So today I had Theo at the Vet again..don't ask. Anyway, there was this guy in the waiting area with a crazy 6 month old lab (very cute). I was talking to him and he asked if I had been to the dog park in Southbury, he said it was a big fenced in field with a few acres of property. I said no and of course as soon as I got home, hubby and I (and Theo) headed over there. Well, the place is huge, they have picnic tables, a couple of agility jumps, a huge field and it sits right on a river. Even better, there are trails that you can bring the dog off or on leash for miles along the river. The place is amazing and only 10 minutes away from us. One woman we talked to said that people from 30-45 minutes come there all the time.

We can have the second New England/East Coast lab fest there!!! It would be so perfect.

Oooooooooooooo, that sounds like SO much fun! I wish we had something like that here!

Originally posted by Heather A

We can have the second New England/East Coast lab fest there!!! It would be so perfect.

I can't WAIT till the 2nd East Coast Lab Fest. Everytime I follow a new post on the current one, I want to cry. If ONLY I wasn't going on vacation. I'm sure my kids would have had fun.

AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!! PERFECT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have a dog park in Ridgefield, but it's fairly small and often crowded.

And Southbury is not far at all!!!!!

YESSSSSSSSSSS!!!

Believe it or not, I've heard tell of a place in Southbury that sounds like a playground for pooches! I just thought it was like the Atlantis myth, or lost dutchman's mine, but it's good to know that it's true. I'll definately head there for the next meeting, in fact, Mickey and I may scout it out ahead of time...

:)

While looking for directions to the Southbury dog park, I found this link of dog parks in CT!!! Check out our dog park (Ridgefield), says it's a great place for Greyhounds which is really funny since Drum was definitely the first (we were there opening day), and is the most regular greyhound patron of that park!!

Zen and Mickey's Mom - If you guys ever head over there let me know - like I said I am very close and I'm home quite a bit. It is well worth a drive and you can spend a few hours there.

HeatherA & Mickey's Mom... are we all that close to each other? I don't think Southbury is that far from us. My old next door neighbors recently moved there. We could do a CT DoggiePark Tour, you guys could come down to ours too! That would be fun! MiniLabFests! Festettes!

Oh, I'm all for it, you guys name a time and a park, and Mickey and I will be there!

Alright...2nd lab fest already :D I am not sure how far I am from Southbury but it might be a good weekend trip for the gang. Woo hoo I can't believe CT has a dog place :D

Thanks HeatherA

Just to give you guys an idea of how far Southbury may be from you -

Mickey'sMom and GusJack - DH used to drive from Clinton to Southbury for work and it took him a solid hour. He does drive too fast though.

Zencat - I am not sure exactly where Ridgefield is, but think kind of close to Danbury??? Well we stopped at Trader Joes yesterday down that way and it took us about 20-25 minutes to get to where the dog park is. Not sure if that helps or not. Also, it is less than 5 minutes off 84.

Let me know when is good for you guys - I took the next year off from school (that makes me sound really young, but I am not that young) and am working only a couple days a week for DH so I have lots of time!

I am pretty sure it would be about an hour for us,but that isn't to bad. I see that they have swimming area. We are free again the weekend of 7/31 & 8/1.

Gusjack - that weekend may or maynot be good for me. I have a shower on 8/1 and my parents may come up for the weekend - not sure yet. Also we will be going away so the following 2 weekend - 8/7 and 8/14 would not work either. But other than those I think we are clear?? I will try to find out if they are coming up or not (parents).

I'm in north Ridgefield, about 4 miles from Danbury. 10 mins from Trader Joes in Danbury, it's my regular grocery store!!

Woo Hoo!!!

Zencat - Totally off topic, but can I tell you how much I love Trader Joes! I had been there once before but didn't realize how great the prices where. We got 4 bags of food yesterday for $66. At the local "Green Grocer" I would have paid $150 for what I got. That's why I timed it on the way home, to see if it was worth the drive, and it is.

Southbury is probably too far for me. I'm in between the NewHaven/Milford area.

I took our two labs to the Hamden Dog Park last weekend. It was nice. There were anywhere from 12-18 dogs there. We stayed about an hour.

That is the first time I've taken them to a dog park. I've been looking for places I safely can take them off-leash. I'm not sure about/comfortable taking our 15 month off leash in an unenclosed area, I don't know if she'll come back.

