Going to the dogs: Pets get their park

Weeks after Somerville opened its first off-leash park, where dozens of dogs run and romp every day, proponents are moving ahead with plans to get more such parks created around the city.

Members of the Somerville Dog Owners Task Force want each of the city's seven wards to have an off-leash area so that dog owners are not limited to Nunziato Field on Summer Street, which opened last month.

Off-leash areas are planned for Perry Park on Washington Street when it is renovated in the fall, and at a new park that is being constructed this spring at the Kemp Nut site on Walnut Street. A public meeting was held last week to discuss putting off-leash areas along the Community Path at Cedar Street, at Willow Avenue, and at Lexington Park. Such areas require designation by the Board of Aldermen.

Based on statistics of dog ownership, as many as 18,000 dogs may live in Somerville, said Michele Biscoe.

Biscoe is a member of the Dog Owners Task Force, which Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone created in August 2004. The group helped plan elements of the off-leash area at Nunziato Field, and raised money to fence it off.

Biscoe, who also chairs the separate Somerville Dog Owners Group, which she helped found to promote responsible dog ownership, said it is important that dogs be able to burn off excess energy to prevent them from developing behavioral problems. They also should learn how to socialize with other dogs, she said.

Each day, before and after normal working hours, the off-leash area at Nunziato Field is packed with dogs of all sizes and breeds that chase one another and that run free.

Owners tend to sit at picnic tables chatting while their dogs play.

Biscoe said it is convenient to have a place where her poodle, Strummer, can play safely.

She likes not having to worry whether she's upsetting her neighbors by using a park where dogs are not allowed.

''We're recognized as part of the community, and it feels really good," Biscoe said. ''It's much more welcoming."

The Somerville Dog Owners Group raised $6,000 to cordon off a 60-foot-by-120-foot portion of Nunziato Field with chain-link fencing. The city contributed $5,000 to the project.

The money the group raised will be kept in a city fund known as Somerville Unleashed, which will be used toward construction of new dog parks.

Carlene Campbell, who is the community relations manager for city strategic planning and community development, said dog owners who used to drive to Cambridge and South Boston to exercise their dogs appreciate the new off-leash park.

Before it opened, she said, ''People just felt they really didn't have any place to go to let their dogs run."

She said interaction between dog owners and non-owners has been positive, as children have played soccer on the Nunziato Field while dogs run safely in their own area.

The only complaints, she said, are that some dog owners are entering the park before it opens at 8 a.m., and that people from outside the area are parking there.

Biscoe said it was important to have off-leash play areas in each ward, so that Nunziato Field doesn't have to accommodate dogs from all over the city.

She compared it to a city needing more than one basketball court.

Having Somerville residents driving in from all over the city and lining up to play basketball would not be adequate, Biscoe said.