St. John's Off-Leash Dog Parks Guide

The short answer

Nine fenced off-leash parks across St. John's: Quidi Vidi, Bowring, Bidgood, Kenmount Terrace, Mundy Pond, Victoria, Denis Lawlor, Shea Heights, and the Humane Services facility on Higgins Line. Quidi Vidi, Bidgood, and Kenmount Terrace have separate small-breed enclosures. Your dog must be licensed with the City and vaccinated, you may bring a maximum of three dogs, and children under 14 need an adult with them. Everywhere outside those nine fences, By-Law 1514 keeps the leash on.

For a city of its size, St. John's does off-leash well. Nine fenced parks spread from the Goulds to Shea Heights to Kenmount Terrace means most residents have one within a short drive, and three of them have the small-dog side that owners of tiny dogs quietly despair of finding elsewhere.

What trips people up is the second half of the rule. The city's default is leashed, and it is a firm default. A dog off its owner's property may not run at large, which means the quiet trail, the empty field, the fog-shrouded headland at seven in the morning are all leash zones. The nine parks are the exception, not the pattern.

The other thing worth saying out loud: recall is harder here than most places, and not because Newfoundland dogs are worse behaved. Wind takes your voice sideways, and fog removes the visual cue of a person standing there waiting. A dog that returns instantly in a calm suburban yard may hear nothing at all on an open barren. Fences solve that problem, which is a large part of why they matter.

All Nine Parks at a Glance

Park	Location	Small-dog area
Quidi Vidi Park	The Boulevard, opposite 45 Churchill Ave.	Yes
Bowring Park	Opposite 375 Waterford Bridge Rd.	Shared
Bidgood Park	518 Back Line	Yes
Kenmount Terrace	85 Messenger Dr.	Yes
Mundy Pond Park	56 Blackler Ave.	Shared
Victoria Park	34 Sudbury St.	Shared
Denis Lawlor Park	108 McNiven Pl.	Shared
Shea Heights Community Centre	130 Linegar Ave.	Shared
Humane Services Facility	81 Higgins Line	Shared

Locations as published by the City of St. John's dog parks page in July 2026. Check the City page before driving somewhere new.

Park by Park

Quidi Vidi Park

Separate small and large breed areas

The best-known of the nine, sitting beside the lake that the whole city walks. Separate enclosures for small and large breeds mean a nervous ten-pound dog is not sharing a field with a boisterous shepherd. It gets busy on fine evenings and after work, which is either the attraction or the problem depending on your dog. The wind coming across the water is real, so a short-coated dog will want a coat here months after it stopped needing one in a sheltered yard.

Location: The Boulevard, opposite 45 Churchill Ave.

Bowring Park

Single shared enclosure

Fenced, double-gated, and inside the city's best-loved park, which makes it an easy add-on to a walk you were doing anyway. Parking is straightforward and the surrounding paths give you somewhere to decompress a dog before you unclip. Because Bowring pulls families and visitors all year, expect an unpredictable mix of dogs and owners rather than the same regulars every night.

Location: Opposite 375 Waterford Bridge Rd.

Bidgood Park

Separate small and large breed areas

Out toward the Goulds, with separate small and large breed areas. Worth the drive if your usual park is crowded or if you have a small dog who genuinely needs the separate side. Quieter on weekday mornings than anything closer to the centre.

Location: 518 Back Line

Kenmount Terrace

Separate small and large breed areas

A newer neighbourhood park with small and large breed sides, serving one of the fastest-growing parts of the city. Handy if you live in the northwest and would rather not drive across town on a wet Tuesday.

Location: 85 Messenger Dr.

Mundy Pond Park

Single shared enclosure

Central, walkable from a good chunk of the city, and attached to a park people use for everything. A solid weekday option when you want twenty minutes of running rather than a full outing.

Location: 56 Blackler Ave.

Victoria Park

Single shared enclosure

Downtown-adjacent, which is exactly what apartment and row-house owners need. Small by comparison, so it works better for a decent burn-off than for a long social session, and it fills quickly when the weather turns pleasant.

Location: 34 Sudbury St.

Denis Lawlor Park

Single shared enclosure

A neighbourhood park serving the surrounding streets. Usually calmer than Quidi Vidi or Bowring, which suits a dog still learning how to greet politely.

Location: 108 McNiven Pl.

Shea Heights Community Centre

Single shared enclosure

Attached to the community centre and serving Shea Heights. High and exposed, so wind is a factor here more than most, and a fine day up top is genuinely spectacular.