Anyway, I'd be interested in hearing about any other parks in the area if anyone has any experiences to talk about.

Originally posted by SandysDad
Southbury is probably too far for me. I'm in between the NewHaven/Milford area.

I took our two labs to the Hamden Dog Park last weekend. It was nice. There were anywhere from 12-18 dogs there. We stayed about an hour.

That is the first time I've taken them to a dog park. I've been looking for places I safely can take them off-leash. I'm not sure about/comfortable taking our 15 month off leash in an unenclosed area, I don't know if she'll come back.

Anyway, I'd be interested in hearing about any other parks in the area if anyone has any experiences to talk about.

Are you able to join us for the lab fest on Saturday, July 17th @ 11am @ Bluff Point in Groton, CT?

Originally posted by GusJack
Are you able to join us for the lab fest on Saturday, July 17th @ 11am @ Bluff Point in Groton, CT?

I was thinking about it. Groton is quite a hike, about 75-90 minutes for us. It's not awful, but our labs are a royal pain-in-the-@ss in the car.

What is the facility like?

Originally posted by SandysDad
I was thinking about it. Groton is quite a hike, about 75-90 minutes for us. It's not awful, but our labs are a royal pain-in-the-@ss in the car.

What is the facility like?

go to lab events section and look under RSVP East Coast July 17th Bluff Point, CT...I posted some pics. Our plan is to walk in on a pretty wide trail and then hit a beach area for some privacy. If you really don't want to bring the labs, come alone...a few other members are coming labless too ..you can enjoy every elses labs.

Originally posted by GusJack
go to lab events section and look under RSVP East Coast July 17th Bluff Point, CT...I posted some pics. Our plan is to walk in on a pretty wide trail and then hit a beach area for some privacy. If you really don't want to bring the labs, come alone...a few other members are coming labless too ..you can enjoy every elses labs.

I like taking our labs out. I just don't totally trust our younger one. She was fine at the dog park with other people and dogs, but at home she is always misbehaving, jumping on people, and wrestling with our other lab.

And I don't think she can be around kids. She is always jumping up on kids, at home, outside, etc...

Originally posted by SandysDad
I like taking our labs out. I just don't totally trust our younger one. She was fine at the dog park with other people and dogs, but at home she is always misbehaving, jumping on people, and wrestling with our other lab.

And I don't think she can be around kids. She is always jumping up on kids, at home, outside, etc...

How old are they again? My girls are going to be 9 months this month. They are not the most well behaved, still jump, but I think we all are in agreement that our kids might be excited until we get to play. We are okay with crazy labs this day! Come on, think about it. If not, looks like we'll have another get together in the Southbury area soon.

And I don't think she can be around kids. She is always jumping up on kids, at home, outside, etc...

I can only vouch for us, but we're USED to jumping playing tumbling dogs, including our son. He knows what "stand back!" means and has been going to the dog park for years. It's a great part of the fun for us AND our dogs to be able to cut loose and really be themselves!

Hope you can make either or both events, the more the merrier!

Originally posted by GusJack
How old are they again? My girls are going to be 9 months this month. They are not the most well behaved, still jump, but I think we all are in agreement that our kids might be excited until we get to play. We are okay with crazy labs this day! Come on, think about it. If not, looks like we'll have another get together in the Southbury area soon.

Our younger one (yellow lab, Sandy) is 15 months old. She is very bratty. Sometimes she'll decided that she just doesn't want to come in, then it becomes a 30 minute process to get her inside. Mind you that she is fine 90% of the time, but i just want to strangle her the other 10%.

Our other one (chocolate lab, Josie) is 3 years old. We've had her about 4 months now. We adopted her from a couple our age (~30) where the husband was back and forth to Iraq, and the wife was still in college. She's adjusted very well, but she is super clingy.


Originally posted by ZenCat
I can only vouch for us, but we're USED to jumping playing tumbling dogs, including our son. He knows what "stand back!" means and has been going to the dog park for years. It's a great part of the fun for us AND our dogs to be able to cut loose and really be themselves!

Hope you can make either or both events, the more the merrier!

Sandy is INSANE around kids. I don't know what it is, but when she sees a kid she starts making noises that sound like a horse, whining, yelping, etc... The one time she was off-leash she totally ran this one kid over, just flattened him.

