Yesterday, as we have almost everyday for the last 7 months my husband and I took my dog to one of the many closed in playgrounds and let him off the leash so he could do a bit of running.We usually pick the same one because there are no kids that time of the day. A man that lived in the area came over to the playground and told me that he would call the police on us and that we weren't allowed to have the dog on a playground. Not really wanting to cause any issues, we just apologized and left. I came home and looked at the housing rules and saw that its true, but I am sort of upset. Where are we supposed to take our pets to run and be free for a little bit? I have tried Carney and well ... if I wanted drive 30 mins and pay a toll so my dog could play in a sand pit I would just go to the beach or something. That and the dog gets car sick and doesn't feel much like running and playing after that anyways. Many days I have taken my dog to a few different playgrounds around support site, Children come play with him all the time and if any are afraid or look like they are coming to the playground and are unsure with the dog there I just leave, since after all it is made for them first. I always clean up after him too, I just don't see the issue. Does anyone else feel this way? Is there anyone I can talk to about maybe getting an area for pups to play and run around a bit? Maybe there are plans already in the making? Surely I am not the only one that feels its a little sad.

They are working on a place for dogs to run on support site. It is not finished yet, they have said they are having problems with the contracts.

Please do not break the rules and take your dog to the playgrounds to play. Even if you do pick up the poo, you can not clean up the pee if your dog does that. It also makes it harder to enforce the rules if you go around breaking them. Someone else sees you do it and are more likely to follow suit since "others are doing it too". I also do not wish to take my kids to the play grounds and have them crawling around in dog pee or poo. Please lets follow rules and leave the dogs out of the playgrounds.

And going to Carney, you do not have to pay a toll if you do not take the Tang. There are other ways to get there, and we never pay tolls to get there. We usually go about twice a week if not more.

No ma'm you are not the only one feeling this way. I see little kids taking their dogs into a playground by my house with no supervision and not picking up after their dogs. Where are the parents to say this isn't right? In my case I cannot drive to carney park with two large dogs and and 1year old its not possible. I do know where the dog run is going to be over here they actually have grass growing in it too. There is one problem with it, I do not see a place where it will be sectioned off for big and little dogs this will cause issues. For now we just have to wait it out and just walk them. I love how when dogs were allowed on base we were promised a dog run on base last summer 09. 

This problem has gone on way too long! A dog park/run is overdue and driving to Carney Park is not always feasible. We need answers...but who do we talk to? Is there a POC?  Tonight, at 7pm, there will be a Town Hall Meeting at the Support Site Theater. We need a strong showing of dog owners! Bring your questions and let's ask the CO?

If someone can bring up at this town hall meeting getting the dog park at Carney Park taken care of a little better that would be awesome. Like the OP stated, its a huge sandpit. I took my dog out and when I brought him home he was so filthy and covered in burs that I spent hours afterword cleaning him up.

I highly doubt that bringing it up at the town hall meeting will really see any results. It has been discussed at nearly every town hall meeting.

More than likely the same thing will happen at this one that has happend at all the others.

He will tip toe around the actual questions, ensure the crowd that he is doing "everything possible" to enforce the rules, give an "estimated" date of when things will be finished or done, and then proceed to do nothing about the concerns.

Last town hall meeting I attended, he (the captain) said he looked for the ss dog run to be completed Feb 2010, and we can all see we are way past that deadline.

I am not impressed by these town hall meetings. We were assured and promised a lot at the meeting that informed the community of the dog policy and very little of that has come true.

I would have loved to bring but sadly she couldn't stay on base so she stayed stateside.....as for the dog run stop complaining and volenteer to help finish it.

Angela, you were so right. I was naive to think that asking

the right questions would get us some answers. This town hall meeting was my

first and it was extremely disappointing. I feel like the CO was just giving us

"canned" responses. Not once did he say "I'll look into

it". Why even open the floor if our concerns and suggestions will not be

followed up on?

…and Robert, if the CO had a task force or committee or even

a single POC he could name, I certainly would volunteer!

I am very familiar with the "working on it" attitude, it took me 6 months to get here from the states because someone was "working on" getting all the paperwork together. Nothing actually got done until  I flipped out on everyone, which wasn't exactly the best approach but it got done what needed to get done. I just don't really understand the issue with putting a fence and a gate somewhere up. I would gladly volunteer if I knew the right people to contact, which is why I posted this. I am new to everything military and 7 months of living here hardly constitutes me knowing how to approach issues and other things on base. I am glad that a few other people share my views. Other than going to a town hall meeting, who can I go to? I understand the point of the meetings are to address issues and concerns on base, but I prefer to speak with someone directly, from what I am reading in here it seems being a request and face in a sea of people doesn't exactly grab the attention to really solve a simple issue that would make a lot of people happy like this. 

