Forest Park Barking Lot — Attraction in New York

The Forest Park Barking Lot, at the Overlook on the east edge of Forest Park, is a good, friendly spot, a fun place for dogs to play and for their humans to chat. It's well-maintained, always stocked with bags. Volunteers bring an enormous full water dispenser every morning, since there's no water fountain inside. The run sits just to the east of the Forest Park hiking trails, too, if you'd like to take in a little city nature with your pup before a dog run romp.

The Barking Lot is considerably further on foot from my house than the other Forest Park dog run, K9 Korral, so I don't go there as often as I'd like in colder weather, but I'm a member. I like to support upkeep, and membership entitles me to great benefits, including discounts at K9 Caterers, my favorite local pet supply store. The board members are very straightforward about their plans for improvements and the estimated cost, too.

The Barking Lot welcomes volunteers and suggestions, and their website is inviting and informative if you'd like to...

I'm not Margo Myer, I'm her husband, Harvey Wachtel, but I haven't figured out how to convince Google that this is my phone.

Warning: Purple prose ahead.

The five stars is for the entire Overlook, not just the dog run. We do enjoy watching the dogs gambol, but I must plead to being a cat person.

We also enjoy watching the kids gambol, and especially the wonderful diversity of the population: men with yarmulkes, women in hijabs, blacks, whites, browns. [The diversity of the dogs even more so: as a geneticist observed at the conclusion of the Human Genome Project, "if humans were dogs, we'd all be the same breed". However, I digress.]

For someone like me who doesn't believe in life after death, a warm late afternoon sojourn near the Overlook Dog Run is as close to heaven as I expect to get. I usually leave humming "imagine all the people living life in peace".

In a word, I find it...

The small and large dog areas are spacious. Fresh water is available along with dog waste bags at our disposal. I cannot say how much I love the space. There is a catch: you must keep your eye on your dog. My dog was bit twice at this park, both a month apart. I cannot turn my head away from my dog for one second without her being followed by another dog. I believe that every owner must know the signs when a dog becomes overly excited and will not back down from chasing after another dog. It is a cue for disaster. So please, please, for the love of all pups, please watch your dog and BE IN CONTROL. I cannot stress that enough as it applies not only to other dog owners, but also to myself. No body deserves to get...