Pups prance at Chinook Park

A flurry of furry friends bounded across the grass at Chinook Park in Ocean Shores Thursday morning, excitement contained only by a perimeter of chain link fence.

The new fence, which contains 12,000 square feet of grass, is Ocean Shores’ first official dog park, which opened with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday morning.

“I’m really excited to get this dog park open and have a lot of fun in there,” said Ocean Shores project manager Becky Leach, herself a proud owner of an Australian Shepherd and border collie/poodle.

Leach then opened the gates to each of the park’s two sections that divide large and small dogs. Pugs and mini poodles waddled and rolled around the smaller area, while golden retrievers and heelers loped after tennis balls in the larger area.

As Leigh Lott threw a ball to her two golden retrievers, Rowdy and Charley, she said the park will provide an opportunity to socialize, both for people and dogs.

“I think it’s a really great thing for our community, and I will definitely be using it for Rowdy and Charley,” Lott said.

Lott said she often takes the dogs to the beach for exercise.

“I love the beach, but there’s times when you don’t always want to go to the beach,” she said, noting the retrievers sometimes chase birds when let loose on the open sand.

Giving people, especially Ocean Shores residents, a second option to the beach was a big reason the city’s park’s board chose to pursue the project, said park’s board chair Kristin Hartman. She said the beach presents multiple problems for dogs, including sand ingestion, traffic and dangerous ocean conditions.

Moreover, dogs aren’t a furry friend to beaches themselves: studies show canines left to roam freely can disturb habitat for intertidal and dune wildlife, disrupt natural behavior of shorebirds and other animals, and pollute with their poop.

When ideas surfaced for a dog park in 2021, Hartman said, the parks board set out to build a new park from scratch, but then shifted gears and considered using an existing park instead.

At the time, the three-acre Chinook Park on the east side of Duck Lake was “incredibly underutilized,” and full of goathead weeds, which the city has since treated, Hartman said. The park had plenty of open space, water and parking, making it a good candidate for a dog park.

Using American Rescue Plan Act funds, the city spent about $50,000 to build the dog park, which was constructed by RC Fence. Another $350,000 is in contract to improve the rest of the park, Leach said.

That will involve replacing outdated playground equipment, installing restrooms with flushable toilets, and building a quarter-mile gravel walking trail around the outside of the park. Benches will also be added to the inside of the dog park, courtesy of the Ocean Shores Park Foundation.

Contact reporter Clayton Franke at 406-552-3917 or clayton.franke@thedailyworld.com.

Clayton Franke / The Daily World Ocean Shores Mayor Jon Martin, right, and Parks Board Chair Kristin Hartman cut the ceremonial ribbon for the new Chinook dog park on Thursday, Aug. 24.