This is almost like apt. living. Our backyard is like a postage stamp, so we have to take walks. There is a dog park, but I've been a little afraid to take the girls there. They would probably enjoy it.
susie
The dog has a back yard that's about 75 feet by 50 feet -- not much for an active retriever. She has a figure 8 path mapped out so she can run pretty fast, but she can't get up to top speed.
Fortunately, there's a huge polo field down by the river about 1 mile away from the house, since she's E-collar conditioned now I can just let her run. She can get some real speed on if I get my kids to slingshot a bumper at the other end of a 200 yard field!
The ones around here are outrageous - the gangstas bring their pit bulls and scare everybody to death, most dogs are untrained and just run wild. They're crowded, too small, and always dirty and torn up.
Most folks have a place they go, like our local polo field or a regular park. There's a park up the road where a lot of our friends go to train -- in the back of the park behind the maintenance buildings there's a big open field and a pond where nobody usually goes. The maintenance men don't mind if we train back there, so long as we pick up any dog deposits and take our dead ducks with us!