Plymouth’s first dog park is a space the human owners of Sandy, Lola, Louie, Duke, and Lene have long awaited.
“The town’s been working on the thought of a dog park for a long time,” said Nick Faiella, Plymouth’s parks and forestry superintendent. “I started working for the town about 12 years ago, and it was a thought even then.”
This week, the Plymouth Dog Park finally opened to canine and human users, an acre of joy for dogs and their companions, set a few hundred yards down a driveway at 2199 State Road in Cedarville, behind the town’s animal shelter.
“It’s close to the beaten path but just off it,” said Michelle Kurker, longtime vice chair of the Dog Park Committee, who was at the park with her dogs Louie and Lola Tuesday morning.
An official ribbon cutting is scheduled for June 5, weather permitting.
“It’s just so nice to have a place for them to come and run and associate with other dogs,” said Steve Ciavola, who lives in Cedarville and came with his yellow Labrador Retriever, Sandy. “These creatures are social animals.”
Finding a location and funding took some time, Faiella explained as dogs all around him excitedly barked and panted, while their equally excited human companions exchanged stories.
The pace of the project’s progress picked up when Faiella became involved two years ago, working with the Dog Park Committee, which formally dissolved last week after having completed its mission.
Former Select Board member Harry Helm, one of the town’s most ardent supporters of a dog park, chaired the committee until he moved to Maryland last year.
The Stanton Foundation – which, among other things, supports the construction of dog parks – gave a $25,000 grant to help defray the $51,600 cost of engineering, and another $250,000 grant towards the $379,500 cost of the park’s construction, Faiella said. The remainder of the budgeted $431,100 came from federal American Rescue Plan Act funds.
Unlike many dog parks, Cedarville’s has shaded areas, thanks to tall pitch pines and an eastern white pine.
“We’ve been waiting for a dog park around here,” said Mitch Nest, who came with Lene, a Great Pyrenees mix. “We’ve been going to Kingston for months now with her, and this is just beautiful.”
The park is divided into an area for small dogs, 25 pounds and under, and another, bigger area for large dogs, 25 pounds and over.
“You don’t want to see a confrontation between a small dog and a large dog,” Faiella said.
When owners bring their dogs, they first walk into a small fenced-in area.
“We call it the airlock,” Faiella said.
After going through another gate, small dogs can roam on pebble stones, while big dogs romp on wood chips.
The park also complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Duke, a 95-pound black lab, gave the new park a rave review.
“You can see he’s a happy dog,” said Debbie Dugas, who brought him from Bourne. “I’ve been going to the Wareham dog park and the Mashpee dog park and the Falmouth dog park with my dog for about a year, and it’s great to have it five minutes down the road.”
There are, of course, rules to follow to ensure a good time for all. Some took more deliberation than others, Faiella said, such as who would be responsible for different kinds of complaints.
He and the committee – and ultimately the Select Board – agreed that complaints about people would go to the police, complaints about dogs to animal control, and complaints about maintenance would go to Parks and Forestry or to the Department of Public Works.
Most of the regulations are common sense. One that may not be intuitive is a ban on treats and toys. That’s because they’re likely to attract the interest of all the dogs in the park, which could end up creating disputes.
But the ban on toys did not prevent two dogs from racing along, each biting one end of a small pine branch.
“It’s probably not going to be our last dog park,” Faiella said, a reference to preliminary talks about building a dog park at the popular Forges Field recreational area off Jordan Road.
Fred Thys can be reached at fred@plymouthindependent.org.