Under-the-radar dog parks in DC (or metro-accessible suburbs)? (apartment, neighborhoods)
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I'm moving to DC and looking for an apartment. One of my main needs is to be within a 5-minute-or-so walk of an area where my dog can run and play with other dogs off-leash. In addition to the official off-leash areas, do you know of places that are not official dog parks but where people let dogs off-leash and where there are likely to be other dogs around for my dog to play with?
Please note: My dog is well-trained and under voice command (ie, comes when I call). I don't want to be an inconsiderate neighbor, so I'm looking for places where it's generally considered "ok" by the neighbors for dogs to be off-leash. For instance, right now I live near a school in Seattle that allows people to have their dogs off-leash after school hours in the schoolyard, because it keeps drug dealers away. Similarly, a friend lives near a park where dog owners congregate in a well-defined area after work and the neighbors are fine with it. These are the kinds of places I'm looking for in DC or MD/VA suburbs.
There are lots of nice legitimate dog parks in Arlington/Falls Church/Alexandria that are sanctioned off leash areas. Most are fenced, some are not.
This area (Northern Virginia, at least) is extremely law abiding when it comes to dogs. I have never seen an off leash dog in a school or park (there are strict leash laws, and in the case of schools no dogs are allowed on school property). I do occasionally allow my dog to chase squirrels in the woods behind my house, but we live pretty far from a metro. It would never fly in the more densely populated metro accessible areas.
I'm totally happy (and would prefer) to use an official off-leash park. But I can find those pretty easily from 3,000 miles away by googling - I was asking about unofficial parks so as to potentially widen the number of neighborhoods I look at to live.
But that's good to know about NoVa and the law-abiding dog owners - thanks!
This. Don't take your dog on the metro unless it's a service animal.
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