She s now trying to provide another alternative. In conjunction with ten-year-old Sydney Gilpin, another neighbor, who opted to attend school remotely so that she could walk her own dog to the park in the mornings, she s launched a change.org petition calling for dogs to be allowed off-leash in Denver parks between the hours of 9 p.m. and 9 a.m.
The model for the plan is New York City, which has allowed what its park department refers to as courtesy hours in designated areas of parks since May 2007. Over the past twenty years, the department says, this policy has kept parks and neighborhoods safer, allowed owners to exercise and socialize their dogs, and reduced the number of dog bites.