Lynn a fetching city for dogs

LYNN – Living downtown with their dogs, Hunter and Duncan, Bryan Finocchio and Salvatore Forte have reached a conclusion about their four-footed friends and their fellow canines.?Lynn is becoming more of a dog city,” Forte said.City statistics underscore his point with 1,512 dogs registered locally in 2014 compared to 1,332 in 1995. Finocchio and Forte are familiar with dogs in their Munroe Street-Central Square neighborhood, and they see plenty more in the city?s Barkland dog park on Parkland Avenue where Haley Collibee brings Aspen and Hunter to run around with other dogs while owners spend time chatting.?I like the social aspect of it,” Collibee said.Local dog names are as varied as the different breeds represented among Lynn dogs.Hunter is one of the more popular names, but so is Max, Bailey, Bella, Lucy, Lulu and Rocky.Of course, some names veer toward the predictable – Bailey the Shih Tzu who lives on Bailey Street; Courage the American pit bull terrier; and Ranger the German shepherd.And then there are the more off-beat names: Finn McCool the terrier; Mafia, a pit bull; Yogi the Chihuahua; Elwood the beagle; and Diesel, a miniature pinscher.Collibee enjoys seeing her dogs run and play in Barkland, but she thinks the dog park could be improved with a shelter from the summer sun for dog owners and a softer running surface for dogs.?Right now, the ground gets really hot,” she said.Finocchio and Forte have their sights set on opening a dog store, and they like the idea of locating it on lower Washington Street.?It?s the perfect location with North Shore Community College right there. Lynn is on the up and up – there?s a large dog population,” Finocchio said.