Blanche Park — Attraction in Miami

Several weeks ago when taking my partner's dog out for some exercise, I decided to bring the lil' guy here to run off some steam, rather than to the park we usually visit. We liked it here at Blanche Park so much that we've returned a few times since.

Blanche Park isn't large and is split into 2 sections; One part is a fenced in, well-maintained playground for children, and the other section is a dog park for canines of all sizes. IMO, this seems to be a really nice facility overall compared with most other area dog parks. The first thing one notices when approaching is that there's a basket of tennis balls, knotted ropes and other toys for any dog using this park to share. Upon entering, you see nice packed mulch paths for the humans, and a low artificial grassy turf covering the entire place that looks much like a putting green, though they did leave 1 area in the back corner with a patch of natural grass. There are plenty of benches for the humans, a rounded, elevated hill in the center, and the people who bring their dogs here seem friendly and outgoing for the most part. Blanche park is also outfitted with a water fountain for both the dogs and their humans, and several poop bag dispensers and trash cans.

The only critical comments I'd have are: 1) Since this is a park for dogs of all sizes, some of the larger ones can get a bit aggressive, and in some cases their owners refuse to do the responsible thing and simply take their aggressive animals home or train them properly. 2) I've seen a number of people come here and sit on a bench to read or become enthralled with their smart phones, while their dogs simply run free with no supervision on their part. That also means that, when they take a dump, the owner pays no notice and doesn't pick it up. Did I mention the entire surface of this place is mulch or artificial turf, meaning the poop sits on the top of the surface? 3) One evening when I came here, we were nearly the last to leave before it closed - yet there were only 2 open parking spaces. IMO, if they've got a number of parking spaces intended for people coming to this park, they should enforce that. As it is, it seems people living in this area take them for...

The dog park is beautiful, quiet, peaceful, and clean with many friendly dogs and great owners, for the most part. There is a woman who comes here with a group of beautiful giant dogs (mostly German shepherds and a Belgian malinois). Anytime a dog that was unfamiliar to her went up to the malinois, she would tell her dog to “be nice” and “be easy.” That obviously made me aware that this particular dog has some behavioral issues.

It started to rain so mostly everyone left the park. I took my dog to the car to wait it out and once it stopped raining we went back in. The woman was still there with all her dogs. Not having anyone else to play with, my dog ran up to the Malinois while barking (he can be pretty vocal). She told me to control my dog as he was trying to attack her dog. I ignored her but once my dog went to initiate some play again, she told me that I “need to keep my dog under control because he’s trying to attack her dog and if anyone is going to get hurt it’ll be my dog.” I kindly told her that he wasn’t attacking and that he was just trying to play. She replied with something along the lines of “I know what playing looks like and your dog was attacking”

I wanted to say a lot of things to her but didn’t want to cause a scene since there was another man in the park with his dog. I was very upset at this point so I just left.

My point is…if your dog has a history of attacking other dogs and nobody can go up to him without telling him to be nice or accuse another dog of attacking him, maybe you shouldn’t bring your dog to a dog park. Obviously she’s afraid that her dog will do something to another dog.

If anyone sees a woman that looks about 40 years old, average weight, with black hair a little past the shoulders and she has a Belgian Malinois with...

I love this park for my American bully mix. People are, for the most part, kind to her & the dogs are great. Except today. 12/22/21 at 3-4 pm. These two SMALL dogs kept barking at each other aggressively. Their owners DID NOT separate them. They laughed & thought it was a silly little quirk. One blonde woman talked to herself saying my dog was the one barking. 😐 miss ma’am my dog kept running away from those noises. STOP ACTING STUPID WITH YOUR SMALL DOGS !!! BARKING AGGRESSIVELY IS BAD & NOT HAVING PROPER RECALL SHOWS HOW RECKLESS OF AN OWNER YOU ARE !!! REACTIVITY IS NOT A ✨ SILLY LITTLE 🤪 QUIRK ✨ IT’S BAD BEHAVIOR !!! 🤨 stop giving small dogs excuses. it made the environment unsafe that i left early.

PS: i only took videos of my dog playing with others in the beginning before the environment turned sour. i wish google had an option to...