Category: Pet stuff

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 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.

Here is a Google map to the dog park

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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.

Here is a Google map to the dog park

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