Research

Interviews

We interviewed several dog owners at the dog park to find out what the issues are and what they want to do at the dog park. We found some important issues that dog owners really care about.


Dog park facilities

We found that they value the facilities at the dog park, such as water, treats, and trash bags. They said they always forget to bring them or need more of them.

  • I would like to know when the water is turned back on for the dog park.
  • It would be nice to have a treat vending machine.






Crowdedness

A lot of the dog owners mentioned they like the social experience at the dog park. They told us how it feels good when others love their dogs. They also share information on digestive problems and suggest food recommendations. However, some dog owners mentioned that they don’t like how some owners are very protective, especially pure-bred owners don't really like other dogs playing with their dogs.

We found that they prefer the dog park to be crowded or empty, depending on their previous experience or personal preference. Some people like to come when there are a lot of dogs for his dog to play with, while some didn’t want a log of dogs to be around because they are concerned about other breeds or for some other reasons.

  • I would like to have information on when the most crowded time is.
  • I would like information on organizing events (i.e.,some sort of box social on every 2nd Thursday)


Breed issues

We found that they are very concerned about other dogs and think that some dogs (i.e., pit bulls) really need to be watched. They said they usually talk to owners about other breeds and were interested in knowing whether the dogs are unruly or not. They mentioned information on type of other dogs around would be useful, although they were not sure if people would be willing to put the information in the kiosk.

  • I would like to know what other breeds are around my dog.

Health issues

As dog owners are generally concerned about their dogs’ health, they were interested in health monitoring, espcially vaccinations. As they have been hearing of dogs getting sick from dog park use, they were interested in knowing if an illness was going around too, although they realized that they would want to be anonymous.

  • It would be great to get notifications if something was going around for dogs (i.e., worms, tick season).