Piper (or Piperoni in this photo) is our rescue pup. We adopted her from Coppers Dream, an organization that rescues dogs, mostly from California’s Central Valley, that are within days of being euthanized. A friend of ours was her foster and we fell immediately in love with her. They told us she was 3-4 months old but the vet said “closer to 6” so we gave her an April 1st birthday. Easy to remember that special day!
We have a nice yard that has become her home and digging grounds, but we need to get this agile girl out running to keep her out of trouble. We are lucky to live in a community that takes care of dogs and their 2 legged friends.
Our favorite, Stulsaft Park, was an almost daily trip with our previous dog, so as soon as Piper was medically ready, we introduced her as well. It is an absolute gem of a city park. There is a large area designated as “off-leash”. The park has well maintained wide paths, hills, a creek, bathrooms and bags for cleaning up after your pet. Please stay within the (very large) designated area when off-leash so we can keep this perk in the park. You may see a lot of dogs there or feel like you have the whole place to yourselves.
Piper and I just checked out the Main Street Agility Dog Park for the first time. We went early morning and were the only ones there for a while. It gave her time to sniff it out and explore. She is amazingly agile, so we are going to have to go back to learn the course. I’ve driven by when it was packed and couldn’t find parking so keep that in mind. The city did an excellent job of using a small, pie shaped piece of property adjacent to the train tracks to create an enclosed dog space for all to use and very close to downtown.
We are also lucky to have a regional park, Pulgas Ridge Open Space Reserve, that allows dogs, on-leash for most of the trails but a large off-leash area up top. Enjoy great views of the bay and usually a few dogs to run with in the field. There are some nice hiking trails so you can wear out the pup and then enjoy an on-leash hike on the trails that go from the sunny and dry ridge top to a shaded creek in the canyon down below. Caution: there are ticks in this park, so check your dog if you let them run off leash through the brush.
Enjoy your walks, I’m pretty sure your pup will!