Cathy Lauritsen Memorial Off-Leash Dog Park Regina: The Largest Off-Leash

Where Cathy Lauritsen sits

Cathy Lauritsen Memorial Off-Leash Dog Park sits along Wascana Creek in Regina and is the flagship open-prairie off-leash space in the city. It is one of the five year-round off-leash parks operated by the City of Regina under Animal Bylaw 2009-44. The other four are Mount Pleasant on Winnipeg Street North, Ross Industrial on Solomon Crescent, Mamowimiweyitamowin Park on McKinley Avenue, and Horizon Station on East Buckingham Drive.

The terrain is open prairie grass with creek frontage along one boundary, which makes it the closest thing Regina has to a creek-side off-leash experience. The footprint is the largest of any City off-leash park. The catch sits in the same sentence: that creek boundary is unfenced. The City did not fence the creek side because of Wascana Creek floodplain regulations, which means dogs with poor recall, strong wildlife drive, or a flight-risk history should not be off-leash here.

Hours are 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily, the same as the other four year-round parks. The City of Regina dog parks page keeps the canonical list of off-leash sites and any seasonal closure notices.

Park rules and Animal Bylaw 2009-44

Cathy Lauritsen runs under the same City of Regina Animal Bylaw 2009-44 as every other designated off-leash site. The bylaw was tightened in March 2026, with increased fines for at-large dogs, failure to control, and aggressive behaviour. Four practical things to know:

1. Current City of Regina dog licence required. A current City of Regina dog licence is required to enter any City off-leash area. Animal Services officers patrol the parks and ticket unlicensed dogs. There is a meaningful discount on the licence fee for spayed or neutered dogs.
2. Leash to the boundary. Your dog must be on a leash until you cross the off-leash boundary, and back on a leash the moment you leave. This rule catches a lot of owners off guard in the parking area and on the approach.
3. Verbal control inside. Inside the off-leash zone, your dog must be under verbal control at all times. At Cathy Lauritsen the bar is higher than at the fully fenced parks because a recall failure can carry your dog across the unfenced creek-side boundary.
4. 2026 fine increase. The March 2026 bylaw update raised fines for aggressive behaviour and at-large offences by $50 per incident. Repeated aggressive-behaviour violations can lead to a dog being prohibited from off-leash areas city-wide.

Best times to go

The consistently quiet windows at Cathy Lauritsen are weekday mornings before 9 a.m. year-round and weekday early afternoons between roughly 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. The park draws a steady weekend crowd and a post-work rush from about 5 to 7 p.m. on weekdays. Saturday mid-morning is the single busiest stretch most weeks.

A practical note specific to Cathy Lauritsen: the dawn and dusk windows look beautiful along the creek but they are also when urban coyote activity peaks. If you visit at those hours, recall has to be airtight and the dog in sight at all times. Most regulars who walk Cathy Lauritsen at dawn run with a long line on a new dog until they have weeks of confirmed recall under their belt.

Seasonal calculus on the prairies

Winter (December through February)

January in Regina routinely sees stretches of -30C to -45C with windchill, and a deep cold snap can push effective temperatures past frostbite territory in under 20 minutes for short-coated breeds. Cathy Lauritsen becomes harder in deep cold for three connected reasons. First, the open prairie wind through the park cuts hard with nothing to slow it. Second, Wascana Creek ice is never safe to walk on, and dogs running near the ice edge is the highest-risk winter scenario at this park. Third, the unfenced creek boundary means a recall failure carries higher stakes when visibility drops in blowing snow.

Most Cathy Lauritsen regulars who mix this park with the fenced options shift mostly to Mount Pleasant, Ross Industrial, or Horizon Station from December through February, then come back to Cathy Lauritsen in the shoulder seasons. Practical winter rules if you do come out:

• Paw protection below -20C. Boots or musher's wax prevent ice-ball buildup between toes and protect against salt and grit on the access paths.
• Keep dogs off the creek ice. No exceptions. Even when the ice looks solid, current under the surface can keep sections thinner than they appear.
• Short-coat breeds, short visits. Greyhounds, Whippets, pit mixes, Boxers, and Dachshunds cap out around 15 to 20 minutes below -20C even with a coat on.
• Salt rinse at home. Rinse paws after every winter visit. Salt residue is hard on pads and worse if licked off.

Spring (March through May)

Spring melt at Cathy Lauritsen is the messiest of any Regina off-leash park because the creek frontage adds spring runoff on top of the standard prairie thaw. Frozen ground turns to mud, the creek runs high and fast, and the floodplain margin can stay saturated through April. Keep dogs out of the high creek; a strong current in cold runoff is dangerous even for confident swimmers. Tick season starts in April and May; if you walk Cathy Lauritsen regularly through warm months, a vet conversation about tick prevention is worth having.

Summer (June through August)

Summer is when Cathy Lauritsen shines and when its specific hazards stack up. Open prairie heat hits hard with limited shade. Mosquitoes build through June and July, with the worst pressure on calm evenings along the creek. Hail and tornado watches are a routine part of summer prairie weather; check the forecast before driving out, and bail immediately if the sky turns green or a watch warning posts. Aim for early morning before 9 a.m. or after 7 p.m., and skip the park entirely above 28C for short-nosed breeds (Bulldogs, Pugs, Boxers) and heavy-coat breeds.

The other summer hazard is in the water. Late July through September is the peak window for blue-green algae blooms in Wascana Lake and the connected creek system. Do not let your dog drink from or wade in the creek during that stretch. Bring fresh water and a collapsible bowl every visit.

