The Cassels Avenue dog park is a pleasant, quiet, dog park is essentially co-located with a children’s playground and splashpad. I originally found it by serendipitous accident, while walking to the Kew Gardens dog park. It is an unfenced dog park, and I really enjoy this; I find the unfenced parks much more relaxing than the fenced parks, although I couldn’t use them at all for the first couple years when our dog was young and had a tendency to wander off… Maybe it is in my head, but I also imagine that the dogs (and owners) that frequent the unfenced parks are slightly better trained than the averages in the fenced parks.
Although the nice large grass field should attract users, the Cassels Avenue dog park is often empty. It’s close to a couple other dog parks (Norwood and Merrill) that likely draw some users away. The unclear boundary between the dog park area and the playground means that owners need to constantly recall their dogs when the dogs stray too close to the playground (despite the favourable words I just wrote about unfenced dog parks, this one does have some design weaknesses). Another drawback is that the path from the road to the children’s playground leads right through the dog park.
During the winter, this dog park doubles as a tobogganing hill (similar to Monarch Park). There’s the occasional mismatch between kids who are not comfortable with dogs, but overall it seems to work well. Due to tree cover and the steep slope (which causes the snow to be stripped off the hill by the sleds), the tobogganing season at this park is very short.
More than any other dog park, I sometimes see children coming from the playground to play with the dogs. If you’re not absolutely certain that your dog is good with all children, then this is not the right dog park for you. The lack of a boundary between the dog park and the playground means your dog better have good recall, too. Lastly, if your dog is social, then keep in mind that this park is often empty outside of prime-time hours. All that said, I always make it a point to stop at Cassels Avenue dog park when walking in the area. For me, it’s not usually a destination on its own, though.
For fun, here’s a review of the adjacent playground: https://www.danforthdad.com/post/cassels
| ground cover | grass |
| water | Accessible from fountain by playground; often there is a dog water bowl available, but not always. Somewhat slow to fill-up and not maximally convenient, but usable. |
| dog park association | none? |
| size | large |
| enclosure | unfenced; unclear southern boundary means that dogs often stray into the playground area, since they have no way of identifying the boundary |
| url | https://www.toronto.ca/data/parks/prd/facilities/complex/157/index.html |