By JAN McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
The wolf from Little Red Riding Hood fame kept shaking off his granny nightie and nightcap. The bulldog dressed as a skeleton had a lot of meat on his bones. The dog dressed as a jail inmate kept trying to escape, and the tiny dogs decked out as bumble bees kept their owners quite busy.
It was not a typical Sunday afternoon earlier this month at the Dog Park on Ridge Street in Bowling Green.
A gathering of people and their pets was planned as a “thank you” to people, organizations and businesses who have added amenities to the dog park in the past year.
The park now has a paved pathway winding itself around the 1.3 acres, put in by K&K Construction. The Friends of BG Dog Parks’ “pawtrollers” have been spreading soil, cleaning and finishing the edges of the walkway, and spreading dirt in other needed areas within the park.
And a storage shed has been constructed on the site by Boy Scout Cooper Davis for his Eagle Scout project.
The park, surrounded with a sturdy five-foot high fence, is divided into two separate areas for large dogs and for small dogs, with the dividing line being those above and those under 30 pounds. A water structure has been added to serve people and pups on both the large and the small dog sides.
A sign by the gate provides a QR code for registering on the dog park website. Those registering are sent an email with the gate code. https://www.bgdogparks.org/registration
There is no cost to use the dog park, which like all city parks is open from sunrise to sunset.
New amenities include four waste stations, two custom-built picnic tables, and storage bins. Seating was expanded with two Adirondack chairs and a long wooden bench, supplementing existing site furniture.
The next addition planned for the dog park is a shade pavilion that will span both sides of the fence by the water structure.
“It’s really become a central part of our community,” said Wendy Manning, president of the Friends of BG Dog Parks. “Everyone belongs here.”
And earlier this month, many of those people dressed as dogs, as their dogs posed in Halloween costumes. There were four-legged food items – a ketchup bottle, hotdog in a bun, Thanksgiving turkey, and pumpkin. There were plenty of super heroes – Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman, and classics like witches, bats and devils. There were police officers, cowboys and one bucking bronco with a rodeo rider on his back, and dogs masquerading as a piglet, chicken, cow and skunk.
“Today started out to be a day to say ‘thank you,’” said Jo Ascunce, a member of the Friends of BG Dog Parks Board. “People found out about it and wanted to come – so we just turned it into a fun day.”
The Friends of BG Dog Parks started in 2019 as a small group of individuals who wanted to support dog parks within the city of Bowling Green. The City of Bowling Green approved an allocation of funds in 2022 and in 2024 leased about one acre of land to the Friends of BG Dog Parks for a three-year period (June 2004 to June 2027). The Ridge Dog Park was formally open in June 2025.
The city of Bowling Green as well as many individuals and local businesses contributed their time, resources, and expertise to the park. In addition, the Friends of BG Dog Parks worked with BGSU students in a political science course under the supervision of Dr. Shannon Orr to conduct a feasibility study for the park location. The Friends of BG Dog Parks held numerous fundraisers and participated in many community events.
There are 54 members of Friends of BG Dog Parks and more than 800 unique registered users. Depending on the weather, the number of dogs and people visiting the park varies with numbers surpassing 70 on warm days.
Friends of BG Dog Park maintains the park, by contracting with a local mowing service (D&D Landscaping), a local nursery (North Branch Nursery) to maintain the grass and build the tree line, and WLI for picking up dog waste.
