What are Your Favorite Dog Parks in Decatur/Atlanta?
Decatur Metro | July 21, 2014 | 11:18 amCurbed recently posted a list of Atlanta’s Top 10 dog parks, with Piedmont taking the top spot. Close-proximity-to-Decatur options Oakhurst, Adair and Mason Mill all make appearances.
Where are your favorite Atlanta metro dog parks?
Piedmont Dog Park pic courtesy of thinkingjosh via Flickr
Piedmont
Adair would greatly benefit from more consistent upkeep–particularly adding mulch in the lower section as needed. Glenlake is nice.
We go to Oakhurst. In recent months a lot of folks have put in a lot of work. Still a little squishy after heavy rains, but the trails are much nicer now and the art projects that continue to pop up are kind of fun.
We used to go to Glenlake, but recently the poor upkeep has caused us to switch to Adair. We have small dogs, and Glenlake has a lot of washouts that have created huge holes under the fence where small dogs can escape.
I used to take Charlie up to Brook Run (old mental hospital site) in Dunwoody/Doraville but haven’t been there since they started doing all the construction about 12-18 ago. It used to be huge, awesome and really only about 10-15 mins w/o traffic.
Anyone been there in the last year? Still good?
I used to go to Oakhurst almost every day, until some folk started coming and claiming that some of the regulars’ dogs had attacked their dogs, and it was absolutely not true. Too bad, because the commitment of the regulars (Lee in particular) in maintaining and restoring those grounds is incredible.
Adair is also great, with a good community of regulars. The fence in the middle decreased the quality of that park, though, and it was a BS move on the part of (organization name withheld to avoid inappropriate language).
Glennlake is small, but its placement is good for parents with kids who are young enough to enjoy the playground, but old enough not to have to be hovered over.
The Decatur dog parks are, in my opinion, a major showpiece of the city. Two of them are large, they are all well maintained for drainage areas, they are way safer than any other dog parks I’ve used, and dog owners are, for the most part, very conscientious about picking up after their dogs, keeping an eye on them, and welcoming others.
If I let complaints about things that aren’t true keep me away from things, I would never leave my front yard, and I sure wouldn’t spend any time on community internet sites.
I keep hoping that some day I will be able to say my favorite dog park is one in Avondale Estates. Sigh. In the meantime, I will neither confirm nor deny my husband’s non-residency use of Decatur and Clarkston dog parks, all of which got a thumbs up for the mere fact of being dog parks that could be used. Appreciate what you have, folks.
I was ramblin’ about in Avondale one weekend morning on the north side of College Avenue (sort of back behind the Tudor Village, I think, near the former industrial site that’s been leveled) and found what appeared to be a vacant lot enjoying heavy use as a — perhaps informal — dog park. Looked like a lot of folks coming and going. Don’t know the story, though.
You may have stumbled upon a Frogs to Dogs class. They use the parking lots and empty lot that are located across the street from Lifeline (it’s the block starting across from Skips and running on the back side of the property the city recently purchased and razed — the old location of Avondale Pizza Cafe is probably the most memorable of the razed buildings). I hear tell there are a couple of sites being used as informal dog parks, but we’re currently enrolled in the Frogs to Dogs reactive dog class (what I like to call the “bad dog class”) in the hopes our sweet girl will learn to get along as well with other dogs as she does with humans so that we can partake in either the civil disobedience near home or a return to a legit dog park in a neighboring city.
We used to go to Glenlake, but stopped after too many parents kept bringing their small (kindergarten & younger) children into the park, then let them run unsupervised with the dogs while the parents stayed glued to their cell phones. Squealing children are disconcerting to dogs (especially if those dogs don’t know the child), and I kept seeing too many near-disasters to feel comfortable coming any longer. We’ve tried Piedmont, but the problem there is too many insufficiently supervised, aggressive big dogs. Haven’t been to Adair in a long time, so may check it out again. But for now, we’re sticking to doggie daycare & play dates with 1 or 2 friends’ dogs in our backyards.
At first glance, this pic looks like a Breugel painting.
It’s a major haul, but the Dream Dog Park in Roswell is really cool. It has fountains and baby pools. Great for a dog who loves the water.
I live very near Oakhurst dog park and have tried it 3 times only to have my dog bullied by other dogs who have packed up against her while their owners sit on top of the picnic tables and ignore it while I try to break it up. Glenlake is better, in my opinion.