[Michael Romanos]

If enough pressure is placed on town councils they will put up dog parks and dog walking trails. It needs a pressure group and the group needs to know who in the council has dogs or likes dogs - this includes those who are elected and those who are senior professional staff on council such as the Town Clerk ( or Chief Executive), head of Parks and Reserves etc.

In my little city of Upper Hutt, the mayor is a dog lover and a number of the elected councillors are dog owners - this constitutes the majority of elected councillors. So in Upper Hutt all the huge array of parks and tracks and trails and forests and bush walks are open to dogs - on or off leash as long as they are under control.

I would ensure a dog park has grassed areas and trees (big trees) - I have seen on the internet some wretched dog parks in the USA without vegetation - and if possible include a relatively clean creek or stream. I would like a dog park to have some obstacles at different heights suitable for dogs and maybe a man made hill or two.