It is surely one of New York’s grandest sights, if you are a dog: Prospect Park on a sunny fall morning.
There, during off-leash hours, the linked fields of Long Meadow transform into a canine fantasia. Acres and acres of green grass abound, along with hills and grass and trees and grass and, off in the distance, more grass.
And dogs, of course — hundreds of them, freed from their fuddy-duddy humans, playing chase or clumped together in growly play-scrums or taking off on wild-eyed sprints, tongues waving like pennants. There are more tennis balls flying than in the early rounds of the U.S. Open. The butt-sniffing opportunities are nearly infinite.
What dog wouldn’t love this?
Ours, it turns out. Lemon is a Shih Tzu mix with many fine qualities, but courage is not one of them. When we approach the open fields during off-leash hours, her 16-pound body tenses visibly. The slightest foray onto the grass prompts a frantic scamper back to the asphalt.
Dogs are permitted off-leash in New York City parks from sunrise to 9 a.m. and from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., and only in designated areas. The rules were codified by the Parks Department in 2007; since then, off-leash time in Prospect Park has only grown in popularity, a trend that mirrors the resurgence of the park as a whole in recent decades. The park counted over 10 million visits in 2016, according to the Prospect Park Alliance, up from between 1 and 2 million in 1987, the year the alliance was founded.
Millions of more human visits, of course, usually means lots more dogs. Other pet-related data would seem to support this: over a 10-year period ending in 2015, for instance, Brooklyn saw a 200-plus increase in the number of veterinarians in the borough, according to a report by the New York City Economic Development Corporation.
“We’re seeing more people coming to off-leash hours for sure,” said Sue Donoghue, president of the alliance, whose springer spaniel, Dwayne, is a Long Meadow regular.
The alliance works with groups like Fido in Prospect Park, an organization that promotes safe and responsible dog ownership, encouraging owners to adhere to the off-leash rules. It is an ongoing challenge: New York is a spirit-of-the-law town, and in Prospect Park one can observe dogs being let off-leash any time of day, almost anywhere four legs can travel — at least until a Parks Department vehicle prowls by. (Fines begin at $100.)
Lemon’s refusal to join the off-leash circus stems, as far as my wife and I can tell, from a single traumatic puppyhood experience, or as we ruefully call it, “The Day That One Dog Chased Her.” So the three of us watch from the footpaths while the other dogs frolic.
On a given morning you can see every kind of dog Brooklyn has to offer: the purebreds and the rescue mutts and the in-betweeners, fluffypoos and shaggydoodles whose DNA is a designer cocktail of cute.
They come in all sizes. Maximus, an imposing but sweet-natured mastiff, is a frequent visitor. His owner, Jonathan Poe of Park Slope, calls Maximus his “125-pound lap dog.”
Less cumbersome are two poodles named Coco and Heather (nattily dressed, when I met them, in a red sweater and pink down vest, respectively) who make the trip to Prospect Park in carriers toted by their owner, Wendy Taylor, of Bedford-Stuyvesant.
Others travel much farther: Ann Cipolla of Locust Valley, N.Y., drives to Brooklyn almost every weekend from April to October with Gio, a Lagotto Romagnolo. The breed is known as the official Italian truffle-hunting dog, said Ms. Cipolla, though, during our brief encounter, Gio was more concerned with chasing bugs.
Nothing wrong with that. Off-leash hours is the perfect venue for self-expression — for most dogs, at least. A black Labrador and a pit bull do a circle dance, their mouths clamped on the same blue ball, like a high school party game. A beagle rolls down a hill, ears first. A pug runs with a rocking horse gait after a pack of bigger dogs, trying to keep up.
Elsewhere a couple of rust-colored pointers have treed something, presumably a squirrel. A long-haired mutt emerges from a muddy bog looking like Day 3 at Woodstock. Not to worry: nearby there is a fenced-in pond to splash around in, the newly renovated Dog Beach.
The scene reached a peak on a Saturday morning in October, when Fido held its monthly meet-and-greet, called Coffee Bark. Dozens of dogs and their owners congregated near the picnic house for coffee and bagels and dog mingling, while the off-leash fray carried on in the fields below.
At 8 a.m. a pastor arrived to administer the Blessing of the Dogs, an annual Coffee Bark event timed to the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi; the pastor offered a short benediction and sprinkled holy water from a small bottle over the heads of the gathered pets.
(Another Coffee Bark tradition, “Bark the Herald Angels Sing,” featuring dog-themed Christmas and Hanukkah songs, is scheduled for the first Saturday in December.)
Lemon arrived a short while after the blessing. She was predictably nervous among the other dogs, her head on a swivel, tail pointing straight down, but for once she did not drag us away. Maybe it was the scent of holy water lingering in the air, but she appeared to have had a revelation.
Lo, there was a man handing out name-brand doggy treats — blessings aside, Coffee Bark is not immune to product placement. As Lemon chomped on her treat, my wife discreetly unhooked the leash from her harness and suddenly, our squeamish Shih Tzu was officially participating in off-leash hours.
It was hard to tell if Lemon was enjoying herself; she was too distracted by the treats. She had learned the trick wallflower humans have always known, which is to hang out by the food table.
Later we walked down to the field, where, for a few fleeting minutes Lemon sat bravely in the grass, untethered and undaunted by the furry maelstrom around her. She even consented to a certain amount of butt-sniffing from a persistent and amorous Chihuahua.
But the Chihuahua had no treat to offer save for its affections, and Lemon soon trotted back to the safety of the asphalt.
We’ll have to take this off-leash thing in puppy-steps.