Dog Park Review: Genesee Off-Leash

Do you know how many blackberries there are in theSeattlearea? Especially inSeattlearea dog parks? I know it’s a native species, but oh am I sick of those things.

After Larry’s constant escapes from Grandviewpark, we went back to Westcrest for the next few outings. And while WestCrest is smaller than Grandview, it still has its share of hills covered in blackberries. And June and Larry, for the first time, decided they wanted to dedicate some energy to exploring those areas.

Having my dog wander in an area under the cover of blackberry brambles where I can’t see them, can’t get to them quickly if they get injured, etc, is just not my idea of relaxing.

Since we’re blessed to live in the Seattle area, with a plethora of dog parks, we decided to check out the next closest part to our house.

The Genesee off-leash area takes up 2.5 acres of a public Seattle park. Reading it, that seemed big. However, it’s the smallest of the dog parks I’ve reviewed here. Westcrest is nearly double the size at 4 acres, Sandpoint has 9 acres, Grandview is 37 acres and Marymoor is 40 acres. 2.5 acres, all open, all relatively flat, seemed pretty small when we got there.

In fact, there wasn’t enough space to do a really good chucker throw.

Still, the dogs enjoyed getting to sniff around a new place. (June had the new dog park drool going on.) And they get to meet new dogs. And it was overall a really good group of dogs.

It seemed kind of crowded, but that might have been because it was a sunny, 50 degree Saturday in Seattle, in December. It might also have been because I am used to so much more space.

However, it was a good group of dogs. There were a couple of boxers who played a little rough, but mostly they played rough with each other, and their owner kept a really good eye on them.

There was an absolutely adorable brindle Mastiff there, who was just as bouncy as could be. And a little black Basenji who had more energy than even Larry. He was constantly looking for dogs to chase him around. Larry joined in occasionally, but not as often as I would have liked- probably because the Basenji was close to his actual size, and he likes playing with the bigger dogs.

We also saw two Shiba Inus, a Basset Hound puppy, and an “Old Boston Bulldog” who was probably a Boston Terrier/Bulldog mix.

Besides being smaller than we’re used to, my only real issue with the park were it’s fences. They were probably about 4.5’ high, so decent. But not high enough.

At first, Larry had no intention of jumping the fence, until the blackbird started taunting him. First it landed in the dog area, and Larry went racing toward it. It then swooped at him a couple times before settling down just on the other side of the fence (still part of the park, just not the off-leash area). Larry was having none of that, and after a few moments of pondering (during which we were trying to break his concentration and get him to pay attention to us, but we failed), right over the fence he went.

He didn’t try to chase the bird as it flew out of the park, and had no inclination to go check out the barking dog across the street, thank goodness, but yes, with just a moment’s hesitation, he learned he could jump a 4.5’ fence.

As we were leaving, we ran into some folks with a littleChihuahuaand a Beagle mix. They were a little uncertain about going in to the park- concerned that their Beagle boy might not behave appropriately. So we stood and talked to them about dog parks in general, this one in particular (though it was our first time there), and the mix of dogs currently in the park.

While we did that, the dogs (with the exception of the Chihuahua, but I’m not certain they are dogs) greeted each other and all had lovely doggie body language going on. They were encouraged enough that they decided to go on in and give him a chance to run.

So while the park wasn’t perfect for us, it was nice to help some other folks feel more comfortable with it.