Mount Pleasant Off-Leash Dog Park Regina: The Fenced Flagship

Where Mount Pleasant Park is

Mount Pleasant Off-Leash Dog Park sits at 750 Winnipeg Street North on the north side of Regina. It is one of the five year-round City of Regina off-leash dog parks designated under Animal Bylaw 2009-44. The other four are Cathy Lauritsen Memorial on Forget Street, Ross Industrial on Solomon Crescent, Mamowimiweyitamowin Park on McKinley Avenue, and Horizon Station on East Buckingham Drive.

Free on-site parking puts you directly at the park gate. The footprint is a generous open field, with the small-dog section as a separately gated zone inside the main fence. The terrain is open prairie grass with limited shade, which is standard for Regina off-leash parks and worth planning around in July and August heat.

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

Park rules and Animal Bylaw 2009-44

Mount Pleasant 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. Animal Services officers patrol the parks and ticket unlicensed dogs. The licence has a meaningful discount for spayed or neutered dogs. Carry the tag on the collar.
2. Leash to the boundary. Your dog must be on a leash until you cross the off-leash gate, and back on a leash the moment you leave. This rule catches a lot of owners in the parking lot.
3. Verbal control inside. Inside the fence, your dog must be under verbal control at all times. A dog who will not come when called or who is running out of sight is at-large under the bylaw, and you can be ticketed even within the perimeter.
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. If your dog struggles around other dogs, switch to a quieter window before a complaint gets filed.

The small-dog area has its own posted limits: 25 pounds (11 kg) and 18 inches (46 cm) at the shoulder. The space is for dogs that fit under both. The first Tuesday of every month from 10 a.m. to noon, the small-dog area is reserved; outside that window it operates as a normal small-dog section.

Best times to go

The consistently quiet windows at Mount Pleasant are weekday mornings before 9 a.m. 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. If your dog is reactive, recovering from surgery, or new to the household, plan around the busy windows.

Saturday mid-morning is the single busiest stretch most weeks. The park works fine for socially balanced dogs at that hour, but a reactive dog will struggle. Weekday evenings in summer are also busy because Regina daylight runs late and after-work dog owners get a long second walk in.

Seasonal calculus on the prairies

Regina sits squarely on the open prairie, and Mount Pleasant's utility shifts with the seasons.

Winter (December through February)

January routinely sees stretches of -25C to -35C with windchill, and a deep cold snap can push effective temperatures past -40C. The full fence makes Mount Pleasant the easier winter pick than Cathy Lauritsen, where Wascana Creek ice and the open unfenced creek boundary increase risk in cold weather. Most regulars who normally mix Cathy Lauritsen and Mount Pleasant shift mostly to Mount Pleasant from December through February.

Practical winter rules at Mount Pleasant:

• Paw protection below -20C. Boots or a paw balm (often called musher's wax) prevents ice-ball buildup between the toes and protects against the salt and grit on the access path and parking lot.
• Salt rinse at home. Rinse paws after every winter visit. Salt residue is hard on pads and worse if licked off.
• Short-coat breeds, short visits. Greyhounds, whippets, pit mixes, Boxers, dachshunds, and similar short-coated breeds cap out around 15 to 20 minutes below -20C even with a coat on. Watch for limping or paw-lifting and end the visit early.
• Double-coat breeds. Huskies, malamutes, and shepherds handle the cold fine on body temperature but still need paw protection on icy access paths and salted lots.

Spring (March through May)

Spring melt in Regina is messy. Frozen ground thaws into mud, salt and grit from the winter sand routine surface on the access paths, and the off-leash field can get soft and saturated through April. A wet-towel-by-the-door routine helps. April and May also bring the start of tick season in the prairie grasslands; if your dog walks Mount Pleasant regularly through warm months, a vet conversation about tick preventive is worth having.

Summer (June through August)

Two summer realities matter: heat and bugs. Limited shade in an open prairie park means mid-day visits in July and August get hot fast for short-nosed breeds (bulldogs, pugs, Boxers, French bulldogs) and heavy-coat breeds. Aim for early morning before 9 a.m. or after 7 p.m., and skip the park entirely above 28C. Mosquitoes and black flies build through June and July, with the worst pressure on calm evenings near standing water after a wet spring. A dog-safe insect repellent (ask your vet for a formulation) is worth carrying.

Drought summers also leave the prairie grass crunchy and dry by August. Bring water from home every visit; off-leash parks in Regina are not water-station equipped and dogs need fresh water on warm days. 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 you hear a watch warning.

