Conditions improve at dog park, but some patrons not happy




IRIS SMOOT/Acorn Newspapers CANINE EXCERCISE- A dog leaps for a ball thrown by its owner, Jordan Smith, at the Calabasas Bark Park.

IRIS SMOOT/Acorn Newspapers CANINE EXCERCISE- A dog leaps for a ball thrown by its owner, Jordan Smith, at the Calabasas Bark Park.


Dog owners in Calabasas are continuing their call for improvements to the city’s Bark Park, and see the dog park in Thousand Oaks and a possible new facility in Oak Park as more attractive alternatives for canine owners.

Despite the more than $50,000 improvements to the Calabasas park over the past year, Nancy Lewis is one of several dog owners who say the city needs to do more to make the .75-acre park on Las Virgenes Road an enjoyable experience. The combination of grass and wood chips at the park’s entrance, for example, is unnecessary and unsanitary, Lewis said.

“There are plenty of other grasses that are more dog resistant,” Lewis said. “And the wood chips are terrible. Dogs eat them, get splinters and get sick because everything gets soaked up in there. People bring small children and let them run around barefoot on it.”

Dog owner Kim Clark agreed, saying that the wood chips breed bacteria. She also said some owners don’t pick up their dog’s stool, pretending they don’t see it because it blends in with the bark.

“I know a lot of owners who say their dogs have come back from the park with funky worms,” Clark said. “It’s a huge dump.”

Lewis and Stan Shaff own dogs who have had bouts with worms. One of Shaff’s dogs started hemorrhaging and was diagnosed with the whipworm, an intestinal parasite that is passed through the animal’s stool.

“Now I don’t bring them at all,” Shaff said.

It wasn’t confirmed whether or not the Bark Park was the source of the parasite.

Grass is not greener

One alternative for canine owners is the Conejo Creek Dog Park on Avenida de las Flores in Thousand Oaks.

“The Thousand Oaks park is so wonderful,” Clark said. “With the demographic in Calabasas being so rich, you’d think that the park would be a little better.”

Matt Kouba, who runs the T.O. facility through the Conejo Parks and Recreation District, said grass is difficult to maintain at a dog park.

“We try to do grass, but it doesn’t function very well,” Kouba said. “It’s tough to keep turf alive.

“In the conversations I’ve had with people out there, as long as it’s not muddy, it’s fine.”

But Kouba said fake turf has santitation issues of its own and can cause problems because of the heat that it generates. He also said that wood chips, which are used at the Bark Park, create “a home for fleas.”

Other dog parks in Los Angeles, however, see the wood chips as a smart choice for dog parks.

“Dog parks are extremely difficult to manage,” Kouba said. “It’s a very specialized user group. We try to make everyone happy.”

Most owners are dedicated to cleaning up after their pups and try to keep their local facility- whether in Calabasas or in Thousand Oaks- as clean as possible.

“The joke is that the soccer players would love to be able to play at the dog park because there’s less poop on it than on the soccer fields,” Kouba said.

But not in Calabasas, Lewis said.

“One reason I stopped going is that it’s filthy,” she said. “People don’t pick up after their pets and the grass gets torn up. I don’t intend on going back.”

Maintenance was an issue for Shaff as well.

“The park is quite dirty and very, very poorly maintained,” Shaff said. “There are practically no shovels to pick up poop, the plastic bag (dispensers) are empty most of the time. It’s really unfair. We have all kinds of services here in Calabasas and they all seem very well funded except the Bark Park.”

Concerns are addressed

Marty Hall, the Calabasas Bark Park manager, says he hasn’t received any calls about problems with the park.

“Their concerns are important to me,” Hall said.

Hall said he’s visited the park twice in the three months he’s been on duty.

“Everything did look grassy and nice, and I saw the gates were working,” he said. “We just had all the lines painted in the parking lot. Obviously dog owners have their own items of concern. If they’ve addressed that with somebody, they should get a response.”

Jeff Rubin, Calabasas director of community services, said he hadn’t heard any complaints for nearly one year.

“We’ve put tens of thousands of dollars into that facility,” Rubin said. “We put new lights, new sod, new fencing.

“People aren’t happy when it’s dirt, they aren’t happy when it’s sod and they don’t like the wood chips,” Rubin said.

The city also improved the dog park’s irrigation system and shaded areas.

Shaff dismissed the improvements.

“Everything is for the humans, nothing is for the dogs,” Shaff said. “It’s a dog park. It’s for the dogs.”

Hall said he plans to review the park’s condition with a maintenance crew.

“Whatever their concerns are, I’d be happy to take a look,” he said.

Sitting adjacent to the Bark Park is the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District headquarters. LVMWD owns the park site at 4232 Las Virgenes Road and leases it to the city of Calabasas.

Oak Park looks at facility

At its meeting last month, the Oak Park recreation and park planning committee voted to recommend construction of a dog park near Holleytree Drive in Oak Park, where the community’s archery range is located.

The Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District, which oversees the Oak Park parks, plans to approve the $150,000, 1.27-acre gated dog park at its meeting on July 17.

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