You can try and contact the Public Works dept.

However, I highly doubt that will get you anywhere at all.

I doubt you will be allowed to "volunteer" to do anything.

Apparently the stuff that is built on base has to be built by local companies and SOFA and all that has to be followed. (that is my understanding of the issues) If they are telling the truth, then the contracts for these companies are not working out. And I do KNOW for a fact that these companies can charge outrageous prices for their work. Not sure if that is the issue with the dog run, but I can tell you that is why you do not have an off base dog run, or kennel, closer than Carney.

There have been numerous proposals of using volunteers on base and off, from the community, who could help with animal issues. All of them have been shot down or ignored by base officals. They site costs as the issue (which I dont understand since volunteers are free).

There are many no cost ways that many of these animal issues could be addressed. But those in charge do not care about the issues enough to either enforce them or to help make them better.

If they did care enough, something would have changed all ready. Yes I know this is the military and they are slow to change, but it has been more than a year and all of those promises made in the beginning are no where to be seen.

The various factions who are supposed to be in charge of things do not work together, there is no ONE poc, even though there have been numerous suggestions and proposals made, and there is a lack of caring from the officials. So really there is little the community can do at this point.

If this is not the case, then I invite the Captian to address the issues in a manner that is better than these town hall meetings. Talk straight about the issues, stop tip toeing around and tell us straight forward.Let us know what is going on and exactly why the community can not be more involved and why the lack of interest in either making the policies better or enforcing them is prevalent on this base.

I can tell you, that here, people see these policies are not enforced, eventually no one is going to care because calling gets you no where, making reports gets you no where, suggestions and offers of help are ignored so what is the point of following rules are calling others out??

I was taking the dogs on a walk this afternoon and just noticed there is a random fenced in area of land, its on the edge of the property by building 2015, If the line of the Base Property is to the outside fences couldn't they just throw a gate on that, fill in some holes and ...throw a table of two in there, there is already a covered area. That seems a good way to utilize space, assuming that it is part of the land the base is on.

Elissa I hear that IS the future dog park..... just a matter of them completing it and getting it opened up.

I just wanted to say, thank you to whoever brought up the subject of the dog park at the meeting. I just read it, and he totally just danced around it as expected, but his answer did give me a better idea of why this park isn't happening, all be it the excuses are still dumb... but, since I have seen the site where it is supposed to be going and read his answers I have a better picture. He did say housing would be the people to get a hold of, which .. means like everything else around here the issue is just passed around cause i bet housing would tell me to talk to someone else. So ... we are waiting on security systems to move ... fantastic.

I've been here for over two years and that fenced area by Bldg 2015 has been like that since a few months after I arrived here. Everything takes so long to get done on base so will see what happens.

Hi Elissa, Im Courtney and I Completely agree with you, I too myself did not no it was against policy to let my dog play in the play ground to get some exercise since there was no where else for him to run. I have to keep him active or he will gain weight and then be over there so Called weight limit and I cant give him the exercise he needs on a leash. I had a Lady call the MA'S on me, 4 cars pulled up, you would of thought I murdered somebody by the way they all jumped outta there cars. See the thing was this woman didnt come up to me in a Nice manner, she immeadiately started yelling at me as soon as she got ouuta her car screaming you cant have your dogs in there dadada with her hands on her hips and head bobbin, I naturally wasnt so happy by the way she handled, so As I started to put my dog on the leash ignoring trying to leave she kept it up, blah blah blah so I admit it I lost my cool And told her to Just Fuck off cause I mean I was leaving ya Know!! Well little did I know she was an off duty MA So natually they made a big deal outta of it like I knew she was one and Was being in sabordinat when I thought it was just someones wife complaining. Well The MA'S tell me No big deal you now no not to have your dogs in there so Next time you will get wrote up, I said ok and My dog has not been in there since. 3 weeks later I have to go see the XO of the base about the whole situation but they werent concerned with my dogs being in the playground they were concerned with me telling her to Fuck off cause she told them that she said she was a MA and that she explained to me that the werent suppose to be in there in a coordiugual way which was farrrrr from the truth. S o I had to sit in and Listen to these men tell me how I need to speack to people and was completely belittle less than a human and was treated like I was Uneducated and all the truth was flipped, After I explained that her story was untrue on how she approched me I was told that they always side with there MA'S no matter what but 9 Outta 10 cases he gives someone the benefit of the doubt so I was just warned and basically was stripped of my freedom of speech to defend myself when someone comes at me inapproiately. The XO told me no later than the end of december and the Dog park should be up and Running so thankfully One good thing come from it!! Since then I get harassed by the MA'S cause our balcony is on the road and someone is always calling in reguards to stuff they no nothing about, for instance our water heater leaks a mop bucket of water if not more a night and it drains from our balcany, I have had them out to fix it 3 times and no success but natuarlly since I have pets they automatically think its dog pee which is too funny to me. So they come up to my house to harass me about it to find out its my water heater and do not apoligize for there nastiness upon arrival to my home. Im so sick of being Harasssed, its never ending ever sice the dog park issue, Living on base is like being in prison for us and our pets its miserable because of grumpy people who have nothing better to do! Alot of what you stated in yours is exactly what has happenened to us for the last 6 months. Im afraid this is what were gonna have to deal with until we can get home cause the non pet lovers out weigh the pet lovers here!! I looked into moving off base but its a long process were still waiting on, we had to write a letter and now wait on approval and they might decline it. Good luck!!!

I find it Really amusing that people are worried about the dog pee in the yard, so you haven't seen the 10,000 cats all over the base, apparently they don't pee or carry diseases.  And the grass out side has given my dogs, and other dogs serious skin infections so maybe you should be concerned about the water used to water the grass and the contaminated soil insead of a dog in a park that isn't even used.  And housing assured this was a pet friendly base and the dog yard would be done "any time" (that was 2 years ago".  Needless to say this is a Completely Unfriendly dog base.

Well Courtney, sounds like you have a really bad attitude yourself, based upon this post and your other regarding pets. Good on them for having you go talk to the XO of the base. There are also rules about telling other people to F-off regardless if they are MAs. Its called profanity and there is no room for its use in public on an installation. I can see why the girl might have been a little peeved by you using the playground. For one I have found if I confront anyone nicely, they usually turn into angry people. It would be nice if we could all just take some criticism and be nice to each other. Next time you are at the playground you should probably take a look at the rules posted there. No pets allowed is clearly written. I do not have pets because they are so hard to take care of when moving so often, but I am an animal lover. I do not call security when people here put their dogs out on the balcony and wait to let them in after they have barked for 30 minutes straight. It sounds like you may have an overzealous neighbor, but it is mil housing and the noseys are here. The playground is just about the only place children can play without having to worry about dog turds, well just about. If irresponsible owners cannot pick up after their animals, for the love of God stay out of the playground. There are plenty of fields for them to get exercise, heck not to far outside the base in Gricignano there is a large park if you wish to let them run free.

Lobbying for a dog run is the right answer, breaking the rules to bring attention to the issue is not the right way to make a point with the CO.  Maybe the CO has seen the dogs barking unattended from balconys, heard them barking in apartments, or received complaints about the dog crap.  I've seen it, how could you not?  Most dog owners may be responsible, but the bad ones get the attention.  I have a dog and live on the Support Site, I read the rules before I moved here, it wasn't hard to get the information and hasn't been difficult to follow the rules.  I understand that if the CO changes the pet policy, I may have to move off base if I want to keep my pet.  I also knew upfront that if I lived on the Support Site, I would have to obey the pet rules and be a good neighbor.  Apparently, this is way too much to ask of many dog owners.  If people didn't like the Support Site pet rules, and knew there wasn't a place to let their dog off the leash, they shouldn't have moved on the Support Site in the first place.  Maybe they should have moved closer to Carney Park if it was such an important of an issue to them.  Frankly, I'm tired of picking up other peoples dog crap almost daily!  Yes, even on the playground by my building I find it, I can't let my kid play out there without checking it out first.  Most days, I have have to pick it up even though there are two bag stations in the immediate vicinity!  Are we really thinking that people, who won't even clean up after their dog in areas specifically identified for children, will suddently clean up after their pet in a designated dog run?  It looks like just another area that I'll need to clean before I use.  Why would anyone expect the CO to change the rules for, what appears to be, irresponsible pet owners?   

On the other Subject we wanted to live off base and they put us on base and said we had to write a letter to our chain of command to even consider the option cause other wise We most def. would be off base!!! We wrote the letter and they said there is a 75% chance they will decline our request so were stuck on base most likely without the option cause My husband isnt a Comanding rank or officer!!! Some of us just dont have the Choice!!!! I think that needs to be changed and we should have the right to live off base if we choose and we dont even have that right! It amazes me that Reguardless if you clean up after your pets and take care of them you still get targeted, very sad!! Responsiable pet owners just cant catch a Break these days!!