Yeah, there's a dog park out West, I think sort of in the Wheeler Field area. Fenced in and specifically for dogs. I'm sure if you vist the Duluth Parks website you'd find the address. There might be others as well.

Off leash trails near Enger and other places are authorized to be created.  Unfortunately, the trails don't exist yet.  It's up to a group to work with the City to develop the trails.  Parks & Recreation would have the details.

If it was a Christian church, then I'm pretty sure Jesus said something about private property being sacred and sharing your property being an abomination in the Sermon on the Mount.

Don't you mean 2000 years ago?  I didn't know that the  churches were ideally Christian until the end of the early middle ages.

If you go off leash in Hawk's Ridge or 7 Bridges Rd, PLEASE make sure you actually have CONTROL of your dog when your dog is distracted or excited by food or other dogs or children.  There have been many troubles with young or excited dogs that are less trained than the owner thinks they are.  A large number of off-leash dogs lack the training to come to their owner when called under distraction.  It can cause these and other problems that have recently occurred...

1. An unleashed 6 month old black lab jumps into a family picnic and takes a sandwich right out of the hands of a 3 year old, who gets scared and cries.  The middle-aged male owner sees it all and runs away without a word, taking no responsibility.

2. A woman on a cell phone with a large dog about 50 yards ahead of her lets her large, friendly dog run up to a group of little children, who start crying as the dog jumps on them.  The owner ignores the problem and focuses on her cell phone call.  When the woman finally reaches her dog, she acts annoyed as if it is the children's fault that they are upset.

3. A man is 50 yards behind his 1 year old dog who is super friendly and runs up to a large dog-aggressive dog fresh from the pound who is on leash.  Dogs fight.  Off-leash dog ignores all owner commands.

4. A couple of young teen boys are walking two very large dogs on "retractable leashes" that are retracted but not locked.  When passing another dog 10 feet away, the two large dogs aggressively pounce on the passing dog and owner, since they have an extra 15 feet of free leash that can extend.  The two teen boys say "They do that all the time."  The other dog owner wonders how the boys' parents failed to explain how to walk the dogs responsibly if this happens all the time.

About 2/3 of off-leash dogs are well trained, and 1/3 are not.  But the owners of the 1/3 are often under the delusion that their dog is well trained and would never jump on children or fight another dog.  

There have been a number of dog fights where an owner says "My 10 month old dog has never fought before, and usually comes when I call."  Some owners think that because their dog is young an friendly, then all children and other dogs will interpret the friendly dog jumping all over them as friendly.  An IQ test is not required for dog ownership.

Oops I hit submit too soon.  I did want to point out that my dog is not an itty bitty teacup type dog, she's at least a medium sized one.  And I don't want to come across as a hypocrite - owning a dog and hating other dog owners - I just want people to realize that they really aren't doing their dog any favors by allowing it to be off leash when there are other people/dogs around.  So buck up, buy a leash and obey the rules.  Or take your dog to a remote location and let her run.  Mine gets her freedom at the hunting shack, where there are no immediate neighbors, no one on the trails on our property, and she has acres of stuff to sniff.

Thanks for the input, all.

I can't let our little terrier mix off leash outside because she just takes off. For some reason, everything is a distraction for her, and I can't trust that she'll stay with me. That's why I was asking for a fenced-in dog park -- someplace for her to run and play outside without me worrying about her taking off.

I am as responsible as I can be. I always clean up after her, and when we were using the church playground area, I always walked her before we went in so that she wouldn't make a mess inside. I'm one of those old-fashioned folks that tries to leave things better than when I find them, so the loss of the little church area was really frustrating for me.

Also, I've been to Keene Creek once. It's not too bad, but my dog wasn't impressed.

Now having a toddler, I get completely frustrated with off-leash dogs.  My son doesn't understand that not all dogs are friendly and he loves dogs.  I don't care if your dog is friendly, but an excited dog can easily hurt my son who I may be trying to take for a walk to burn energy, just like the dog owners.  However, if people wouldn't let their kids run around unsupervised, why would you let your dog?! I have two dogs myself and I don't care how well trained they are, I don't trust them.  I had mine take off once and I learned my lesson that I can't get in their little head to know what he's going to do.  My dogs are well behaved but not super well trained, probably like most dogs in Duluth.

As a dog owner, I get fed up with all of the toddlers running around off leash.

My favorite is the lady I saw walking her "leashed" dogs in Hartley--they had leashes on, but she just let them run around dragging them, so she wouldn't have to keep up!

Anyway, has anyone else visited Keene Creek? The one time I was there, one man came by with his female husky, which really got my old dog wagging his tail (if you know what I mean). The guy mumbled something about how it gets a little dodgy in the evening, and I didn't ask him what he meant. Does he mean that sketchy people bring in their sketchy dogs, such that you wouldn't want to risk having your dog running loose with them lest they be mauled to death? Or does he mean he's scared of the neighborhood? I mean, I'm not really worried about being mugged, since I don't have money and my dog would scare them off (not really).

I vote for a dog park in Lakeside!! We drive 20 miles to get to Keene Creek dog park, which we love!.  A city this size should have more dog friendly areas.

My suggestion given the lack of funding for new parks: the city could designate a couple of existing parks where off-leash dogs are allowed (such a designation would cost nothing other than a couple signs). Then people who don't want to interact with off-leash dogs can go elsewhere.

A fence would still be preferred, but this would be better than nothing.