Bend’s second small-dogs- only off-leash area opened last week at Ponderosa Park, and the Bend Park & Recreation District expects to open a third facility in the fall.

Jan Taylor, community relations manager for the park district, said as popular as the district’s seven off-leash areas have been, the district frequently heard from the owners of smaller dogs that their animals needed a place of their own.

She said there have been few cases of serious conflicts between small and large dogs at the district’s off-leash area aside from an incident in April, when a small Papillion was attacked and killed by an unattended American Bulldog at Pine Nursery Park.

Local residents who frequent the off-leash areas behave responsibly, for the most part, Taylor said.

“Most people are really, really good with their dogs, and the people who take their dog to dog parks tend to be people who’ve taken care of their animals,” she said.

For the purposes of the small-dog parks at Riverbend Park and now at Ponderosa Park, “small” is any dog under 15 inches high at the shoulder and less than 25 pounds. At the new Ponderosa Park facility, a metal silhouette of a similarly sized dog is bolted to the fence to give dog owners a frame of reference.

At the new facility Saturday afternoon, Fred and Joy Holdren of Bend had the grassy expanse all to themselves to play fetch with Molly, their 2-year-old schnauzer/terrier mix.

Fred Holdren said they’d taken Molly to the small-dogs area at Riverbend Park a few times but found she didn’t care for the wood-chip surface. He said he called the park district to complain about the wood chips and was told the new facility at Ponderosa Park was nearly ready to open.

“There’s so few places you can let them really run for free, so I’m really, really grateful to the parks department for this. It’s wonderful,” said Joy Holdren.

Taylor said the district is working to construct a third off-leash area for small dogs at Pine Nursery Park. As with the area at Ponderosa Park, Pine Nursery will feature a grassy surface when it opens this fall.

With an eighth off-leash park set to open in NorthWest Crossing next year and no indication demand has been met, Taylor said the park district is likely to continue looking for ways to provide places for small dogs to play.

“It just gives small dogs a bit of comfort to be with other small dogs so everybody has a good day in the park.”

— Reporter: 541-383-0387, shammers@bendbulletin.com