Saddle River County Park Dog Run

My experience with this place has not been great and I am indifferent towards it for several reasons, despite the fact that it is a convenient short few blocks from my home.
Let’s start with cleanliness.
The dog run has a mixed dirt/​gravel surface that is ripe with soaked in urine, feces and fleas — not exactly what I want plastered all over my groomed white bichon or poodle. Equally unpleasant are the many aggressive small dogs I’ve encountered whose owners are either oblivious to dog etiquette, or busy bodies who give unsolicited advice about how to raise and handle your animal. It seems to me that fervid dog owners — as a group — have the need to share their strong opinions about dogs whether you want to hear them, or not.
OK – so I’ve become a dog snob. I admit it. I love my animals and take very good care of them. I suppose that if I still had my Aussies — who loved to horse play with others in the mud and such — I might think differently about this place. But I spend way too much time and money grooming my foo foo dogs to waste the effort here.
That said, the rest of the park is a fine place to walk, bike or run (with or without dogs). The 6+ miles of paved paths that stretch from Ridgewood to Saddle Brook give you plenty of room to recreate — although it can get congested with bikers and runners on weekends.

The park is nice enough, though there is no seating which is a shame. The couple times I have been there on the weekend there has been clique of dog owners who will stare at you and talk amongst themselves about your dog, but never actually talk to you. Very bizarre experience, especially coming from Hoboken where everyone wants to know your dog’s name, breed, life story etc. Won’t be going back because it’s just too uncomfortable.

This seems to be a nice enough dog park, although there was a guy with an aggressively dominant male Miniature Pincher in the small dog park area. It was wearing a spiked black leather collar. This guy allowed his dog to repeatedly attempt terrorize and hump my shy fearful male Maltese. After a few minutes of this I had to pick my dog up and remove him from the dog park because this guys dog was just relentless, and the owner didn’t do too much to prevent it from happening.
His son was with the guy and the son just kept laughing about it. If you truly love animals/​dogs I don’t think you would laugh if you saw in innocent dog being harassed and terrorized.. Owners who don’t control their dogs make it miserable for other owners and dogs who are trying to enjoy the dog park. My dog was traumatized by this incident and is now even more afraid of dog parks due to this incident and we don’t subject our dog to them anymore. To all of you people who bring your aggressive dogs to dog parks, control them please and GET A FREAKIN’ CLUE.

Roy’s Top 5 Things to Know:
1. There’s a separate area for large and small dogs but you’re allowed to bring your small dog into the large dog area but not vice versa. (Small dogs they consider to be 25 lbs and below).
2. No seating.
3. No water fountain for your dog.
4. Large, fenced area for your dog to run around in.
5. I find that the dogs and their owners here are friendlier in the city and less likely to be any dog scuffles. Also you see so many different kind of dogs here, more so than I’ve seen in NYC.

This run has the potential to be one of the best dog run in Bergen County.
Things it has going for it:
— Great fencing
— Great entry areas
— Separate large and small dog runs
— Plenty of shade
— Poop bags provided
— Good size dog runs
— Plenty of parking a short walk away (in park)
Things is had going against it:
— No water
— No seating
— Decomposed/​crushed granite ground cover (not great with a wet long haired dog)
This dog run has the making of a great dog run, but it fells like it is unfinished. The county did a great job with the fencing, dog gate entry areas and are just outside the run… but the inside of the dog runs need some additions. First, there is no seating at all in these runs, which really makes no sense since they made some great concrete benches for people to view the dogs inside the run… bring the same seating inside the runs. Second they added a nice drinking fountain just outside the run… the drinking fountain they installed is for humans only, what would it have cost to buy one of those drinking fountains that have the dog drinking area at the bottom of it? That type of drinking fountain would have sort of made up for not having any water source in the runs.
It really makes no sense why the county didn’t add at least seating and water since they took the time to add them just outside the dog runs… did they run out of money?
Come on Bergen County! You have a potential gem here… give what the residents of this area deserve, and finish what you started.
Add water and seating to the inside of these dog runs and this a solid 4 star dog run. Also upgrade the ground cover to pea gravel or synthetic turf and you have yourself a potential 5 star dog run.
Dog runs/​parks I have been to so far: