With potential $2,000 fines for bringing your dog on the beach and out and out battles in city parks between those who own dogs and those who don’t, Vancouver, B.C., has never been considered one of your most dog-friendly towns.

But a Vancouver developer has gone to a lot of trouble, and spent a lot of money, to improve that reputation.

A company called Amacon is building what it says is Canada's first condo dog run in its new downtown development, the Beasley Residences – a 2,000 square-foot, mulch-lined dog run on the eight floor of the 33-story condo complex.

The landscaped dog run at the $150-million complex will include benches for owners, a waste receptacle, a dog wash and grooming station, the Globe and Mail reports.

The idea came from an elementary-school principal who says it took him a year to find a downtown condo that would meet his needs as well as those of Buddy and Dixie, his Boston terriers. He passed his idea on to a friend who was the sales and marketing manager for Amacon, the newspaper reports, and the “wooftop deck” was born.

“More and more, people seem to have dogs - yet developers are never really catering to the dogs that mean so much to so many people," marketing director Nic Jensen told the newspaper. To see the full story, click here.