PLAYFUL pooches now have their own dedicated exercise area with the launch of Bournemouth’s first dog agility zone.

The £25,000 agility area at Slades Farm provides dogs and their owners with a secure, designated place and a range of equipment designed to help train puppies and dogs, including a ramp, weaving posts, jumps, a send-away area and a mat for dogs learning to ‘sit’.

Gabrielle Selson, landscape officer at Bournemouth council, said: “Slades Farm is very well used by dog walkers. We’ve seen these type of agility areas in America and London and Slades Farm seemed a good location to try it here. It seemed like a good way of giving something back to the dog walkers.

“Everyone who I have spoken to in there is very pleased with it. They can use the rest of the park too, this is just a dedicated area for dogs to run and for their owners to socialise.”