Andy's Bark Park — Attraction in Woodbury

⚠️ WARNING ⚠️ ON LEASH AREA RULES are ENTIRELY DISRESPECTED. There seems to be a big problem with respecting the on leash and off leash boundaries. MOST people’s dogs are free where they shouldn’t be. If you think this isn’t a big deal, PLEASE consider my situation. I’m a new dog owner I’ll admit and I arrived with the assumption that all dog parks had these boundaries based on common etiquette articles I found online. I don’t think my dogs are ready to be off leash due to prior interactions JUST like the one that happened again today. I was at a pet store and some guys dog got exited to see mine and I not knowing any better allowed the interaction. Terrifies my little puppy and now we’ve had issues ever since. I came here hoping to acclimate my dogs with some distance and controlled interactions, which more googling lead me to believe I should do. At this park today however Some big old leash-less lab charges up from out of nowhere (in the non fenced area) scares the absolute daylights out of my dog and now there is a tussle happening that I cannot manage. No one is hurt but we have taken a HUGE step backward. Unfortunately it was only after this that I decided to find the park rules posted near only ONE of the entrances. (The one I didn’t use.) it states that dogs must be on leash at all time. No specification of boundaries. Just ALL Times. I think most ppl are thinking that’s ridiculous and disregard it altogether. The Woodbury WEBSITE however states clearly that off leash is only allowed in fenced areas. Of course. This NEEDS to be posted clearly at both entrances. The park itself is otherwise great though...

Upon our first visit, I found there was no place for little dogs exclusively to run. I was very very distraught, as that meant my dog could not be allowed offleash until I had cleared the nearby area for little dogs. She tends to really scare them.

Lola loves this place! We will run around the outside, letting her cool off some excitement before we let her play with other dogs. It's 40 acres of pure land, with only little bits of missing fence (you won't really notice it much). When you go enter, there's about three alternate entrances. Two lead to the main entrance, but one goes to a path in the woods that makes up a bunch of the park. It makes a great way to get out without being swamped with dogs right away on a Sunday winter weekend. (like that happens, haha?)

The water works during warm weather, if I understand right. But it's shut down when it's wintertime.

The people are great! They seem to understand the idea of "letting dogs figure it out themselves", but I've seen some tail tucking and ongoing harassment before.

Biggest rule: Don't out too late- I've run into some owners that come out late so their dogs should not deal with such a big crowd. It's probably best to respect their space, and it gets cold and dark anyways.

I'll make sure to update this every once and awhile with updates, it's a same this place isn't...

This park is up there with the Minneapolis Minnehaha dog park as one of the best that I've been to. Though smaller than Minnehaha this park is still huge, and it's a park that (on dry days) is sure to get your pup exercise with minimal need for a bath afterwards. Whereas the Minnrhaha Dog Park has the river for your dog to play in (super fun but also messy), this dog park has large open fields. It has a water spigot so you don't need to bring your own water. It has doggie bags at the entrance as well!

There is a large common area (a few football fields in size, I'd wager) that is gated off from some even larger areas with trails, and within the common area there is another smaller gated off section for...puppies? Small dogs? Nervous dogs? It's purpose isn't totally clear to me but it is a unique and potentially useful feature.

Off of the very large common section there are long trails through the fields and woods in the surrounding area.

I've only been here around midday and there have been a perfect amount of dogs at this time. Not so many that you can't get a walk in, but enough that you're dog will have a blast...