Toronto plan to ban professional dog walkers from park sparks outrage

A popular midtown off-leash dog park will soon be off-limits to professional dog walkers after neighbourhood complaints prompted the local city councillor to bring forward a motion banning commercial attendees

The motion sparked an outcry among local businesses and dog owners who frequent the park.

Ramsden Park, sandwiched between Yonge Street and Avenue Road near Davenport Road, has tennis courts, a splash pad, a hockey rink and, at its western edge, a large off-leash area. A municipal sign on the gates was recently installed informing people that as of Sept. 19, commercial dog walkers will no longer be allowed to access it.

“All the dogs are local and all of these dogs’ owners are paying taxes for these dogs to use the park,” said Rebecca Riddell, who owns Bark Buddies Toronto.

Aside from finding out that she’ll be required to travel farther to find an off-leash area, she’s concerned about no longer having access to Ramsden Park’s special zone for small dogs — an amenity not featured at every city dog park and one that will affect her business directly.

“Essentially they’re asking us to throw these small dogs in with dogs from any size, they can go up to over a hundred pounds,” she said, “and that’s not safe.”

Riddell authored a petition asking for a compromise in lieu of an outright ban, including limiting the time commercial walkers could access the off-leash area to midday hours. She also said there could be an option to install another off-leash area closer to Yonge Street, away from the homes.

The ban is the result of a member’s motion introduced by University-Rosedale Coun. Dianne Saxe at a June meeting of city council. Member’s motions can fast-track the implementation of a bylaw by skipping the usual committee process that gives community members the opportunity to weigh in on the process.

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Dog owners, walkers and neighbours who are against the dog park all told Global News that public consultation should have been considered before Saxe put forward her motion calling for the ban.

Saxe, who is on vacation this week, emailed a written statement acknowledging the sharp division of opinion over the ban, but said it was put in place at the request of affected neighbours until city staff come back with a “dog master plan.”

Saxe said while some off-leash areas permit commercial dog walkers, others do not and there are no criteria for establishing which areas are suitable for them.

“We may need bylaw changes if we wish to allow Commercial dog walkers at specific off-peak daylight hours, Which might be a reasonable compromise,” Saxe wrote.

Saxe’s motion said the dog park report is due back this fall, but in her email, she said it appears it will not be due back at the beginning of 2025 at the earliest. Saxe also said the ban at Ramsden Park is a temporary one, however, there is nothing in the wording of her motion aside from the summary that distinguishes it as a time-limited ban.

Several homes on a neighbouring street backing onto the park had mixed opinions on the ban. Michael Rosenbaum said there can be a lot of noise from fighting dogs.

“There are constant dog fights, we hear them on a constant basis from our backyard,” Rosenbaum said.”There are positives and negatives to it. Personally, I really don’t care.”

While he said he had no real prevailing opinion on whether they should be banned or not, his wife said she wasn’t in favour of a compromise allowing midday access to commercial owners.

One house backing onto the park is currently undergoing renovations and although the occasional bark could be heard on Monday at noon, the sound of power tools and lumber was the primary source of racket.

“It’s actually louder than the dogs sometimes,” Jenn Reck, who owns Barking up the Right Tree dog walkers, said while noting the hypocrisy of the nearby noise complaints. “We can’t even talk over it, so that’s fascinating.”

Other dog walkers who don’t use the park, like Andrew Wood, are concerned about the knock-on effect of having more commercial dog owners heading to parks where they are permitted.

“A lot of the dog parks are already busy enough as it is and if you close one, it causes some of the other dog parks to become even busier,” he said.

Dog owners are also concerned about what the ban could do when they need to lean on a local dog walker.

“There aren’t that many dog parks to begin with in the city, so I find that spending more time in the car, that might even increase their prices,” Federique Charron said.

A city spokesperson said that enforcement would come on a case-by-case basis and that education is always preferred to issuing fines.

Saxe also pointed out that while professional dog walkers will be banned from the off-leash area, they will still be able to walk dogs in other areas of the park provided they remain leashed.