Ft Myers dog parks

Dogs love parks, especially parks that cater to canines. What is not to love? Lots of smells to sniff, lots of pups to play with, complete off-the-leash freedom. The campground has a very nice dog park, with two enclosures, fresh water and an occasional tortoise to break the monotony if no other dogs are around. It is their favorite destination within the park.

And it is a good destination for me, as well. With the morning sun hitting the trees, it is a great wake-up spot.

For all these reasons – and the fact that it is a short walk from our campsite – we hit this dog park nearly every day.

But there are other dog parks in the Ft Myers area and we checked out two of them this season.

First, we found the Judd Community Park dog park in North Fort Myers. This is a fairly small dog park which wasn’t much better than the Seminole dog park. But it did have a large contingent of other pooches, which Grace loved and which made Rusty nervous. We didn’t stay long and we didn’t go back.

Then, just a week ago, we drove 10 miles to the Barkingham Dog Park, in the Buckingham Park. This park was more interesting but was still somewhat less that I expected. I had heard that dogs could swim there, so I thought it might be similar to the incredible dog park at James Island in Charleston. But it turns out that the only swimming was in a pond adjacent to the enclosure which was posted with “Caution – Alligators” signs. Letting the dogs swim there struck me as being unacceptably risky. I did let Grace wade in – on the leash – and, of course, she immediately flopped down in the mud. That dog loves the water.

We haven’t returned to Barkingham, either, but we may. It is a very nice dog park.

We will keep our eyes open for more dog parks, but these are the only two public ones that I know of within 10 miles of the RV park.