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The dog park at James Island County Park is what I would consider the crown jewel of CCPRC's three dog parks.
The JICP dog park is the largest of all the dog parks located in the Charleston area, providing ample space for dogs to run around in and perhaps best of all, a lake for dogs to go swimming in.
Two beach areas provide plenty of room for dogs to run around and jump into the water. On hot days, the lake is where you'll find most of the dogs.
Two dog lock style gates for entering and exiting the park provide for smooth flow. A water fountain to the left of the gates as you enter provides water (although most dogs will just end up drinking from the lake anyway) and there's also a hose so you can hose down a muddy dog. A couple of picnic tables and the retaining wall provide a spot for people to sit down, and for some of the dogs, a bit of shade. While the dog park isn't fenced in, trees and bushes lining the perimeter of the park and the lake serve as natural barriers, although some especially motivated dogs have been known to escape the park by swimming across the lake.
Admission to JICP is $1/person, but once you're in you can avail yourself of the dog park and all the other facilities contained within the park. The dog park is the only area where dogs are allowed off leash though, so if you decide to go for a walk around the rest of the park, you'll have to put Fido back on the leash.
One of the main disadvantages of the dog park is the lack of any kind of shelter or shade. If you're there on a hot sunny day, you'd better have plenty of sun screen on. A walk through the water helps cool off the feet, but you'll have to be on the look out for dogs barrelling by, and prepare to get wet from dogs shaking off. However, if things get too hot, you can always head out and go for a walk along the many miles of shaded trails within the park and then head back for more dog park fun.
A piece of advice before going to this dog park: make sure you have a reasonably reliable recall on your dog before going. The park is a really fun place for dogs to go, and sometimes they can be reluctant to leave. If you don't have a good recall on your dog, then you're liable to end up chasing your dog around trying to catch him long after you originally planned to leave.
The next stop on the tour takes me and the dogs up to North Charleston to the Mixson neighbourhood (near the Park Circle area), an area still under development but with a dog park already.
The dog park though, is a tiny little fenced in area that would probably fit in most back yards, so I don't know that I'd really call it a dog park. However, as the fine print on the sign says, it's only a temporary dog park. Hopefully as development of the area continues it will be replaced with a much larger more permanent dog park (one where you don't have to worry about tossing a ball outside the fence.
This one I'll have to come back to in a year or so to see if anything has changed.
The dogs and I headed off downtown in search of the Hazel Parker Dog Run, the third in my list of city-run dog parks (the other two being Hampton and Ackerman).
Located on the peninsula just a block or so down from Tradd and East Bay in Hazel Parker Playground (70 East Bay St), we wandered around the playground area, but didn't see anything resembling a dog park or dog run.
There was a smallish rectangular fenced in gravel area that I suspect is the dog run, but it's currently closed off. I'm guessing the city is renovating the area.
This looks like it will be a dog-lock style entrance for the dog run.
So no dog park action today. Hazel Parker dog run will have to go back on the list to be visited again in a few months time when the city is finished their work.
Mel got adopted out today and left with her new people for a nice new home in Virginia. They seemed like nice folks and I think Mel's going to get all the love and attention she needs.
Now the dogs and I will take a bit of a break before tackling another foster.
Located in West Ashley on Sycamore Ave just off St. Andrews Blvd (Highway 61), Ackerman dog run is a smallish dog park, but with lots of trees that provide ample amounts of shade for those hot sunny days.
There are three dog-lock entrances to the park located at the corners, with a poop bag station at each entrance. A water fountain is located in the middle of the park.
The dog park isn't very large, perhaps 250 m2 or so. There's plenty of room for dogs to run around, but if you have the kind of dog that likes to tear around wide open spaces or go after those long throws, Ackerman may not be the dog park for you.
With an abundance of benches and shade, Ackerman dog run certainly makes for a nice spot to go hang out while the dogs run around and play.
