by Carrie Boyko, guest blogger

Imagine taking your two young children to the playground, only to find it locked up with a “Closed due to lack of Funds” sign, hanging on the gate. In our current economic struggle, this scenario is now what I fear for our U.S. dog parks.

Dog Park USA.com is pleased to announce that a new Dog Park Finder iPhone application is being designed. Since DogParkUSA.com has the most complete listing of dog parks, we thought it would be a great way to share our knowledge with many others. All of the great ratings and reviews will be available too.

We hope to get this app out soon, and we will give more updates as we progress.

We are glad to report that two new parks in Columbus, Ohio (the Three Creeks Dog Park and Wheeler Memorial Dog Park) have recently opened.

Also in Houston, Texas the Bay Area Dog Park has opened.

It is always good to see more and more cities adding dog friendly play areas and parks for us to use.

The K9 Korral has been noticed to be the greenest dog park around. Read about how they are 100% green at Mother Nature Network. Find directions and descriptions at the dog park page.

Many new dog parks are coming to Houston, Texas in the next few months. At least 6 new parks will be opening this Spring and Summer that go along with the other 20 that are in the area already.

We hope all you playful canines have a great time in your new play areas.

 Bellevue residents are getting there second dog park at Jewell Park. Most people are just starting to learn about the first dog park that was opened last year in the nearby LaPlatte area. The new dog park will be opening in phases and the first phase will be done this month, December 2008. It is time to get out and have some fun in Nebraska with your dog. The area seems to have quite a few secret leash-less dog spots to choose from.

Idaho is getting two new dog parks.

The Nampa Dog Park is slated to open in summer 2009 if all goes as planned. They have a 6 acre piece of land set aside and locals are collecting donations to get the best dog park they can.

Couer d'Alene dog park and new animal shelter has been approved. Let us know if there is more information on when this dog park will be built and open. Sounds like the county really needs the new animal shelter as well.

This was one of Rhupert's first trips to the dog park.  The very first trip I did not take a camera because I wanted free hands just in case.  But he did great.  He ran around to about 30 people and met everyone in his ADHD style and greeted all the dogs and played some.  I took him in the small dog area and took Dory as well.  He did take a little kids toy truck and run off with it; I am not sure why a child had a toy truck at the dog park but Rhupert just dropped it after a minute and the kid was laughing at him anyway.  At Fontana there are less dogs and ton

This is Dory on a high tide day at the Mitchel Cove dog beach in Santa Cruz, CA.  There were lots of puddles and tide pools to look at, and rocks to climb.  Dory had a good time sniffing and being at the beach.  "Beach" is definitely becoming one of her favorite words.  The dogs are allowed off leash at this beach at certain times but there is no gated entry so Dory is always on leash because of her bird chasing fetish.  This dog beach really could use some signage with the name of the beach as well as some dog rules.  The dog beach about a mile away just close

We took Dory to the Miyuki Dog Park in San Jose, CA.  She seemed to like it here.  It is all new artificial turf and crushed gravel.  There is a doggie drinking fountain, benches, and trees.  Dory likes going to new places to sniff but she usually does not play the first time at a new place and sometimes just follows me around.  There were only about 10 other dogs there and she was not interested in any of them, probably because she did not know them.