South Boston Bark Park — Attraction in Boston

Bark Plaza

Scott Holman, Boston Globe Sunday Magazine

Many forces influence social order- money, peer, fane, lineage, political leanings, and so on. The metrics of animals use are more difficult to discern, at least, to the casual observer. Size? Smell? Behavior?And how do they figure it out on the spot? I have always been fascinated by this at dog parks, which are like canine social laboratories. What determines who chases whom? Why is one poor pup designated as the hunted? How can it be a single dog can leave or arrive and the whole dynamic shifts? I was watching and listening recently at the South Boston Bark Park, a nicely kept retreat right off Carson Beach. The motley crew included a Scottish Terrier in a Bruins get-up, a couple of Labs, a beagle, a West Highlands white terrier, and a few that looked like mutts. They barked, they growled, they mewled, and they tore across the pebbles after tennis balls as if their lives depended on it. Owners and dog walkers chatted near the fence, swapping stories like parents at the playground. With a breeze coming off the ocean and a blue sky overhead, I thought to myself, these dogs could...

I have been here 3 times, twice on a saturday and once during the week. I had very bad experiences both times I went on a saturday. During the week it seems like the place is full of dog savvy people with great friendly dogs, the exact opposite seems to be true of the weekend crowd. The first saturday someone brought a skiddish puppy and brought him in with the big dogs and when it got scared of my dog (who is not at all aggressive, just curious and a lot bigger than a puppy) made us feel like we needed to leave to accommodate them. Today (the second saturday) my dog was attacked by an aggressive dog that definitely shouldnt have been in the park because it was obviously dog aggressive. My advice is to stick to weekdays...

Nice dog park for the city, but don't go in the middle of a weekday.

The dog walkers bring multiple dogs per walker and don't watch them. I saw one bring in a little puppy who was getting humped and pinned into corners left and right. Another walker dropped 5 dogs off and went to get a coffee (I'm sure he worked out with another dog walker to "watch" his set, but still). If I were paying a walker to walk my dog, and they just dumped them off here, I wouldn't be happy.

Otherwise, great location next to the beach, it's kinda small, has gravel (not grass), they have a water fountain,...