Shawnee Mission Off-Leash Dog Park

I’ve been traveling with dogs for 3 weeks! Traveling with dogs takes a lot of pre-​planning– finding pet friendly hotels, the best parks in town that are pet friendly and restaurant patios that let me dine with our family members. I found this park on Unilocal and it’s the ultimate place to take your furry friend. Just a few hours here and your pup will be exhausted and worn out. The area is gated, has poo bags, and great trails to walk your dog. We came on a Saturday and it was hot in May in KC. Our two labs were so excited to see water and play with all the other dogs. It was fun for us to watch all the action and crazy dogs just loving life. Awesome place!

We loved watching the free roaming fun loving pooches. I was amazed at the amount of people and dogs here, as well as the size of it. I wish I could have brought one of my three dogs here, but since they sometimes can’t get along with each other, I don’t want to besiege them upon dogs they don’t hang with. Maybe if I get them in some anger management classes I can enjoy this beautiful part of Shawnee Mission Park too!

Great open area that always has people and puppies walking around. Everyone is super friendly and is a great experience for the dogs. Cool off at the end of the trail with a quick dip in the lake then the walk back to dry off.

Loved this dog park!

Luckily, I only live a couple minutes away from this dog park! This place is awesome! I just got a new puppy and we started bringing him here so he gets lots of socialization with other dogs and people. So far, so good! He loves it! This place is pretty big for my 3 month old fur baby so we haven’t explored too much of it yet. There are doggie bags at the entrance and scattered around the premise! They also have a little doggie fountain at the front by the parking lot. The beach is great and my puppy has gone into the water a couple times! All the other dogs and their owners are super nice and friendly! I’ve been going here 2 – 3 times a week for a couple weeks now and haven’t met and rude or unfriendly people or dogs! I can’t wait to go back! (it’ll probably be tonight) :)

Love love love this park. So clean and we’ll maintained. Kids love it to… must go to

I love this place, so many trails you can take your furry friends without the restraints of a leash. They got so wore out, they slept the whole car ride home!

It’s a bit out of the way for me, takes about 20 to 30 minutes but is worth the drive. Plenty of space, open fields, paths through the woods, and it has access to the lake. My dog isn’t much of a swimmer but she loves wading in the water and meeting all the other dogs. They also provide multiple trash cans and plastic bags for disposing of waste products (poop), sadly people don’t always pick up after their dog, you can spot quite a bit of poop along the paths.
It would have been nice if they had a double gate at the entrance and if the doggy water fountain at the entrance worked, also would have appreciated it if they did a little gardening around and removed some of the plants with burrs (but that might be asking too much for a public park), otherwise I love it. I take my dog there about once a week and she loves it. As long as she’s happy I’m happy.

Very rude people the other day… It is an off leash dog park, so if you don’t enjoy dogs then I suggest you go somewhere else in the park. Hopefully our next experience will be better.

I personally would give Shawnee Mission Off-​Leash Dog Park 5 stars, but this isn’t really my review, it’s Frodo’s.
Frodo isn’t quite sure he loves it. The first time we went he was pretty excited to have all this unfettered freedom, and rushed around (within 12 feet of me) on the wide mowed walkway heading west from the parking area. It was very exciting at first to meet all the other dogs, but then it started to be a bit overwhelming and scary, they were all so big. But he trotted along okay, and had fun sniffing all the evidence and trying to pee on top of tufts of grass, apparently to seem taller, this is my theory anyway. He managed not to topple over, probably due to strength of will in this challenging and machismo-​fraught environment, since he falls over regularly in our walks around the neighborhood when he tries to pee on very tall bush branches.
So that was fun, but then we got to the beach. I had hoped that Frodo would see all the other dogs having fun at the lake and join in, but his hatred of water in general and lake water in particular prevented any such thing. He enjoyed the beach for about a minute, but then realized what it was, and another dog shook water on him. At that point he headed straight back to the car as fast as his little legs would go. I never did catch up to him, he was a toy dog on a mission. He was waiting for me by the driver’s side when I came puffing up.
We’ve been back several times, but Frodo won’t go past the hill heading down to the beach without his leash, so we just walk down the mowed part and then head back to the car. It’s still pretty nice.