Location: 130 Linegar Ave.

Humane Services Facility

Single shared enclosure

The off-leash area at the City's own Animal Care and Adoption Centre. Convenient if you are already there for a licence, an adoption visit, or a lost-pet enquiry, and a quiet place to give a newly adopted dog a first taste of freedom in a fenced space.

Location: 81 Higgins Line

The Posted Rules

These are the City's own rules, signed at the parks. None of them are complicated, and every one of them exists because something went wrong once.

Dogs must be licensed with the City of St. John's.
Dogs should be up to date on all vaccinations.
Dogs in heat are not permitted to enter.
Maximum of three dogs per person.
Remove any halters or link collars, which can cause injury in tumble play.
Close the gate when entering and leaving.
Never leave your dog unattended.
If your dog becomes unruly or plays rough, leash your dog and leave immediately.
Children under 14 must be accompanied by an adult.
No food or drink in glass containers.

The licence requirement is not decorative. It costs $15 a year for a cat or dog and it is what turns a loose dog into a phone call rather than a stray. Our St. John's pet licensing guide covers how to get one in about five minutes.

Where the Leash Stays On

Bannerman Park. A lovely dog walk and not an off-leash park. Leash rules apply exactly as they do on the street outside.

Pippy Park. The 3,400-acre park in the middle of the city has beautiful trails and a published pet policy that requires pets to be leashed and not roaming. It is not on the City's designated off-leash list. Walk it, enjoy it, keep the lead on.

Signal Hill and the Grand Concourse. Trails, not off-leash areas. Signal Hill in particular combines wind, cliff edges, and heavy visitor traffic, which is the worst possible place to test a recall.

Rennie's River and the Kelly's Brook path. Popular, pretty, on-leash. Spring thaw here exposes a winter's worth of interesting rubbish, so watch what your dog picks up in April.

The bylaw itself is short and worth reading once. Our St. John's dog bylaws guide translates By-Law 1514 into plain language, including the $100 ticket that comes with running at large.

Your First Visit, In Order

Walk the perimeter first, on leash. Five minutes of sniffing outside the fence takes the edge off, and lets you check the gates and fence line before anything is decided.
Read the room through the fence. If the dogs inside are over-aroused or one owner is on their phone while their dog bulldozes everyone, come back later. There is no obligation to go in.
Unclip inside the airlock, not before. Both gates closed, lead off, then open the inner gate. Dogs mob the entrance, and a leashed dog in a mob is a dog that gets defensive.
Keep moving. Owners who walk the perimeter have calmer dogs than owners who cluster and chat. Movement breaks up the standoffs before they start.
Leave before it goes wrong. Ten good minutes beats forty that end with an argument. End on a recall, treat, leash, out.

The Weather Problem Nobody Mentions

Wind. St. John's is one of the windiest cities in the country, and an exposed enclosure like Shea Heights or the lakeside side at Quidi Vidi can be brutal when it is blowing. Your voice does not carry into it. Short-coated dogs chill fast in it. Plan around it rather than pretending it is not there.

Fog. Rain, drizzle, and fog are the local signature, and fog rolls in faster than visitors believe. Inside a fence it is atmospheric. Outside one, it is why nobody should be trusting a recall on the barrens.

Snowbanks against fences. The City clears over 360 centimetres in an average winter, and drifted snow piles against fence lines. A metre of hard-packed snow against a five-foot fence is a three-foot fence for an athletic dog. Check before you unclip in February.

Ice at the gates. The freeze-thaw glaze is the most common cause of a fall at a dog park, and the fall is usually the human. Our winter dog care guide covers footing, salt, and the paw routine that goes with it.

Browse adoptable St. John's dogs

Nine fenced parks and nobody to take to them yet? See the rescue dogs currently waiting for homes across the St. John's area.

See Available St. John's Dogs →

Frequently Asked Questions

How many off-leash dog parks are there in St. John's?+

Nine. The City of St. John's lists Quidi Vidi Park, Mundy Pond Park, Bowring Park, Shea Heights Community Centre, the Humane Services Facility on Higgins Line, Bidgood Park, Denis Lawlor Park, Kenmount Terrace, and Victoria Park. Three of them, Quidi Vidi, Bidgood, and Kenmount Terrace, have separate enclosures for small and large breeds, which matters more than people expect if you own a ten-pound dog. Everywhere else in the city, leashes stay on.

