Many residents living near Happy Tails Dog Park say the noise is becoming unbearable and some consider moving.
By MEGAN SCOTT
Published April 1, 2004
[Times photo: Douglas Clifford]
All's quiet with these two cockapoos, Berkley, left, and Baxter as they cool off Wednesday at the dog fountain in Dunedin's Happy Tails Dog Park. However, several people living near the park have complained about excessive barking.
DUNEDIN - He keeps a megaphone outside on his picnic table.
And he has a watch to keep track of the time.
When the noise goes on more than five minutes, Charles Markham gets on the loudspeaker.
"I say, "Would you please shush your dog?' " he said. "Sometimes it works."
No, this isn't dog obedience school.
But the barking coming from Happy Tails Dog Park is so loud that Markham is considering moving from the place that has been his home for more than 10 years.
While he has a dog of his own, he describes the noise coming from the new park as if 30 dogs have moved in next door. The park is behind his home.
"I used to like working on my porch," said Markham, a computer consultant, who works at home. "I used to be able to call my clients while I was on the porch. Now I am stuck inside because I can't talk to them with the dogs barking."
Residents who live in the houses that touch the no-leash area at the Louis Vanech Recreation Complex have been hearing more "arfs and woofs," as an increasing number of people learn there is a place where their dogs can run free in a fenced area.
The dog park opened last year at the complex on Garrison Road and has picnic tables, doggie drinking fountains and poop-scoop bags.
It also has constant yelps.
"People are just so discourteous," said Carol Miller, who has lived in her home for 25 years. "They don't try to keep their dogs quiet. You can't be out in your back yard. A dog park is a great idea, but I think you need room for it."
Harry Gross, Dunedin's director of leisure services, is aware of the problem. He is planning to post signs asking pet owners to be considerate and keep their dogs from barking. The city also has discussed making a berm higher and planting a row of trees.
He said some pet owners have been using spillover light from the nearby fields to use the dog park after dark. Signs also will be posted reminding users the park closes at dusk.
"We're hoping we can get this down to an acceptable level for them," Gross said. "If there's barking going on we don't want to subject people to that."
Miller is unsure whether any of that is going to help. She can hear the barking even when she is inside her insulated house and the windows are closed. She worries that with daylight saving time starting this weekend, the barking will only get worse.
David Thomas, another neighbor, said the dog park is in the wrong place. The city should have picked a wide open area away from houses, he said.
The city considered Hammock and Highlander parks, but those were ruled out because they were either too close to residences or actively used for certain programs, Gross said.
He said leisure services sent more than 1,400 letters to people within a half-mile of the proposed site before the location was chosen for the new dog park. The city received 75 responses. Out of those, only four were negative, he said.
"The park has been really popular," he said. "You can go out there any time and it's well used. I think what it is, is these folks live closer to it."
Pet owners who use the park said their dogs are generally quiet. Most of them had heard about the noise complaints. One even said that Markham's voice over the megaphone was louder than the barking.
There is more noise coming from the playground close by, said Mildred Conine, who lets her dog Misty play in the park. She lives in a condominium in Palm Harbor and said the park is one of the few places where Misty can run.
"It's not noisy here," said Conine, as her dog played with some of the other pets. "The dogs get along good. None of them bothers anybody."
The park is busiest in the mornings and in the early evenings when people are getting off work. Sometimes there are more than a dozen dogs in the fenced area, said Theresa Bonventre, who lives in Dunedin.
"Most of the dogs are non-barkers," said Bonventre, who has a black Labrador named Baby. "They do bark, but it's usually in play."
Markham said he didn't think he would have this many issues with the dog park. He said he researched dog parks and found that the main problems were with infections and dog bites.
Barking was not mentioned.
He is hoping the signs asking pet owners to be courteous help with the noise.
Otherwise, he is moving.
"If the dog owners are unreasonable and do not do anything to cut down on the barking, we may sue the city of Dunedin simply to recover our lost property value," said Markham. "And then we will move. We had no intention of moving before this thing showed up here."
