DiOGi Park (at Loyce E. Harpe Park)

The Diogi Dog Park is a fantastic dog park in Mulberry, Florida. It is in the city's Loyce E. Harpe Park, which was previously known as the Carter Road Park. This off-leash dog park is named in memory of a brave service K9 by the name of Diogi. There are plenty of vehicle parking places right alongside the off-leash area. 

Though while the parking spaces are close to the dog park, pups need to stay on their leashes until they are through the staging gates. The Loyce E Harpe Park is a favorite place with residents for fishing and mountain biking. It is also a breeding area for turtles so while dogs are welcome, they can only be off-leash in the designated area. 

It's a great off-leash area too. There are two extensive grass fields - one each for big and small dogs. It's fenced, so it's nice and secure which is good as there's a lot of open countryside all around. While the dog park is surrounded by thick woodland, there are only a few conifer trees actually inside the off-leash enclosures so not much shade for pups on hot days. 

The Diogi Dog Park has some agility equipment for the big dogs, but not for the small ones. Owners have several gazebo-type shelters to stand under in inclement weather though there are only one or two benches for them to sit on. In a big dog park like this one, owners don't really need to be thinking of sitting down as they need to keep up with their pup and not let them run too far away as that just makes poop scooping a major task. 

Sadly, poop bags do not work automatically and keeping the dog park clean requires some manual effort from all the pet owners using the facility.  Yes, that means having a bag in hand, bending down, scooping poop, then depositing the bag in one of the trash cans. Those simple actions make all the difference. So make Diogo proud and keep his dog park poop free.