About Waggin' Ways

A dog park finder that lists only what park agencies say on their own websites.

How a park gets listed

1. We find leads in OpenStreetMap (places tagged as dog parks) and on the websites of Ohio cities, villages, townships, park districts and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Leads are only leads.
2. A dog park is listed only if a public agency's own page names it: usually the managing agency's, and where noted, a partner or listing agency's page that says who runs the park.
3. Fencing, small-dog areas, water, hours, fees or requirements, surface, size and rules are quoted from agency pages. A label appears only when the quote affirms it; a page that says "bring your own water" doesn't earn a Water label.
4. A script refetches every page (and reads PDFs) and checks that each quote still appears word for word. Quotes that fail are dropped and parks the agency no longer names drop out. Last check: October 12, 2026.
5. County and map point come from the U.S. Census Bureau: its geocoder for the agency's street address, or, when it can't match one, the center of the ZIP code in the agency's address (4 parks) or of the city, village or township from the Census 2024 Gazetteer (49 parks). Both are labelled approximate.

We don't use Yelp, BringFido, Facebook or Reddit.

Coverage

97 dog parks from 85 agencies. This isn't every dog park in Ohio. Several city and county websites block automated checks (including Columbus, Westerville, Powell, Delaware, West Chester Township and Fairfield County Parks), so we couldn't check their pages, and parks we could find only there aren't listed yet. (Three Creeks, which the City of Columbus manages, is listed because Columbus and Franklin County Metro Parks' page names it.) Cincinnati Parks' dog-park pages didn't show their text to our check either. Private, apartment and business dog parks aren't included.

What the labels mean

• Fenced, Small-dog area, Water: the agency's page says so. The quote is on the park's page here.
• Free: the agency's page says there's no fee. Parks without this label may still be free.
• Permit or membership rules: the agency states a requirement, such as a permit, membership, registration, residency or dog license. The wording is on the park's page.
• Distance: straight-line miles from your ZIP code's center to the park's map point; "about" marks an approximate map point.

The dataset

wagginways-ohio-2026.json is the frozen snapshot this site is built from: every park, quote, source page and Census field.

SHA-256: 602b413cb48f51ad892d3bf8378f67ebf753881625d5d56013515114aa193a33

Who we are

Published by North Coast AI LLC. Built with AI assistance and reviewed by Bill Burkey. We're not affiliated with any park agency.

Ads, analytics and your ZIP code

This site shows Google AdSense ads and uses Google Analytics to count visits. There are no affiliate links. A ZIP code you enter stays in your browser and never goes to our server; the ZIP finder only works with JavaScript on, and without it the finder is hidden. See the privacy policy.

Corrections

Park agencies and readers: if something here is wrong or out of date, tell us through North Coast AI with a link to the agency's page, and we'll fix it.