One of the things I absolutely love about living in Franklin is that I can drive less than 10 minutes from home and find every convenience imaginable. 

Even better, I can drive less than 10 minutes from home and find myself in the most beautiful country -- rolling hills, vast open spaces with horses, cows, bison, buffalo and corn fields. 

It’s truly the best of both worlds.  I love to take a drive and see some of the beautiful scenery, and I often come across a family of deer or turkeys somewhere along the way. But that's not all...

My son and I live about 2 miles from the downtown square in Franklin -- in a neighborhood nestled between Hwy 96 and Liberty Pike.  There are several small subdivisions nearby, as well as Liberty Elementary.  It’s not rural by any account, but I’m amazed at the variety of wildlife I find in my backyard!

I've sung the praises of The Farm at Natchez Trace before.

But now I have a few more things to add to the list...

Soon after our beloved pet sitter (our next door neighbor) moved away, we began our search to find someone we could trust to watch our dog whenever we went out of town.

This was hard for us. In all my years of having dogs, I have only left my dogs in a pet boarding facility twice. They were well cared for, but it just wasn't the same as leaving our dog in the comfort of his own home when we were away. Everywhere that we've lived, we've always been fortunate to have a responsible teenager living next door to us.

One of the first places we researched here in Franklin was The Farm at Natchez Trace.

The Farm is Middle Tennessee's only pet boarding facility to earn full accreditation by the American Boarding Kennels Association.

Still, it was hard to get past my first impressions:

#1 That this was probably just some expensive "doggie hotel" for the well-to-do people in Franklin and Williamson county.

#2 That the experience for our dog would probably be nothing like the 4-5 times a day that our next door neighbor typically visited our dog in our home.

Boy, was I wrong!...

The Farm is a cage-less facility with no concrete runs -- just 18 acres of private farmland, complete with a creek and a well-maintained nature trail.

Aside from play time inside the fenced-in yard, all dogs are kept on leashes during their walks.

There is 24-hour care on-site, even on weekends and holidays. A night manager is always on duty (not just "on the premises"). Also, the Director lives on the property. All FT and permanent PT staff is ABKA-certified.

A veterinarian is on-call 24 hours a day.

Both of these dog parks are worth visiting, despite any of the "negative" things that I might allude to below.

My aim here is simply to give dog owners an honest review and some idea of what they can expect to find upon their first visit to either of these dog parks.

All in all, they're both great dog parks, and both are very popular with the locals.

I guess it's time for this little piggy to find a new home!

Story below...

If Tenor were to be the judge, the Franklin Dog Park would rank #1, followed by the Brentwood /slash/ Bellevue /slash/ Nashville /slash/ Warner Dog Park as #2.

Actually, the Warner Dog Park is part of the Percy Warner Parks system which lies between Bellevue and Brentwood (and just a hop, skip, and a jump from Franklin), but it's technically in Nashville.

The Franklin Dog Park has its own claim to fame: it is Tennessee's first off-leash dog park!