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Friday, Oct. 30, 2009

Macon's dog park to celebrate fifth anniversary

Maitland Hudson said it’s easy to socialize at the Tyler’s Place Macon Dog Park.

“It’s a real congenial group of people,” she said Thursday while watching her black Labrador retriever-shepherd mix Buddy enjoy the park. “The only thing is, a lot of us know each other by the dogs’ names and not the owners. Someone might say, ‘This is Buddy’s mother.’ ”

The dog park celebrates its fifth anniversary Saturday from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. with a variety of activities for pets and their owners.

Walter Searcy, who owns pet care service People & Pets, said he’s been a supporter of the park ever since it opened just a stone’s throw from Tattnall Square Park.

Since the dog park opened, the InTown Neighborhood has grown around it, leading to an increase of people using the park with their dogs, Searcy said.

“The neighborhood has been growing,” he said. “We’re keeping it going. We hope to have many more anniversaries here.”

Searcy said the park gets busiest just after 5:30 p.m. each day, when people are done with work and school and have more time to let their dogs roam free. The park is surrounded by a fence, allowing pet owners to let their dogs off their leashes to run around. There’s also a small creek where the dogs can play.

“I like that it’s fenced in,” said John Dixon, who has been taking his mixed-breed Max to the park for the past two years. “He can run and rip and have a good time. It’s real peaceful and a good, fun thing to do. The dogs have fun with each other.”

Patrick Davidson, a Mercer University medical student, said he moved to Macon a few months ago from Statesboro, which didn’t have a dog park for him and Rubio, a mixed-breed to whom he was throwing a tennis ball Thursday.

“It’s pretty nice,” he said. “The downside is there are no woods, but it’s nice. Most of the time, there aren’t any problems with the other dogs.”

Hudson got Buddy just over a year ago, but without the dog park, she probably wouldn’t have gotten him, since he’s too big for her backyard or to walk with a leash for long distances.

“I can’t take him to Central City Park or (the Ocmulgee Heritage Trail) because I’ve got to keep him on a leash,” she said. “He needs to be able to run around. He’s gotten spoiled. ... This is a place where dogs can play and run.”

The park is named for Tyler, a dog owned by Reva Anne Dame. Her love for Tyler led Dame to donate $76,000 in a trust to the Historic Macon Foundation, which helped establish the park, paying for new fencing, a water fountain, a gazebo, landscaping and a kiosk.

To contact writer Phillip Ramati, call 744-4334.