Fall (September through November)

Shoulder season is the best stretch of the year at Cathy Lauritsen for most dogs. Cool temperatures, fewer bugs, dry prairie grass, the algae window has closed, and the crowd thins. The first hard freeze usually arrives in October. The unfenced creek boundary still demands recall discipline.

The largest-space advantage

Cathy Lauritsen is the right park for dogs the smaller fenced parks cannot fully satisfy. The size and the creek-side variety do practical work for three specific profiles:

• High-drive working breeds. Border Collies, Australian Shepherds, Belgian Malinois, hunting-line Labradors and Goldens, and similar high-arousal-with-an-off-switch breeds need extended off-leash time to actually tire out. A 30-minute lap of a smaller fenced park does not get them there. Cathy Lauritsen does.
• Recovery from kennel stress. A foster dog or recently adopted rescue who has been in a kennel environment for weeks or months benefits from real distance to decompress, once recall is solid. Most rescue trainers want four to six weeks of recall work first, then graduating up to a park like this.
• Socially balanced dogs that need real distance. A confident, well-socialised adult dog who has outgrown the back-and-forth of a smaller park wants the room to actually run a loop. Cathy Lauritsen is the only Regina park that gives them that.

The unfenced-creek caveat

The creek-side boundary is the single fact that defines who Cathy Lauritsen does not work for. The City did not fence the creek side because of Wascana Creek floodplain regulations, and that decision will not change. The practical consequences:

• Recall has to be reliable. Not “mostly comes back.” Reliable enough that you can call your dog off a wildlife signal at 100 metres with one cue. If your dog is not there yet, train at Mount Pleasant or Mamowimiweyitamowin first.
• Creek water-quality risks. Late summer blue-green algae is the acute one. Year-round there is also goose contamination, urban stormwater runoff, and the same general dog-should-not-drink-from-this-water rule that applies to Wascana Lake.
• Spring runoff and ice. Wascana Creek runs high and cold in spring melt, and the ice in winter is not safe. Keep dogs off the creek surface year-round.
• Wildlife corridor. Coyotes, deer, the occasional fox, and a heavy goose population in summer all use the creek corridor. A prey-driven dog who fixates on wildlife will struggle here.

For dogs that pass the recall test, the trade is worth it. For dogs that do not, the four fully fenced Regina off-leash parks exist for a reason.

Surfaces, footing, and dog welfare

The Cathy Lauritsen footprint is mostly open prairie grass with worn-in dirt sections where dog traffic concentrates near the entry points. The grass stays soft through spring and early summer, dries crunchy by August, and freezes hard through winter. Natural shade is limited. The creek-side margin runs through reed grass and scrub willow in the summer months.

Surface-related risks specific to this park:

• Frozen ruts in winter. Foot traffic creates uneven frozen ridges that can tweak a dog's wrist or elbow. Senior dogs and short-legged breeds are most at risk.
• Saturated floodplain in spring. Standing water and deep mud along the creek edge through April. Dogs recovering from soft-tissue injuries should wait for firmer footing.
• Heat stress in summer. Open prairie with minimal shade. Short-nosed and heavy-coat breeds need early or late visits, never mid-day in July or August.
• Burrs and prairie seeds. Late summer prairie grass drops grass awns and burrs that work into long-coat dogs' fur and between toes. Brush out at home after every visit.

What to bring

• A 2-metre fixed-length leash for the approach, the parking area, and the leash-up-on-exit moment.
• City of Regina dog licence on the collar, plus a current ID tag.
• Poop bags. You are responsible for your own.
• A water bottle and a collapsible bowl. Off-leash parks in Regina do not have dedicated water stations, and the creek is never an acceptable drinking source.
• High-value treats for recall practice and emergency call-offs. This matters more here than at the fenced parks.
• A long line (5 to 10 metres) for new dogs or dogs still in recall training. Many regulars keep one in the car and use it for the first few visits with any new dog.
• In winter: paw protection (musher's wax or boots), a coat for short-coated breeds, and a towel for a quick paw rinse at home.
• In summer: dog-safe insect repellent (ask your vet for a formulation), extra water, and the willingness to bail above 28C.

Reactive-dog calculus: pick Mount Pleasant

A reactive dog is generally not the right fit for Cathy Lauritsen. The park's size and partially unfenced layout work against you in three ways. Sightlines are long, which can sound like an advantage but means a reactive dog spots triggers from further away with less time to step away. The lack of a full perimeter means a bolted dog is harder to recover. There is no separately gated small-dog section to stage a small reactive dog in.

For reactive dogs, the Regina answer is Mount Pleasant Off-Leash Dog Park on a weekday morning. Full perimeter fence, open sightlines inside the fence, a separately gated small-dog area, and the option to leash up and walk out if a trigger event escalates. The smaller Mamowimiweyitamowin Park on McKinley Avenue is the secondary option. Save Cathy Lauritsen for the day your dog is solid in confident-adult mode.

How Cathy Lauritsen compares to the other Regina off-leash parks

For the full review of all five sites plus the eight seasonal rinks Regina opens spring through fall, see the Regina off-leash parks guide. For a leash-walk option around Wascana Lake itself, the Wascana Centre with your dog guide covers the Devonian Pathway and the Provincial Capital Commission leash rules.

Make a morning of it

A common Cathy Lauritsen routine for regulars: park around 7 or 8 a.m., 45 to 60 minutes of off-leash time on the open prairie, then a coffee at a neighbourhood cafe near the creek corridor and a walk home. The full loop runs about 90 minutes to two hours. The dog gets a real run on the largest off-leash footprint in the city, you get caffeine, the rest of the day is calmer. On weekends, shifting the same routine to 7 a.m. beats the 10 a.m. crowd by a long way.

Frequently asked questions

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