Can my dog be off leash anywhere else in St. John's?+

No. By-Law 1514 prohibits dogs running at large, and a dog off its owner's property has to wear a collar with the current licence tag attached. That default covers every street, trail, and green space in the city that is not a designated off-leash park. A quiet-feeling path is still a leash zone. Pippy Park is the one people get wrong most often: its published pet policy requires pets to be leashed and not roaming, so the trails there are on-leash walking, not a free-run substitute.

Is Bannerman Park an off-leash park?+

No. Bannerman is a wonderful place to walk a dog, but it is not on the City's designated off-leash list, so leash rules apply the same as anywhere else downtown. The same goes for Signal Hill, the Grand Concourse trail network, and the Rennie's River path. If you want your dog running loose, the nearest fenced option to downtown is Victoria Park on Sudbury Street.

Do I need a licence to use the dog parks?+

Yes. The City's posted rules state plainly that dogs must be licensed with the City of St. John's to use an off-leash park. A cat or dog licence is $15 a year and you can buy it online, by email, or in person, including at the Higgins Line facility that has an off-leash area attached to it. The rules also expect dogs to be up to date on vaccinations, and dogs in heat are not permitted to enter at all.

How many dogs can I bring at once?+

Three, per person. That is a posted rule rather than a guideline, and it exists because one human cannot realistically supervise more than three dogs in an enclosure full of strangers. The same rule sheet asks you to never leave your dog unattended, which rules out the common habit of dropping a dog in and sitting in the car with the heater on. Stay in the enclosure and watch your own dog.

What are the rules I might not think of?+

Three catch people out. Remove any halter or link collar before your dog goes in, because in rough play they catch and cause injuries. Children under 14 have to be accompanied by an adult. And glass containers are not allowed, which sounds like fussiness until you have picked broken glass out of a dog's pad. On top of that, close the gate behind you every single time, and if your dog gets unruly or plays too rough, leash up and leave rather than hoping it settles.

Is off-leash a good idea for a newly adopted rescue dog?+

Not in week one, and often not in month one. A dog that has been in your house for four days has no reason to come back to you, and a fenced park full of strange dogs is a lot of pressure for an animal still working out where it lives. Give it a few weeks of leashed walking and recall practice at home first. When you do try, go at a quiet hour, pick a park with a small-dog side if your dog is small, and keep the first session to ten minutes.

How does the weather change how the parks work?+

More than in most Canadian cities. Wind is the constant here, and an exposed park like Shea Heights or the lakeside enclosure at Quidi Vidi can be genuinely unpleasant when it is blowing hard. Fog rolls in fast and swallows visibility, which is unnerving even inside a fence. In winter, snowbanks drift against fence lines and can lower an effective fence height enough for an athletic dog to consider it, and ice at the gates is the most common cause of a fall. Check the fence line before you unclip.

What if my dog has poor recall?+

Fenced parks are exactly where you find that out safely, and they are also where it stops mattering quite so much. The real risk is the assumption that recall inside a fence transfers outside it. It does not, particularly here, where wind carries your voice away and fog cuts your dog off from the visual cue of seeing you. Practise recall on a long line in an open space before you ever consider a dog reliable off leash outside a fence, and remember that the bylaw does not permit it anyway.

Are the parks open in winter?+

Yes, they are outdoor municipal spaces and stay available year-round, though the City's snow-clearing programme prioritises roads and sidewalks rather than dog park interiors. Expect deep snow, drifting, and a churned ice surface after a thaw and refreeze. Cold bright days at Bowring or Quidi Vidi are some of the best dog days of the whole year, so it is worth the effort. Just watch footing at the gates and keep sessions shorter when wind chill is doing the talking.

Where should I go if my dog does not like other dogs?+

Nowhere off-leash, honestly. Fenced dog parks are for dogs who enjoy other dogs, and a dog that finds them stressful gains nothing from being put in one. The alternative that works is a long leash on a quiet trail at an off hour, decompression sniffing rather than sprinting, and structured exercise like scent games at home. A dog-reactive dog in a busy enclosure is how bites happen, and the posted rules ask you to leave immediately if your dog becomes unruly.

What should I bring?+

Bags, always more than you think. Water and a collapsible bowl in warmer months, because the parks are not all serviced. A towel in the car from November to April, since a wet dog and a cold drive home is a miserable combination on this coast. And a leash in your hand rather than clipped to a fence, because the moment you need it is the moment you cannot find it. Leave the treats in your pocket rather than handing them out; food in a group of loose dogs starts arguments.