Swampscott dog park: the SPOT Pooch Pass and rules

Every dog using SPOT needs a yearly Pooch Pass, and the $5 fee per dog goes toward the park's upkeep. The Town Clerk's Office at 22 Monument Avenue sells the pass the same three ways it sells dog licenses: online through the town's payment portal, by mail, or in person, where only cash or a check is accepted. Online, you create an account, upload a current rabies certificate and wait a day or two for the permit to arrive in the mail, and the portal adds a small convenience fee for an e-check or a card.

The pass sits on top of the license, not in place of it. The application asks for a current license, a rabies certificate if the clerk does not already hold one, and proof of spay or neuter when the rabies certificate does not show it, and the first park rule requires a current Swampscott license affixed to the collar. Mail and in-person applications can cover the license and the pass together; online purchases must be made separately. Swampscott licenses cost $10 for a spayed or neutered dog and $25 for an intact one.

Puppies must be at least six months old before they enter SPOT. Children under 10 are not allowed in the park at all, and children aged 10 to 17 must come with an adult and be able to ward off unwelcome attention from other dogs. Those rules make SPOT a place for grown dogs and the adults who handle them rather than a family outing with small children, and the town states plainly that park users and dog owners assume all risk of using it.

The no-food rule shapes how you train there. Treats are the usual reward for a recall, and at SPOT they are banned along with all food. Teach the recall somewhere else first, with food, and use praise, play and the chance to run again as the reward inside the fence. Leave the treat pouch in the car. If your dog is still learning to come away from other dogs, a long line in a quiet place makes a better classroom until the habit holds.

SPOT asks the owner to watch, judge and step in. A daycare day at Dogtown hands that job to our handlers: playgroups of 7 to 10 dogs matched by size and temperament, with splash pools and platforms on the turf yard, for $42 a full day or $33 a half. A dog that needs structure as well as play may do better with a Dogtown Academy day, $89 full or $69 half, which adds training and one-on-one time with a trainer.

Every daycare and Academy dog starts with a free evaluation on a weekday between 6:30 and 9:30 AM, with Rabies, DHPP and Bordetella on file and a current license from your town, so the Swampscott tag your dog wears at SPOT covers that requirement too. Swampscott is not one of the four Pup Van towns, so ask us about pick-up. We do not take dogs to SPOT or any other Swampscott park.