Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- A couple of weeks ago, I focused the Sunday photos on the new type of children’s playgrounds. In the time that playgrounds have changed to what they currently are, dogparks have sprung up in the City’s parks. It makes sense. Anthropologist, Elizabeth Marshall Thomas in her book, The Hidden Lives of Dogs, writes that all a dog really wants is other dogs. Dogparks give city dogs a chance to play with other dogs.

I pass several on my daily routine, and they’re all different.

Madison Square Park

Madison Square park offers a very large and friendly space with “Jemmy’s Run.”

There’s a lot of run-around areas for the dogs and plenty of seating for the owners to
mix and chat.

You enter the fenced area through a small square with two gates. They ask that you open only one gate at a time so that the dogs can’t run out and escape the space.

_
There’ are a lot of trees and shrubery, plenty of plants. There’s an attendant who constantly keeps the space clean. It’s a totally pleasant space where I can imagine dogs have a blast.

Washington Square Park

Washington Square Park offers a couple of dogparks. One quite large, the other quite small.

The larger area looks well worn as evidenced by this front gate, which like all the others has two portals so that the dog can’t escape easily.

_

Like the other special areas in this park, they try to separate the outside from the inside with foliage. I had to stand on a high ground to be able to snap the second of the above shots.

This is quite a populated area. Lots of larger dogs run about. Not a lot of sitting space for the owners.

By comparison, this second are, a bit more centrally located in the park, is very small, no more than 1/8th the area of the other.

The view from the opposite side doesn’t make it feel any larger. Park benches surround
the area where owners can sit watching the dogs play.

As with the other dogpark, there are two gates to enter. It’s designed to make sure your dog won’t escape, running wild around the park. This little squared off area seems no larger than a closet. I can’t imagine two dogs could pass through at the same time.

I have to say that despite the size of this space, I once came upon about eight small dogs running back and forth in a pack; they were having a lot of fun.

NYU Housing complex

The only other dogpark in the nearby area is one adjoining a housing complex which belongs to NYU. They have a relatively large space for dogs to run, and it’s often full of animals and their owners.

I had to push these images a bit since it was dark when I photographed them. You can, however, see here how large the space is.

The entrance is the same as the others. There are two portals so that you can let the dog off the leash once you’ve passed through the first gate, and let the dog into the area via
the second gate.

_
Not many dogs were here when I photographed it, but I’ve often seen a lot of dogs running around the concrete park.

Trackback This Post | Subscribe to the comments through RSS Feed