KALIHIWAI — For the past five years, Diane and Jerry Brenden had a routine. On days when the weather was nice, they would load their Labrador retriever, Hailey, into the car and make the 15-minute drive to the Hanalei Bay
KALIHIWAI — For the past five years, Diane and Jerry Brenden had a routine.
On days when the weather was nice, they would load their Labrador retriever, Hailey, into the car and make the 15-minute drive to the Hanalei Bay area or five-minute drive to the Kalihiwai Bay area and run around with their dog.
But since the North Shore Dog Park opened last month down the street from their home on Kahiliholo Road, Diane Brenden said she and her husband walk only half a mile to reach a place where Hailey can play without her leash.
“You would think that she has died and gone to heaven now that she has a dog park not far from our house,” Diane Brenden said with a laugh. “It’s so wonderful — absolutely marvelous — to be over there with 12 to 15 dogs. We’re trying hard to know all the dogs’ names and now we’re trying to remember the people’s names.”
The couple aren’t the only ones relieved to have a new place for their dogs to play in their backyard.
“It’s beautiful, don’t you think,” said Princeville resident Nancy Lindman, one of dozens of Kauai North Shore Community Foundation volunteers who helped push the project forward beginning last October. “We all love it. We all think it’s beautiful.”
Construction on the $110,000 one-acre, off-leash dog park in the Kalihiwai Ridge subdivision, began in August as the nonprofit’s first large-scale community project.
It sits on the 500-acre Wai Koa Plantation, which was donated early last year by Princeville residents Bill Porter, an E*Trade Financial Corporation co-founder and his wife, Joan Porter.
The Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant dog park includes double-gated entrances into two separate play spaces for large and small dogs, two $2,500 water stations and 14 trees at $500 each.
Two of the eight $1,500 benches planned for the dog park have been donated to Kauai North Shore Community Foundation and are scheduled to arrive soon.
The remaining six benches, along with two $15,000 shade structures for each play area, are the only components of the project still missing from the park, Lindman said.
Many dog owners don’t seem to mind, since they now have a convenient place for their dogs to romp and run.
Mel Drisko, who leases a plot of land from Malama Kauai for a community garden next to the dog park, said he used to take his 3-year-old Labrador and whippet mix dog, Luna, for walks through Wai Koa Plantation on what was then vacant land, where the dog park now sits.
“It’s pretty convenient to let her come in here and run around with the other dogs,” Drisko said on Thursday as he and his wife, Jodi, watched Luna play. “If there are no other dogs, she usually just sniffs around. I take her for regular walks on some private property in another part of Kilauea, but this here is a pretty big property.”
Before the dog park opened, Princeville resident John Gordon said he and his wife, Rosalie, would have to drive to Freddie’s Dog Park at the Kauai Humane Society in Puhi to give his 9-month-old Airedale terrier Zara some exercise.
But since the dog park opened last month, Gordon said he has taken Zara to park at least half a dozen times.
“She’s not used to being with us by herself, so she met some lovely dogs and we’ve met some lovely people there,” Gordon said. “It’s been a really, really positive experience. She has already been through dog obedience training but socialization for a young dog is very, very important. She also really loves the people — she’ll go up to them and lick them in the face.”
And the dogs, as it turns out, aren’t the only ones benefiting.
“It’s really good exercise for my husband because he needs to walk every day,” Diane Brenden said. “I think he’s just as happy as the dog.”
Hounds and humans are invited to the North Shore Dog Park grand opening celebration scheduled Jan. 11.
