraged to use text for detailed description as there are some very unique parks.

[+ibycus]

I've added text in the waymark description to encourage people to add more text to their descriptions. Otherwise we'll end of with a thousand variables that will apply to only one or two parks each. (I'll also encourage more description when the waymarks get submitted).

[+Geo-Bishop]

Category just went live here . I welcome suggestions as far as variable choice, clarity, and what not goes (oh and of course I welcome your waymarks and positive votes )

Hey.. Thanks for getting this going. I put up a dog park already and posted these below comments to you there, but though I'd put them here too for continuity.

 

1. I like the text box to further describe the enclosure. Good call.

 

2. Kid friendly isn't quite descriptive enough. The off-leash area I posted is kid friendly, but not "toddler" / "baby" friendly according to the posted rules. Maybe changing the checkboxes to include: Kids (5 and up), Kids (4 and below), Kids (all ages).

 

3. I think there are too many alternative parking areas. Maybe a primary (per the main lat / lon) and two alternatives. Also, this park has the primary parking lot, but you can park on the street all around it with exception to the East side. It's hard to give lat/long for all around parking.

 

4. There should be some "general" facility checkboxes. i.e. human bathrooms, children's playground, benches, tables. I know you didn't want too many variables that applied to only a few parks, but I think we can all agree on some basic "general" ones that should apply to most parks.

 

Thanks again.

 

Leif (aka Geo-Bishop)

[+ibycus]

Category just went live here . I welcome suggestions as far as variable choice, clarity, and what not goes (oh and of course I welcome your waymarks and positive votes )

Hey.. Thanks for getting this going. I put up a dog park already and posted these below comments to you there, but though I'd put them here too for continuity.

 

1. I like the text box to further describe the enclosure. Good call.

 

2. Kid friendly isn't quite descriptive enough. The off-leash area I posted is kid friendly, but not "toddler" / "baby" friendly according to the posted rules. Maybe changing the checkboxes to include: Kids (5 and up), Kids (4 and below), Kids (all ages).

 

3. I think there are too many alternative parking areas. Maybe a primary (per the main lat / lon) and two alternatives. Also, this park has the primary parking lot, but you can park on the street all around it with exception to the East side. It's hard to give lat/long for all around parking.

 

4. There should be some "general" facility checkboxes. i.e. human bathrooms, children's playground, benches, tables. I know you didn't want too many variables that applied to only a few parks, but I think we can all agree on some basic "general" ones that should apply to most parks.

 

Thanks again.

 

Leif (aka Geo-Bishop)

I've e-mailed you replies to your comments, but just so everyone else can see:

 

The multiple parking spots are really only there to handle really BIG parks. There is a off-leash park in Calgary where there are several parking spots seperated by more than a couple of km each. That park has I believe 5 parking spots, (the closest ones being roughly 2.5km apart). (check out the Nose Hill waymark) In cases where there is a main parking, and parking along the street, I wouldn't worry about putting in 'alternate' locations, as long as it would be obvious once you got there that there were other places to park.

 

I've changed 'kid-friendly' to a set of radio buttons, you can now select a rough age range that is appropriate.

 

I've added a drop down list for human bathrooms, but I'm going to leave out the other facilities (unless a lot of other people ask for them). I figure the 'human bathrooms' should give a general idea of the kind of park it is (if its got flushable toilets, its probably got tables and benches, if it doesn't have any washrooms, it probably doesn't have any tables either)

[Jeremy]

I asked Opinionate to add a checkbox for dog parks that have a small dog area. I hope you don't mind.

[+ibycus]

I asked Opinionate to add a checkbox for dog parks that have a small dog area. I hope you don't mind.

Ahhhh so that explains it. No worries. I thought I might be going insane though, or maybe some obscure bug, or the system had developed some weird form of ESP or something.