Ohlone Park West

Not safe for small dogs. People without control of their dogs come here and their dogs attack smaller dogs.
Ok if you come when it’s empty.

I love bringing my baby to this park! For the most part there are some very well behaved gentle dogs here. I am not giving it a 5 star because every now and then you do have those owners who dont control or watch their dogs which can be very annoying. I have a small (17 pound) mutt and he loves all dogs.
He sure enjoys coming here! Overall great park, pretty clean and they even have bags for people to clean up and a bowl of water if they get thirsty!

This rating is for the dog park portion.
There is no separation between the large dogs and the small dogs. I think this is ok, if the owners are ok with this. Some owners with smaller dogs could be a bit timid to bring their dogs to this dog park because of this reason. The last few times I went there were a majority of large dogs.
It’s not an incredibly big dog park, but it allows dogs to run around. It’s covered in tanbark which worries me a slight bit because my dog just cut his paw running through leaves, etc. Although, I know that is normal for an active dog. There is a cement path that runs through the middle of the park and several wooden benches for people to sit and be social.

First time at a dog park. This is an off leash dog park. Took our little dog there. People were really nice and helpful and dogs were very pleasant too even though most of them dwarfed our dog. Great place to socialize your dog (s). Looking forward to coming back soon.

Very mixed views of this dog park. It would be great if it weren’t for the clueless owners of aggressive dogs.
Unfortunately, there aren’t many fenced-​in dog parks in the Berkeley area. Point Isabelle and Cesar Chavez Park are both great, and despite the lack of fences are a better alternative to Ohlone.
While the vast majority of dogs and dog owners at this park are fine, and some of them are pretty great, there are far too many aggressive dogs with clueless/​dismissive/​defensive owners.
Recurring example both experienced and witnessed at this park:
Some people will just dump their dog here and ignore them for the next 40 minutes while they chat with other owners. Their dogs will proceed to go completely wild: humping, biting, barking and pinning down other dogs with their teeth while the other dog whines. After prying their dog’s teeth off of your dog’s neck, which includes having to actually pick your dog up because the other dog immediately pummels your dog after each separation, you shout over the barking mêlée for the dog’s owner. After asking several times, clueless dog owner will finally pop their head up from their conversation. When you tell them to watch their dog, they will claim that the dogs were just playing (even though clueless owner was clearly not watching), and that their dog has never had any problems before (despite the fact that 20 minutes later other dog owners will remark amongst themselves how aggressively they are playing with a new dog).
«If you don’t want your dog to play,» clueless owner will say, «then don’t bring it here.» That should be the message of this dog park: If you don’t want your dog to get pinned down indefinitely by an aggressive dog with a clueless owner, don’t come here.
I finish this review with a little advice to dog park dog owners:
If you bring your dog to a dog park, you should actually pay attention to them. (Note: If you don’t want to pay attention to your dog, then don’t get one.) While dogs will wrestle and chase each other, pay attention to how the other dogs respond. If your dog clenches its jaw onto another dog’s neck, standing over it and pinning it to the ground, while the other dog is whining and has its tail lodged firmly between its legs, this isn’t «playing.» If each time said dog manages to get away, your dog responds by pinning it back down, this isn’t «playing.» Focus. Dogs playing means tails wagging, it means tit-​for-​tat wrestling, it means brief separation followed by mutual re-​engagement. It can include a little biting of the necks, and even a tumble or two, but BOTH dogs should clearly be enjoying themselves. If you don’t know this, and refuse to learn it, please don’t come to a dog park, ignore your dog, and defend this behavior as «playing.»

Plenty of grassy space for the workout we did, and it was nice that there were no glaring dirt patches. The ground isn’t the most level, so we had to watch our ankles!