Fall (September through November)

Shoulder season is the best stretch of the year at Mount Pleasant for most dogs. Cool temperatures, fewer bugs, dry grass, and a thinner crowd than mid-summer. The first hard freeze usually arrives in October. Plan paw protection for the first sub-zero outings; the salt routine on city paths kicks in well before deep winter.

The fenced advantage

Mount Pleasant is the right park for dogs the other four cannot safely hold. The full fence does practical work for four specific dog profiles:

• Reactive dogs. A reactive dog needs the option to step away before a trigger escalates. Open sightlines inside Mount Pleasant let you see other dogs arriving and walk to the far corner before the encounter. The fence means even a bolted dog is contained.
• Escape-artist breeds. Huskies, malamutes, Australian shepherds, and certain hound mixes will leave a partially fenced park if a wildlife signal triggers them. Mount Pleasant's full perimeter is the right answer.
• Recall-in-progress dogs. Most rescue trainers want four to six weeks of solid recall work before any off-leash outing. Mount Pleasant is the first real-world recall test, because the fence catches a failed recall gracefully.
• Small and senior dogs. The separately gated small-dog section is the only fenced-within-fenced layout in Regina (Mamowimiweyitamowin has the other small-dog section). A Chihuahua, a senior Yorkie, or a recovering small dog can socialise without large-dog steamrolling.

This is why the hub off-leash guide ranks Mount Pleasant as the strongest fenced option of the five. It is not the biggest park (Ross Industrial on Solomon Crescent has more square footage inside a full fence) and it is not the most scenic (Cathy Lauritsen along Wascana Creek wins on terrain variety). It is the best all-around fenced option for the widest range of dogs.

Surfaces, footing, and dog welfare

The Mount Pleasant footprint is open prairie grass with worn-in dirt sections where dog traffic concentrates near the gates and along the fence lines. The grass stays soft through spring and early summer, dries crunchy by August, and freezes hard through winter. Limited natural shade means a tree, a bench shadow, or your own car in the lot are the only shade options on a hot day.

Surface-related risks to watch:

• 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. Cut visits short on the most rutted days.
• Mud in spring melt. Saturated ground in April catches dog ankles. Older dogs and dogs recovering from soft-tissue injuries should wait for firmer footing.
• Heat stress in summer. Open prairie with no shade. Short-nosed breeds and heavy-coat breeds need early or late visits, never mid-day in July or August.
• Dropped balls and chew toys. Some Mount Pleasant regulars leave communal toys at the park. Take a quick scan before letting your dog grab anything; unknown chew history is a vet bill waiting to happen.

What to bring

• A 2-metre fixed-length leash for the parking lot, the approach, and the leash-up-on-exit moment.
• City of Regina dog licence on the collar, with a current ID tag.
• Poop bags. The City and most regulars pick up but you are responsible for your own.
• A water bottle and a collapsible bowl. Off-leash parks in Regina do not have dedicated water stations.
• High-value treats for recall practice and emergency call-offs.
• 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 (vet-formulated), extra water, and the willingness to bail above 28C.

Reactive-dog calculus: Mount Pleasant beats Wascana

Reactive dog owners in Regina often default to Wascana Centre because it is on-leash and feels controllable. The math is more complicated than that. Wascana is a destination park with heavy summer tourist traffic, cyclists who fly the Devonian Pathway, Canada geese that trigger prey-drive lunges, and tight pathway widths that put dogs nose-to-nose at speed. For a reactive dog, the Wascana environment can be more triggering than a quiet fenced off-leash park where you control the distance.

Mount Pleasant on a weekday morning is often the calmer option. You enter through the gate, scan the field, and choose your corner. If another dog escalates, you can leash up and walk out. The fence removes the cyclist-and-stroller problem entirely. The small-dog section is a separate calmer microclimate if your reactive dog is under 25 lb.

See our Wascana Centre with your dog guide for the full Wascana picture; for a reactive dog, Mount Pleasant's fence and sightlines are usually the right pick.

How Mount Pleasant compares to the other four parks

For the full review of all five sites including the eight seasonal rinks Regina opens spring through fall, see the Regina off-leash parks guide.

Make a morning of it

A common Mount Pleasant routine for regulars: park around 7 or 8 a.m., 45 minutes of off-leash time inside the fence, then a coffee at a nearby north-end cafe and a walk home through the neighbourhood. The full loop runs about 90 minutes to two hours. The dog gets a real run, you get caffeine, the rest of the day is calmer. On weekends, the same routine shifted to 7 a.m. beats the 10 a.m. crowd by a long way.

Frequently asked questions

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