Responsible Dog Friendly Ideas

What can we do to responibly make Broadlands more dog friendly?

Suggestions:

Dog walkers are natural to pick up garbage as we walk. We have platic bags and walk about. This can include wast from other less responsible dog walkers.

Increase the number of Dog Mitt dispenzers with waste containers.

Improve snow removal on paths and sidewalks.

Encourage others to clean up after their dogs.

Establish a dog park.


Other ideas? Please respond to show interest.

 

I would love to see a dog park in Broadlands, who do we need to get in touch with to get this rolling. More wastebaskets attached to the mutt mits would be nice. I know VA has a thing with sidewalks only on one side of the street, but walking would be much easier if there were sidewalks on both sids of streets.

 

We moved here from Arlington and really miss our neighborhood dog parks ... the two in Herndon and Reston are okay, but not very conveninent. I understand there was some momentum over in Ashburn Farm last year to establish an Ashburn dog park at the other end of Claiborne Parkway, but it seems to have died after a presentation to the Loudoun County Parks Department. I've tried contacting the leaders of the Ashburn Farm effort, but with no success. In my opinion, while it would be nice to have a "Broadlands" dog park, restricting it to only Broadlands residents would require a lot of HOA monitoring and expense. There's no doubt that others in the area would find out about it and want to use it.

I think we should join with the Ashburn Farm and Ashburn Village HOAs to strongly push Loudoun County to establish a dog park on county property that is convenient to all three communities. In Arlington, the dog parks are simply fenced-in "off leash" areas within existing county parks. Arlington County provides the basic maintenance and trash removal of the parks, and the users agree to pick up dog poop and police the behavior of the dogs. Of course, certain age and vaccination requirements apply too. I'd encourage anyone interested in this idea to check out www.arlingtondogs.org ... there are other similar groups in the area, but none as prominent as Arlington's.

 

Check these sites, they are talking about a dog park in the Ashburn area.

http://www.rdog.org/home.htm
http://www.rdog.org/RDOG_Proposal.pdf
http://www.restondogs.org
http://www.restondogs.org/pages/parks/area_parks.cfm

 

I was aware of those sites, but the latest information on them regarding an Ashburn dog park is from April of last year! (It just says April, but I first looked at them over the winter, so it clearly means April, 2002 ) Hence my concern that the Ashburn Farm effort stalled and that it needs to be rejuvinated!

 

Their web site has old information, but RDOG meets regularly and are still active. They have a Yahoo Message Group called
"RDOG_LoudounCountyVirginia". From the latest post:
-------------
Our next meeting:
Sunday, June 22
At: 7 PM

Location: Shopper's at Parkhurst Shopping Center in Ashburn Farm. We'll meet at the cafe area which is located near the produced section to the right as your enter the store. Plan on buying a light meal for dinner of you like.

We plan to give an update from Mark Novak, the Park Planner from Parks and Recreation of Loudoun County who has given us some great information from our March 2003 meeting, also hear from the Humane Society of Loudoun County as well as form our plans for the next few months.

If you care about the potential location(s) of an off leash area(s) for your dog in Loudoun County-please plan to attend this informative and productive meeting. Together Everyone Achieves More-T.E.A.M. Tell neighbors, friends, more folks means more rapid progress towards our common end goal-Off Leah Area!

If you plan to attend, please e-mail me WebDev2B@aol.com or call (703)327-4979 up through Sunday, June 22 afternoon so we can at least secure seats, treats, eats, etc.

Thanks in Advance!
Carolyn White

 

Thanks for the info, Joy... Someone should update the RDOG website! [8D] I am not sure I can make this Sunday's meeting, but I'll definitely be in touch about future meetings. I completely agree with the TEAM approach to getting this done!