What can I say about this dog park? I really do want to like, it can be a nice park at times, but for the most part it’s rather just sub-​par. There are a lot of better choices in terms of dog parks in the east bay area, and even in Berkeley itself there are better alternatives than Ohlone. However it does have its merits, it’s just that those merits are oftentimes overshadowed by all the downfalls of the place.
So let’s start off with the good points. First and foremost, for all that live in the area, it’s just really convenient. I mean it’s really really convenient and requires no work really on the part of owners. Which is probably one of the biggest faults of the park as well, but we’ll get to that in a bit. Put it simply, if you’re desperate then this place will work perfectly for your dog. Had a long/​bad day at work? Well, just drop them off at Ohlone and let them rear around… And the reason you can do that is because it’s enclosed, another point for the park. Next, I’ve also noticed that there are regulars at this park which allows for dogs to become accustomed to one another, a good thing. Plus most of the community members are generally really nice and cordial individuals. Lastly, this next point is a bit case specific but I think it’s pretty decent for puppies on off days where the park is less crowded. Because of the enclosed location and small size, you can socialize your pup in a confined location and have control over the situation. That’s a plus.
But now for the demerits of this park… First off, as i mentioned earlier this place does not exactly require a lot of input from the owners. Dogs can run around freely without any supervision and frankly they do. An off-​leash park comes with some liberties, but when owners are completely oblivious to what is going on around them and more importantly what their dog is up to then we have a big problem on our hands. It’s not an exaggeration when other reviewers make statements about the acuity and focus some dog owners at this park are exhibiting. What compounds this situation is when these dogs that are running around unsupervised have behavioral issues i. e aggressiveness, dominance, barking etc. Sometimes these dogs can get out of hand and with a non-​attentive owner things usually progress a lot further than they should under normal circumstances. Don’t get me wrong though, I have a tiny and well trained miniature pinscher that I bring to this park. I’m not overprotective when dogs get into rough play and believe me when this guy plays with any other dog it gets rough for the little guy quick. Usually I’ll just let them rough-​house and rear around, but there are moments when you really just have to step in because a dog is too aggressive and the owner not paying any attention is unable to intervene or recall their pet. This goes for dogs of all shapes and sizes at this park as well, not just the smaller dogs. Obviously some of the dogs that grace this park are not properly trained and do have some behavioral problems. Other than those glaring problems with this park, I just have another minor complaint about the park. This place is kept relatively clean, generally because of clean up days, but on far too many occasions owners do not pick up after their dogs. It’s like a game of minesweeper when you’re walking out on the woodchips.
Overall, I’d say if you’re desperate you can come here. It’s not half bad when there’s a good crowd here, and for convenience sake it does the job. However, with all the inattentive owners that frequent this park and the dogs that have behavior issues, I’d advise that you to take a little bit of extra time and go to one of the prime dog parks at your disposal in the extended area.

This is a great park to hang out at. There’s a lot of grass hang out on and there is also a dog park here that I come to.
The dog park is okay. It’s not my favorite dog park, but it’s in walking distance from where I live so it’s pretty convenient considering i don’t have a car anymore. The dogs here also seem to not favor this park either. My guess is that it’s kind of small and the park is made up of wood chips instead of grass on the ground. There are also pic nic tables where people and their canine friends hang out on. This dog park seems to have the same people who come here and they are pretty friendly. One thing nice about this park is that even when it starts to get dark in the evening, there is usually a small group of people here.

Sketchy, sketchy park. Earlier this summer, my girlfriend and I picked up some sandwiches from Safeway and decided that we wanted to have a picnic in a park. We weren’t sure which one to go, but this one seemed nice. We were so wrong though.
I can’t speak about the dog park, but I can speak about the horrible characters we encountered in the other part of the park. Shortly after laying out our blanket and opening our sandwich wrappers, we heard a bunch of yelling. Two men were having a very heated argument. Their language was coarse, and it looked like things might turn violent (Note: Keep in mind that all of this is happening at noon). However, at that point, a homeless woman interposed her body between the two men and ordered them to separate. The men actually started to comply to her request and they started to walk in opposite directions. However, as the men (who were both African Americans) started walking away, she started hurling racial slurs at them. The men decided not to respond to the crazy woman, but she kept yelling them anyway.
My girlfriend and I tried to ignore this nonsense, and just enjoy our lunch. Unfortunately, we were soon interrupted by a man who looked like he probably owned a van. He said he was a photographer and asked if he could take our picture (he said we were a cute couple). He seemed harmless enough, so we agreed to let him take a couple of pictures. We were both sitting on the picnic blanket, and he told us to just sit there and smile. We became a bit uneasy though when we realized that his camera was just the camera on his phone. He then proceeded to try to position himself in a way where he could see up my girlfriend’s skirt. At that point, I interceded and moved directly in front of his «camera». He got annoyed («You ruined the shot!) and stormed off. At that point, we hastily finished our sandwiches and got out of there as quickly as possible.
In summary, during the thirty minutes we were there, we saw an almost-​fight, a crazy racist, and a sex offender. All of this around noon time. Ugh. Berkeley, you are terrible sometimes.
If you have children, do not bring them anywhere near this park! In fact, no one with any amount of decency should come anywhere near this place.
If anyone knows a good non-​sketchy park in Berkeley, I would love to hear about it though.

