Paula VanOrder of Cranberry Township walks her dogs, Athena, right, and Zeus, on a dog trail at Cranberry's North Boundary Park. Township officials opened the trail for dog lovers in November 2019. Dogs were previously not allowed anywhere in the park.

CRANBERRY TWP — Township supervisors recently sunk their teeth into Cranberry's canine debate.

Kyle Beidler, the township's manager for strategic planning and economic development, updated the board Thursday on the incremental encroachment of dogs into Cranberry's parks and detailed the fine line the township must walk between pro- and anti-pooch-in-park advocates.

“You can imagine this is a very delicate conversation,” Beidler said. “We have very strong interests on both sides of the aisle, if you will.”

So far, though, it looks like the mutts are on top.

Roughly a year after the township opened the kennel door to allow dogs in segments of North Boundary Park, the one-year trial period promised last November seems a success for the pro-pup camp. While Fido is currently allowed in the Disc Golf Course and Nature Trail areas in North Boundary, the topography in those areas pose a challenge to many users, Beidler said.

To increase the accessibility of pup-permitted park portions, the township plans to provide leashed access on the NexTier Loop, a roughly 1.1-mile trail adjacent to the current dog-friendly areas. The loop circumscribes the three soccer fields near North Boundary Road and stretches slightly farther south than Veterans Baseball Field.

Beidler said canines will not be permitted on the sports fields themselves, nor at Crocodile Cove Playground — “nobody wants” that, he said — and four additional dog stations will be situated on the loop.

He added the current timeline will allow mutts on NexTier Loop in February, after the township produces updated pamphlets and works and installs signage. In early spring, Cranberry plans to make a community-wide announcement and will continue the assessment of the puppy pilot program through 2021.

“We're hoping to work with communications and public works to order updated signs, walking trail signs, that would kind of be branded with the Cranberry logo and our color and our font,” Beidler said.

Beidler did not indicate there would be any forthcoming changes to other areas where dogs are permitted, which includes the four-acre Rotary Dog Park in the northern section of Community Park and the Brush Creek Trail Extension in the southern end of the township.