A couple of weekends ago, a friend suggested we take a little road trip to Truro to do some early Christmas shopping. “Drive from Halifax to Truro to go shopping?” I thought. This seemed a little counter-intuitive. Little did I know that Truro has become a hub for locally hand-crafted and hand-curated gifts. Who would have thought?!

The best thing of all is the fact that these awesome shops are all within a couple of blocks of one another, so there is no need to trek all over town to get your shopping done.

From the stunning and on-trend accessories at Beck & Boosh, to the gorgeous hand-poured candles at Foxhound, to the plethora of Maritime-proud clothing and giftware at My Home Apparel… I managed to get nearly all of my holiday shopping done in about two hours! And I felt great knowing that 100% of my money was going towards supporting local makers and small business owners.

While we didn’t check into the dog-friendliness of each of the stores (when you have a 60-lb. black lab, shopping with your dog seems impractical at best), we did make sure to scope out the Truro / Bible Hill Off-Leash Dog Park, located just minutes from the downtown core. Dallas wouldn’t take “no” for an answer.

While Halifax does a lot of things right, fenced-in off-leash dog parks is not our strong suit. We are decidedly unimpressed with The Mainland Common dog park, which is small, muddy, and doesn’t come close to matching the former Africville park. For a City of this size, we can do better.

This has caused us to approach fenced-in dog parks with skepticism.

We’re glad we gave this one a chance. Truro’s dog park is an excellent example of what every fenced-in dog park should be: big, pretty, and with varied terrain (to keep things interesting and fun).

There are wide-open spaces for fetching and there are tree-lined paths for strolling.

There is a sheltered picnic table, so on rainy days you can stay dry while your pooch plays. There are benches. There is a pond.

All in all, it’s a lovely place to spend time with your four-legged friend. Well done, Truro.

And well done, you. You made it to another Fetch Friday! Have a wonderful weekend, friends.