This is a review for the dog park:
Close-​by and good for a quick dog-​with-​dog interaction. They have nice wooden benches and tables for you to sit on. However, do be wary. Dogs love to pee on them and there’s one table that smells pretty awful. There is no grass in the park and a lot of sticks that dogs like to chew on. There’s always golf balls or ropes for dogs to play with and of course water and potty bags.
Usually it is better if you have big dogs as most of the dogs there are pretty big. I bring my miniature pinscher/​chihuahua there from time to time when I don’t have time to bring him to the bigger dog parks. There are a few medium to small dogs that come by that he can play with but that is rather rare.
To sum it up, it is a decent park and I will continue to go there. If you do have time and a car though, take your dog out for a treat at Cesar Chavez Park or Point Isabelle Park!

Came here with my sister who has got a stark raving mad energetic mutt that if he isn’t run for about 3 hours a day — will wreck havoc on everything (this park was perfect for him!) … I brought my havenese puppy — who LOVES the big dogs and my 8 year old dopey havanese who we dubbed the «Fun Police». [Because he starts barking if other dogs appear to be having too much fun around him.]
Great time by all … and met some fun fellow dog owners! As with any population of random folks gathering, you’ll have some nice people you can totally relate to … and some crazies (humans and dogs).
Dogs big and small … and always some dirty old balls to pick up and toss around. I don’t live in the area to make the drive down here … but a nice place to grab a book and let your fur baby get some exercise and make some friends.

It’s a fine park. Very vertical. I like that someone put it there in the middle of Berkeley. There’s a dog park, a place for the kids to climb and play, and tons of space for hippies. It’s not terribly impressive, but it’s our park. Yay for Ohlone.

The entire park is really nice, but the dog park is a bit lacking.

My English Lab loves this place! My baby Kaiden enjoys smelling other dogs and running after them. His buddies are friendly but they pretty much stay around their owners. The owners seem to know each other and gather in groups too. I’m usually here once or twice a week since I live in Pinole. But this place is the best park to take your pet if its your first time exposing your baby to other dogs.

needs a little love. okay a lot of love. but you gotta love it.
the place is a little run down. the paths are broken. the place is a little messy. some folks forget to clean up after themselves and their pets. it’s the tragedy of the commons. when more and more people spend their time indoors playing with their gadgets, we forget about all the fun there is to be had outside.
there’s a dog park here. a play area with a jungle gym with slides and swings in a sandbox for kids. basketball courts. picnic tables. bbq pits. and lots of green grass all around all around and the green grass grows all around. this place is amazing!
this was the perfect location for a birthday party!
in collaboration with PARKOUR CONNECTIONS — i celebrated my 27^th birthday party here. PARKOUR CONNECTIONS set up a play area/​obstacle course on the grass and taught a 2 hour class for the event. we also played a little ball on the courts, threw the football and frisbee around and of course fired up the bbq. it just so happen to be on one of those rare berkeley winter days when the sun was shining and the planets aligned.
i’m a kid at heart. what can i say? it was an AMAZING birthday.
until next time
cheers!

