Sounds perfect, right? Yes, quite but not so much. Turns out that a couple years ago, the city revamped its dog park and now you need to swipe a card to get access. This card is free to citizens of St-Lambert but if you live outside the city it costs $115 a year. I love my dog but I’m not about to pay that much considering I have to drive 20 minutes to get there so I find this price a little steep. I can understand the reasoning behind it, they invested quite a bit of money to make it nice and safe for dogs and apparently it was getting overcrowded because of its popularity and dogs where getting injured because of aggressive play from some dogs -but $115 a year? Now when I drive by the park I rarely see dogs there unless it’s a Saturday or Sunday, quite sad. By the way, when walking through the Seaway Park I noticed an unlocked gate on the side of the big dog area, so much for the needing a swipe card.
Obviously, we didn’t go to that park. I had seen another one in Brossard, on boulevard Rome near Quartier Dix30. My dad and I ended up at this one instead. I have to say, I will likely never go back to this dog park. It’s an alright park, better than nothing I guess. First off, it’s not totally fenced in, the two sections, where the arrows are, show where the city failed to put fencing. I do hope they fix this before a serious injury (or worse) occurs.
When I got home, I looked up other dog parks in the area hoping to find one that wasn’t too far away, turns there was one in the next town over. I have to say that I enjoy going to the Candiac dog park. It’s a fair size and has some trees and one picnic table but no benches. Save for the last time I was there, the poop bag dispenser always had bags and most owners do pick up after their dog, although there are some that haven’t. I think the city also cleans the park up once a week since the messes aren’t multiplying and taking over. I also appreciate that the city (or someone) has gone to the trouble of adding plastic fencing or chicken wire in the areas where the chain link fencing doesn’t reach the ground – especially since the park is right beside the busy highway. I also like that there is a doggie water fountain for when dogs get thirst from running around. Overall, this has been my favourite park to go to and I’ve gone back a couple times a week since finding it.