Chicago Dog Park Coalition· Updates · 2 min read
Introducing the Chicago Dog Park Coalition
An independent network connecting the volunteers who keep Chicago's Dog Friendly Areas running so they can share resources and advocate collectively for dog parks citywide.
Chicago has 33 official Dog Friendly Areas, the Park District’s name for fenced, off-leash dog parks. Almost every one of them is kept running by a small group of local volunteers: organizing cleanups, raising money, putting on events, and chasing down repairs.
The strange thing is how little those volunteers talk to each other. A park on the North Side can spend a year solving a drainage problem that a park on the South Side already fixed. Everyone is working hard, mostly alone, on the same set of problems.
Why this exists
The Chicago Dog Park Coalition is an independent, grassroots effort to change that: a way for the people behind Chicago’s DFAs to find each other, share resources, and, when it makes sense, advocate together for the betterment of dog parks across the city. Each park keeps its own leadership and its own character.
The idea gathered steam around the Park District’s DFA Connection Meeting in August 2026, where it became clear that a lot of volunteers wanted a standing way to stay in touch after the meeting ended.
Get involved
Whether you help run a Chicago dog park or spend time at one, please sign up. Tell us which parks you are connected to, and we will keep you in the loop as the coalition takes up the issues that matter to your park. Membership is free, and you can unsubscribe anytime.