So. Much. Love.
Our Kiya is a high energy pup and when she doesn’t get her exercise, she gets antsy. More often than not, she chews stuff. I lost my beloved blue suede tennis shoes to her boredom and I have no one to blame but myself. Okay, I admit it — I blame Kiya, a little bit.
We try to get to Shawnee Mission Dog Park about once a week or so. It’s a bit of a trek but so worth the drive!
We love the dog beach. Kiya hasn’t really gotten the hang of swimming just yet but she loves to wade in and cool off after the hike to the lake. The dog parents here are courteous — the keep a close eye on their dogs and pick up after their business. I’ve gotten into some fun conversations here, and made some other pet parent friends.
The trails are numerous, mostly shaded and interesting. If you want to do do hill work while on a hike or run, this park has you covered.
On occasion, Bubbles Mobile Dog Wash makes an appearance and you can’t beat it for convenience and a smell-​pretty, clean dog.
A water station is available at the entrance to the park but load up before you get too far in or bring your own if you need to rehydrate frequently. Disposal bags are also available, which is nice and there’s a portapotty close to the lake. I haven’t used it, so I can’t speak to it’s cleanliness, but it’s reassuring to know it’s there.
The park is dusty and/​or muddy and I haven’t visited without having some random dog shake lake water off on me, so be prepared to get dirty. Small sacrifice, knowing how happy the dogs here seem to be!

I love the Shawnee dog park!
My dog loves the water
as seen in the video link above Turk loves to fetch from the water for hours, he isn’t happy on the weekend unless he gets to go to the park and see his friends and get in the water.
If you live in the JOCO area and have a dog… why aren’t you going to this park?

The BEST leash less dog park in the Kansas City Metro! Well, that isn’t hard as it’s only one of two that I know of and the downtown one is all DIRT!
Anyhow, this park is pretty good size as they take a good chunk of Shawnee Mission Park and dedicate it to dogs. It’s got a good size lake for your dog to go swimming in or chase balls, a «beach,» trails on real grass, and trails through the woods. They have stations with «poop» bags and also water fountains for humans and dogs (a bowl that will fill up at ground level with water). We were there for over an hour and didn’t see any aggressive dogs. Dogs of all shapes and sizes were there and were running around off leash, but staying within eyesight of their owners.
Parking is a cinch and everything is free. This place is such a pleasure for the humans and the dogs :)
I only wish that Kansas City, MO would set up something like this in the city itself. They have the park space and plenty of vacant lots or blighted buildings. However, you call the Parks department and they are fine with an all dirt, small, dog park near the Liberty War memorial :(

If you have a dog, chances are you know that this place is available. It’s absolutely fantastic. Our dog is a rescue dog who gets nervous around other dogs and prefers humans by far. For that reason, we keep him on a leash even at an off-​leash dog park. He’s usually just about the only one, but occasionally you will see one or two others.
You first enter in to a gigantic (and I mean GIGANTIC) grass area where your dogs can enjoy endless greenery to run around, sniff butts, and do whatever the heck else dogs do. It can seriously take 15 – 20 minutes to get through this part on a leisurely pace. It’s huge. You then go downhill to the lake where the dogs, if they so decide, can have free reign to go crazy around on the beach. It’s not really a sand beach… but I still call it a beach.
Water can be tricky so bring your own. They have one or two fountains for the pups and humans, but I’ve noticed they don’t always work. Parking can be a bit packed at times too, especially the weekends of course.
People seem to take responsibility for their pets here, both their attitudes and their waste, which is nice and not always seen in other dog parks. I assume because it’s not the easiest to get to, the people who take their dogs here actually care.

This a pretty amazing dog park. Granted I haven’t really been any other dog parks, and after bringing my pup a few times, I’m not sure I’d want to go anywhere else.
It’s a wonderful park to take young pups (and older dogs!) to burn of all the excess energy that puppies have. Given the size, it definitely takes about 30 minutes to get down to the lake side — depending how many pit stops you and your friends make. While many dogs are off leash you do also have a few (including mine!) that are kept on their leashes… at least until we reach the water. It’s a great place to socialize your dog and also for them to burn off excess energy.
I was initially nervous about letting my pup off his leash at the dog beach, but letting him off to run was wonderful. With all the dogs that are there playing he didn’t run off and actually learned to swim! OMG!
Definitely an awesome place to take you dog to play, swim, and make new friends!