Serendipitously, the day after I started my Lowcountry Dog Park series, I ran into Dog Park USA via a link posted on FriendFeed.
The site is geared towards providing a directory of dog parks around the US, and from the looks of things already has a pretty good collection of them.
Each dog park has it's own page with map and brief description. Registered users can log in to submit photos or reviews of a dog park and rate the park as well.
One neat feature is the ability to form and join groups for a little bit of social networking I suppose.
Navigating the site is pretty simple. Haven't seen a whole lot of content on the site yet. There are a few articles, a low (for now) activity forum and a few other things. I think there's some good potential for the site, especially for people traveling or on the move and looking for a good dog park to go to.
A while ago, the idea popped into my head that I should do a tour of the area dog parks and blog about them. I'm going to start the series off with the one I go to most often, the Hampton Park dog run
Located at the corner of Rutledge and Grove on the Charleston Peninsula (above the Crosstown), this dog park is a large fenced in area providing a large tree for shade, several benches lining the perimeter and a water fountain so the dogs can get water. Bushes line two sides of the dog park, and there are two gates (dog-lock style) opening into the parking lot and onto Grove St on the other side.
You'll find lots of local residents from the surrounding neighbourhood at the dog park during various times of day. The busy times tend to be early morning and late afternoon between 5-8PM (depending on the season). It's a nice place for both dogs and people to socialize. An ample supply of tennis balls is ever present and new ones seem to appear out of nowhere periodically. If you bring your own balls or dog toys, prepare for them to be come community property for the duration of your stay.
The dogs that frequent the dog park are all friendly, but it's always a good idea to keep an eye on your dog because you never know when a scuffle might break out.
There are a couple of poop bag stations that are usually filled most of the time as well as a poop scooper for cleaning up after your dog, but it never hurts to bring your own supply of bags for the rare occasion the bag stations are empty.
Got a call from Nala's vet today with her biopsy results. Looks like they got all of the mast cell tumour and characterized it with a low likelihood of recurrence. I'll still need to watch out for any other bumps that might form, but she's looking in pretty good shape. Now all we need to do is wait for her to heal up and get the staples removed, unless she manages to do that herself (she's already managed to get rid of two staples).
With Nala's mast cell tumour and resultant vet bills, it got me thinking about the costs involved in pet ownership, something that most people usually don't think much about when they first get a pet. Most people tend not to think much past the initial cost of the dog, whether it's from a (hopefully reputable) breeder, rescue group or shelter.
Once the dog is home though, there's a whole list of recurring expenses: food, vet care, toys, supplies, training and kennel costs to name a few.
Since I use Quicken to track and categorize everything I spend, figuring out what the TCO to date for the dogs is relatively easy. From 01-Jan-05 through 15-Jul-08, this pie chart breaks down what I've spent on the dogs.
Note how large the food and vet slabs of the pie are. Food is a large chunk because I feed the dogs a fairly high quality kibble (California Natural Lamb & Rice). No cheap grocery store crap for them. Medication includes any prescribed medications, along with heartworm preventative (Sentinel). Pet Supplies includes things like collars, leashes, crates (probably some toys) and flea/tick repellent (K-9 Advantix), supplements and anything else that I might consider a pet supply. The Other Pet category is kind of a catch-all category, but includes the cost of the dogs ($1700).
Boarding (Kennel) is a fairly significant cost for me as well. Have to put the dogs somewhere when I go away on conferences or vacations that I can't take the dogs along on.
Fortunately Labs are wash and wear type dogs, so I don't spend much on grooming.
Here's how the expenses break down monthly.
Monthly expenses average about $390/month but can frequently exceed that.
The total over the past 3.5 years is just under $16.4k or about $4600/year. This is for two well bred Labs without very many health issues. For dogs with health problems, this can be much, much higher. Your own analysis may yield different numbers, but I suspect the overall distribution of expenses will probably be fairly similar.
But you know what, I wouldn't have it any other way. I consider it all money very well spent. My Labs are my kids.
