The Kew Gardens dog park is a very large dog park situated along the lakeshore. The beach is rocky in nearly all parts; in addition to being rocky, it tends to get deep quickly. Never-the-less, it is swimmable. As far as I can tell, it tends to see heavier waves than the supervised person-beach, presumably due to less natural shielding and prevailing winds. As with any large body of water, it can be unsafe, but it does see a (rather) small number of human swimmers. Retrievers and other water-loving dogs vastly outnumber the human swimmers in the water, and the locations where they enter the water tend to be different (there’s a more-pebbled strip to the east that the dogs dominate, shown in the top picture, and the humans get the east side, mostly as overflow from the human-person beach).
An interesting quirk about the Kew Gardens dog park is that it will be quite busy during the daytime, but at night it is virtually abandoned. This is, of course, due to the lack of artificial lighting. The large size and part-bush nature of the park mean you can easily lose sight of your dog at night (or even during the daytime!).
Beware! This dog park looks fenced from the outside, but in reality there is a large gap in the fencing on the east side by the waterfront. When our pup was younger and liked to wander, she several times wandered right out of the dog park through this gap … leading to a low speed foot chase.
Once winter arrives, the entire beachfront becomes a municipal dog park (ie, not just the fenced-off dog beach portion). This allows a long off-leash stroll all the way down to the R.C. Harris Water Treatment Plant. The winds off the lake are sometimes significant, so dress for the weather. Also, keep in mind that a walk through soft beach sand can be much slower-going than a walk along a hard surface. With those warnings out of the way, it’s an enjoyable walk and if your pup is ready for an off-leash walk in an unfenced area, then you should do it!
It’s possible to walk past the R.C. Harris plant, but the going tends to get harder. It is a spot outside the city and divinely quiet, but unless the water level is unusually low (or you bring your high galoshes along), you probably won’t make it to Bluffer’s Park.
The crowd at this dog park seems to be friendly. Not sure why it would be any different from an average Toronto dog park, but that’s how it has seemed.
Visit and enjoy!
Summary Table
| ground cover | A bit of everything, but mostly natural. Generally not much mud, at least. |
| water | Lake water |
| dog park association | ? |
| size | very large |
| enclosure | Mostly chain link fence and lake (water barrier), but there is at least one large gap that allows an escape route |
| url | https://www.toronto.ca/data/parks/prd/facilities/complex/107/index.html |
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