For Canines (and People, Too)

"She had a cocker spaniel, and he had two mastiffs," Barros said. "They fell in love here."

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Barros recently befriended Alexis Maurikakis, who moved to the District from London with his partner over the summer.

Maurikakis, who's writing a book at home, said having the dog park nearby for his boxer Daisy -- and himself -- has been "fantastic" because his partner travels frequently for work and he didn't know anyone in the area.

"Everybody I've met in D.C., I've met at the dog park," Maurikakis said. "For people whining about being alone, I say, 'Get a dog.' You meet far more people very quickly."

Arlington is a dog-park pioneer among area jurisdictions. It opened its first "community canine area" 10 years ago.

"We realized a long time ago that these parks weren't about the dogs so much but about people coming together and building communities," said Steve Temmermand, division chief for Arlington Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources. "There are potluck supper clubs, book clubs, people exchange movies, all kinds of stuff. It's an entire social network. People have met their boyfriends, girlfriends and spouses at these parks."

Temmermand said a 2002 survey commissioned by the county found that more people use its dog parks than soccer fields.

In the survey, 9 percent of those who frequently use county facilities put dog parks at the top of the list. "That means 18,000 people in Arlington use these dog parks frequently," Temmermand said, noting that the county has 30,000 registered dogs. "That tells you just how very popular they are." The Shirlington dog park has a group just for pugs, with owners and their dogs meeting there one Saturday a month.

Temmermand said the Arlington parks tend to attract an older, professional and highly educated crowd.

Kelli Holsendolph, a spokeswoman for Montgomery County's Department of Parks, said the county's planning board recently decided to incorporate dog parks into its park system. The county's first dog park opened in Wheaton in 2003 as a pilot project, she said. Now there are three, with two more planned.

In Prince George's, there is one official dog park in College Park, plus two municipal ones in the cities of Bowie and Greenbelt.

Prince William is scouting locations for its first after a countywide survey showed that dog parks were the most frequently requested amenity not currently provided, according to Rick Washco of the county's Park Authority. Finding a location suitable to most people in the area can be a lengthy process, he said.