“Hey, look at you,” Johnny Olarte says laughing at his Yorkie named Kingston, who unsuspectingly bulked up to twice the size of his siblings, as a fresh roll in the paw-pounded mud has left wood bits strewn about the pup’s brown and grey coat.
As Victoria looks at spending hundreds of thousands on reviewing its dog parks and off-leash spots, Olarte and Kingston on Monday were out at the Dallas Road waterfront, one of the city’s 15 designated dog areas.
Seven-month-old German Shepherd Atlas also got to run free at the ocean-side park on Feb. 6. It’s one of the few places Yaz Reiz and Sophia Madalena let him roam off-leash. Madalena also has friends who usually can’t let their dog off-leash because it will run off if sees something of interest.
“A fenced-in off-leash area would be really awesome,” she says of the prospect of more designated spots.
The dog park closest to home isn’t the best option for Atlas.
“It’s definitely walkable but we wouldn’t take (Atlas) there because it’s kind of gross,” Reiz said with a laugh.
After potential pilots were put on hold last year, The City of Victoria’s draft budget has earmarked $400,000 for the dogs in parks program this year to explore off-leash options.
“This complex project will require third-party support and will consist of public consultation, research and technical analysis, including assessment of existing and potential new leash-optional areas across the city, design options, operating hours, benefits, risk mitigation and recommendations for program improvements, as well as an implementation plan,” an overview of the program states in the draft.
Black Press Media asked the city why third-party support is needed, what the public consultation efforts will include and what kind of research will go into the study, but was directed back to the excerpt from the draft above.
A number of resident-led appeals came forward in 2022 as owners decried a lack of designated dog parks and off-leash areas in the capital city, or how existing greenspace was being underutilized.
Those struggles, some of which involved people complaining over being ticketed for unclipping their pets, led to the past council approving pilot off-leash areas in several parts of the city, including at Royal Athletic Park. Council then backtracked and agreed to study the various pilots during the city’s fulsome dog park review that was already planned for 2023.
For Kingston and Olarte, their waterfront fetch sessions used to sometimes be a twice-a-day occurrence, but Olarte finds the Dallas Road site less inviting since wood barriers were installed by the cliff-side path last year.
“We come maybe once a week now,” he said.
The wood chips that blanket the dog run also become less than ideal with many dogs doing their business.
Olarte would like it if more off-leash parks were in Vic West, but he would appreciate more all around the city in general.
READ: 2022 off-leash dog park investigations on hold as Victoria reverses course