A comprehensive and collaborative community effort to make City and County of Honolulu parks more dog-friendly is resulting in 36 new on-leash dog parks! This preliminary phase of this initiative doubles the number of on-leash dog parks around O‘ahu, with 36 on-leash parks already offered by the Honolulu Department of Parks and Recreation.

This expansion of on-leash dog privileges follows months of community discussion facilitated through the island’s Neighborhood Board system, and internal review by DPR. These specific parks were chosen based on agreement between the 15 Neighborhood Boards which provided feedback, DPR input, and parks with existing off-leash dog facilities.

“For years the number of legal spaces where dog kahu (guardians) could enjoy time with their canine companions has been limited to less than 15% of City parks,” said Nate Serota, the lead for this effort within the Honolulu Department of Parks and Recreation. “Now we have taken a large step towards equity for this growing community of park users, and hope the expansion of this privilege encourages more responsible pet activities while being mindful of other park users. Mahalo to our neighbors and park staff who jumped at this opportunity, and provided thoughtful, deliberative feedback. More than 40% of the households on O‘ahu are estimated to have dogs, so we plan on returning to the communities where no input was received with the goal of making at least a third of the parks in their neighborhoods welcoming to dog kahu by the end of 2026.”

In conjunction with the expansion of on-leash dog privileges, a pilot program to test new park signage and dog waste bag dispensers is also being tasked at select dog parks. The preliminary waste bag dispenser locations include:

• Enchanted Lake Community Park
• ‘Ewa Beach Community Park
• Mililani Mauka District Park
• Punahou Square
• Wai‘alae Iki Neighborhood Park

“We are very mindful of the concerns raised by those hesitant to expand dog privileges into more of our parks, so as we extend this opportunity we also want to provide resources to encourage responsible pet activities in our parks,” said Laura H. Thielen, DPR Director. “As we re-engage the communities around O‘ahu to continue this expansion, we will also take stock in how effective these resources are at achieving this goal. Being a dog kahu provides an immeasurable amount of benefits, physically, psychologically, and socially, so we are hopeful that this latest carefully-crafted effort yields more enjoyable memories for our greater community of park users.”

For more information watch the live recording of the press conference in April 2025 announcing this effort (the YouTube video next to this paragraph), or click here for the more detailed news release.