I’m really not a fan of the dog park, but the rest of Ohlone Park West is great — volleyball courts, BBQ stands, and the west-​west end across from the BART station is another great place to bring your dog.
The dog park is super dusty, and compared to other dog parks in Berkeley and San Francisco, I’ve seen more irresponsible dog owners at Ohlone. Too many instances of big aggressive dogs running amok, or smaller dogs yipping endlessly. Gives me (and my boxer) anxiety, so won’t be going there anymore.
The west end, near the softball field, has a stretch of grass large enough to let my dog run off-​leash. Towards sunset there’s normally a big gathering of nearby folks that get together to chat. It’s quite nice.
There’s a full-​size basketball court, which is sometimes occupied by yoga-​type folks in the early morning, but is otherwise occupied by friendly pickup games.

Running the dawg in the Ohlone Dust Bowl. :hack-​hack:
One star for parking, one that there IS a dog park, but beyond that, it’s kind of sad to be in the middle of this lovely greenbelt and the dogs get dirt and wood chips. I can live with the Berkeley folks and their dogs, but the dust just sucks… I’ll bet it’s fun in the rain.
Actively searching for another spot.

friendly people and a dynamic layout for the dogs to play in.
it’s not just a big empty space like a lot of dog parks, there are trees, picnic tables, rocks and a cement pathway for when it’s rainy.
this park also has a good balance of shady spots and sunny spots.
and there are usually friendly people and friendly dogs there right up until the park closes.

My dog, Max Tango — Canine Private Eye, (pictured here:
) would like to offer the following review of the Ohlone Dog Park:
«Woof woof woof woof. Woof woof woof woof woof woof woof woof woof. (Woof woof growl growl woof growl woof woof Mom. Woof growl growl growl growl.)
Woof woof woof woof woof woof woof Ohlone Dog Park. Woof woof woof woof woof woof woof wood chips woof woof mud.
Woof woof woof woof woofers woof woof woof woof poop woof woof Mom woof. Woof woof woof poop woof woof woof!
Minus one star woof woof woof water bowls woof doggie drinking fountains woof woof woof. Woof woof woof woof woof woof woof woof woof woof woof woof? Woof woof woof woof woof?
Bitch, woof.»
Translation:
I like this park. There are lots of friendly dogs to play with. (Except that stupid dog who jumped on my Mom. I didn’t like that dog.)
There are lots of good smells at Ohlone Dog Park. It’s much improved since they put down wood chips over the mud.
I wish all the dog owners were as responsible about picking up poop as my Mom is. She even picked up poop that wasn’t mine!
Minus one star because there aren’t water bowls or doggie drinking fountains at this park. What’s a dog supposed to do on a hot day after playing ball and chasing their friends? Suffer until they get home?
Bitch, please.

I just want to update my review to balance the abundance of negative Ohlone vibes. I’ve come here maybe 20 or 30 times in the last 3 years. Every time I come we have a very pleasant time.
I have two dogs that LOVE to play and wrestle with other dogs. They chase, and they box, and Ohlone is great for them. I know my dogs well, and recognize the sounds they make as play sounds. I’ve not felt any violent aggressive vibes from my dogs, or their playmates. Other dog lovers chat with us and I feel very safe bringing my muts here. In all my visits, I’ve never seen a dog fight at Ohlone park. That’s not to say they don’t happen, but from my experience they’re NOT the norm here.
For the most part, people pick up their dog’s messes. The ground isn’t THAT dusty or muddy. Compared to the tidal mud and huge stinky puddles at Pt. Isabelle, my pups come home clean after playing at Ohlone.
There are push brooms on top of the storage shed for anybody to use. One time while I was hanging out on the picnic benches with friends, one thoughtful dog owner swept off all the paved walkways. After she completed a very vigorous and thorough cleaning, she was treated to a round of applause from all the other people in the park. It was cute.
I’m sorry so many folks have had bad experiences here and I really just want to encourage all you conscientious dog loving Unilocalers to come out and keep this park the friendly place that I’ve enjoyed for the last couple years now. If you see me and my two mutts here, please do say hi!