One of the wonderful features of the greater Seattle area are it's multiple leashless dog parks. Having two dogs myself I often visit these parks with the mutts. Besides our bed, it's their favorite place.
If you're not from here, the absolute best park is Marymoor (
http://www.metrokc.gov/parks/marymoor/). The park itself is 640 acres. I'm not quite sure how big the offleash dog area is but it's at least 20+ acres.
The only bad part about this park are the dog owners who bring little children. I have nothing against the responsible parents who keep little kids within arms reach. And by arms reach I literally mean arms reach. It doesn't count if you have to take more than 1 step to the kid. Dogs are
much faster than you are.
My dogs love children. My red healer in particular loves children (they're more playful and receptive to her constant licking). If there's a kid in the area she will run up and look for some playtime.
Now remember this is a
dog park. If you bring a kid and my dog runs up and licks them in the face, that's not the fault of my dog. They're there to have fun and play. Your kid has many many other parks to go to.
I'm not trying to be harsh on everyone here. Most people who bring their children to the park are either
- Very responsible with their children
- Bring there children there because they likewise want to play with dogs
What really scares me though are big and dangerous dogs. My dogs are medium-small. At most they may knock a kid over. However there are very large dogs at Marymoor. And shamefully there are also dangerous dogs at the park.
Bad dog owners IMHO are much worse. Occasionally you will see a dog who has absolutely no business being offleash around dogs. What truly scares me is encountering these dogs and turning around and seeing small children running around. Please watch your children.