Anyway, I must've missed it, but what is the time frame for the Southbury get together?

We didn't come up with a date or time yet in Southbury only because we are focusing on the Bluff Pt gathering 7/17. My guess it will be in August sometime. We'd love to meet your gang!

Just wanted to give a heads up on another CT dog park. I visited the dog park in Milford, CT tonight, I beleive it's called Eisenhower Park.

Anyway here is the rundown.

Sandy bolted from the car when I opened the door. I didn't even get a chance to get her leash on, she just took off. How embarrassing. To make matters worse there was a guy with his horse out in the field, and of course Sandy runs right over and starts sniffing around. Mind you that I'm trying to catch her, but the James Dean wannabe starts giving me an attitude. I apologized for my dogs behavior, yet all he wanted to was keep running his mouth, about how I'm really going to be sorry if my dogs comes near his horse. I know horses are skittish and it's not exactly safe for dogs to be pestering them, but obviously I was having a problem here. Anyway, if there weren't so many people around I probably would have had to have some more 'forceful' words with this person.

When Sandy finally decided to come back we went into the 'leash-free' area. In general it was ok. It was a large fenced in area, about 3/4 grass, 1/4 dirt. Of course all the dogs were playing in the dirt, and Sandy was filthy. I was there about an hour. There were around 20-25 dogs there. THe one thing that bothered me, and probably why I wont go back, is that in the whole hour I was there I didn't see one person pick up after their dog. Thats just gross! I cleaned up after my dog, but I didn't see anyone else do the same.

Hey Sandy's dad thanks for the heads up. I will make a note to self that that place isn't a fav of our members here. I can deal with the dirt but not with other people's dog poo...that is gross.

Sounds like James Dean was focused more on HIMSELF....geez, don't people realize that things happen. We took Kasey and Gusty to Salmon River a few weeks ago. Kasey was so excited that she took off. I had her on a flexi-leash and when she ran (yes there was a guy on the trail) my hands were holding the rope part of the flexi...I had to let go because stupid me tried to hold the rope and it burned my fingers. Things really are accidents and sometimes people can be so rude....

I want to issue an invite to anyone who'd like to come down to our town Dog Park. It's completely fenced in, plenty of shade, plenty of benches, couple of picnic tables, well maintained, water source, poopy bag dispensers.

Anyone who'd like to meet - any time - give me a pm for directions! There are a few regulars who frown on "out of towners" (elitest snobs - they even place and maintain urns of FLOWERS in the dog park) and then there are regulars like US who argue that there is nothing better than good solid responsible dog owners who understand the value of dog parks, socialization, etc. and warmly welcome out of towners.

I'll bet if we all organized a walk en masse down our picturesque main street we could get our picture in the newspaper too!!!!

Ok people, I just read through your thread, and I don't see a date nailed down. When is this gathering happening so that Mia and I can come!?

LOL General Custer! Do your thang!!!

Ok, I need some info. What the name of the place? Who is on vacation what week?

Originally posted by ZenCat
I want to issue an invite to anyone who'd like to come down to our town Dog Park. It's completely fenced in, plenty of shade, plenty of benches, couple of picnic tables, well maintained, water source, poopy bag dispensers.

Where is this located?

Originally posted by SandysDad
Where is this located?

you must join us when we do this again...we haven't come up with a definite place but we are looking at aug 29

Ridgefield Bark Park Ridgefield, CT
Fully fenced, separate small dog area, running water, poopbags, double entry gate. Benches, picnic table, great place with nice people and nice dogs. Terrific place for greyhounds! Driving_Directions: At the end of Governor Street in Ridgefield (past the Police Station...go to the end, make a right and a quick left into the parking lot. You can't miss it!).

Where is Ridgefield?

I am not sure where in CT, I have never been there. You can send a PM to ZenCat...she goes there.

Yeah, I'm down in Norwalk and would LOVE to take a ride to Southbury with the boys.
I have no idea where it is...i'm thinking kinda northeast????
keep us posted.
Zencat, I absolutely love Ridgefield. We looked at homes there before buying in Norwalk. Way to expensive for us!! Maybe in a couple of years.

SandysDad, Ridgefield's next closest big town is Danbury.