This is the dog park that all others should be measured against. I hadn’t been in at least 6 years, and had no idea about the improvements they have made to this place. Like others have said, this place is huge, really huge, like you can easily be a 20 or more minute walk away from your car huge. I can see how that could be intimidating to some, but an adventure to others. It would take Bill (my dog) and I a year’s worth of trips to come even close to sniffing every corner of this place.
There are trails upon trails all the way around, some are simple dirt paths, some are rocky paths with inclince, some look to be deer trails and a little rougher terrain. Something for everyone, and every dog.
The shining star here is the dog beach, the best I’ve ever seen anywhere. It has a huge rocky beach, which was a great idea by the planners over the old dirt beaches (which paired with a wet dog makes for a huge mess). It really is hard to undersell how great this beach really is. I bet there were 50 dogs and owners there on Sunday morning, and yet it didn’t feel cramped at all, and most of the dog were pretty well behaved, and the owners remained engaged. Because of the size of the lake, the water remains fairly clear as well, compared to the small ponds and creeks in the other parks.
Bar none, the best dog park in KC, if not the midwest, and worth the drive from wherever you live. We made the trek from Gardner, and both the dog and the 5 year old boy were out like a light as soon as we hit the car for the ride home. Success! Plan for at least an hour or two, this isn’t the place for a short trip.

They say you don’t know what you had til it’s gone, and that is SO true of this dog park. I moved from the KC area to Maryland in 2009, and didn’t truly appreciate what a wonderful dog park this is until I didn’t have it anymore. With the wide open spaces, wooded areas, walking trails, and the dog beach, this is without a doubt one of the best dog parks in the country. Here in Maryland, they consider a fenced in square of bare earth a «dog park»…they have NO idea! If you’re lucky enough to live near this park, take advantage of it! People look at me as if I’m hallucinating when I tell them about the wonderful dog park in Kansas… maybe they think it was a Oz-​like dream?

Johnson County does a nice job with its parks and Shawnee Mission Park has set the standard for dogs parks in the KC area with it’s size and well kept dog beach.
While the beach is by far the most popular feature at the park, the trails through the woods on either side of the main path to the beach are the real highlight of the park. The trails are easily manageable for most humans and the dogs are free to explore the woods, creeks, and brush as they travel on their way down the trail to the beach. Unfortunately, it seems most visitors to the park skip the trails and head straight fir the beach.
There are a few negative features at SM Park. First, probably due to its size, the park isn’t really fenced off. Second, the parking lot always makes me nervous. People let their dogs off leash in the lot and in their excitement, the dogs don’t always see cars moving about. It also isn’t fenced well and dogs can just wander out. Finally, this park seems to bring out a lot of irresponsible dog owners who don’t get their dog proper socialization or think it’s OK for their dogs to be overly aggressive towards others, but don’t appreciate other dogs letting theirs know the behavior isn’t OK.
Overall, this is a great place to bring your dog, just be aware of the lack of fencing and keep an eye out for your dog in the event others aren’t supervising theirs.

In a city as painfully underserved by dog parks, this one is far and away the best. Unfortunately for me, it’s also just really far away.
During the summer months I generally try and go here once or twice a week, though it does require about an hour of driving time each trip, so sometimes I skimp. But the experience for your dog at Shawnee Mission Off-​Leash Dog Park just can’t be replicated anywhere closer to the urban core.
First of all, this place is HUGE. There are a good number of trails in a variety of settings: wooded, prairie… well, ok 2 settings. Tons of room to sniff and smell. My dog can sometimes get overwhelmed by cramped dog parks, and there is really no way that could EVER happen here. One thing to keep in mind, is that this place is so big you need to keep an eye on your dog because they can (and do) disappear on you and then you’re left walking around yelling for your pooch.
The main attraction is the dog beach, a sectioned off part of Shawnee Mission Lake. My dog is a total water dog, and I love seeing her freak out and bolt for the beach once the lake comes into her line of sight. We can waste an hour or so here and I’ll have a very sleepy dog in my car on the ride back.
The only real negative is the lack of human facilities. The water fountain and bathroom are right at the entrance, so if nature calls you either have a quarter-​mile hike or you need to get comfortable going in nature (which must really be rough on the ladies). I’m fairly certain that’s something you’re not supposed to do in public parks, too. Additionally, the water fountains often don’t have enough pressure to actually get water, and the toilet is a potra-​potty. For as much use as this part of the park gets, I think they should spring for an actual brick-​and-​morter restroom.

This place is huge!!! Last summer was our first time taking our dog to this park and he loves it because they have a dog beach. Unlike other dog parks that are just grass and fences this gives the dogs room to swim in water. A lot of people throw the dogs toys out in the water so they can swim out. There are a lot of different breeds so you must pay close attention to your dog if they are off leash. We choose to keep our on a harness with a 20′ lead. (He’s not a very good swimmer) but it gives them lots of outdoor room to interact.
All dogs of all sizes come and have never had any problems with any dogs being aggressive.