The numerous cities around the USA that have established and maintained dog parks have evidence that dog parks are as safe as other forms of popular recreation. None of those cities (that we have found) have needed special insurance or any kind of monitoring or watching. Nobody has been sued. Dogs seem to not be spreading diseases among themselves. Dogs have not been injured by other dogs --- although there are occasional instances of over-excited dogs running headlong into equipment and fences.

Also, we've found that people with vulnerable (small, easily overwhelmed, shy, or aggressive) dogs tend to, wisely, not take their dogs to dog parks. Those dogs get walked on leashes, and in most cities with dog parks they reportedly are less likely to have to deal with big off-leash dogs, because dog owners reserve their off-leash activity to the legitimate parks. This is as it should be-- dog owners who like off-leash activity usually hate when their dogs make trouble.

Over and over again, we hear "the dog owners work things out between themselves, and that process has taken care of potential problems as long as we've had off-leash areas." There is no reason to think we would have more problems than those cities have.