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Santa Monica Dog Park - At Santa Monica Airport. While the City is a bit stringent about the 'Santa Monica residents only' rule, outsiders can pay a yearly fee and enjoy this awesome dog park as well. Both the big dog side and the little dog side are tiered and fully landscaped with cedar wood-chips, which actually give the park a good smell (imagine). Park goers (owners) tend to be friendly, and the dogs tend to be well cared for. Plenty of benches and a bit of shade too.

I most often go to Silverlake with my two creatures, because it's the quickest, easiest one to get to. But I prefer Laurel Canyon when I have the time to drive over there. I find the owners are a little more "chill" at Silverlake, but the dogs enjoy Laurel Canyon more.

It's not off-leash, but when I'm feeling really plucky, I'll drive them up the PCH to Leo Carillo State Park, which has a nice area of beach that dogs are welcome on. I find it's the best compromise of dog/people beach. I went to the Long Beach dog beach once, and while they enjoyed it, as a people beach it doesn't compare.

I think I've seen a park in Burbank on yelp.com that isn't on the list. Anyone been to that one?

I take my dog to the Lower Arroyo park in Pasadena. It's just a hop from Highland Park and I love it. technically it's not "off leash", but everyone does it and it's never been a problem. There are archers and horses in the area, as well as walkers, so you have to have a fairly well-behaved dog.

I just love it because it's always green, it's far from other roads, and you get to walk alongside a creek one way and through a sandy maze the other way.

the former not a corn field park in downtown is good for dogs who don't have the social skills to handle an actual dog park. Its a good size, walking end to end is about a mile and a half, and it has a field of wild flowers that's pretty to look at. We take our chow mix and chihuahua mix here because so few people are at the park. They can relax as we walk and aren't stressed by a boatload of other dogs

We take our dog to AFK too. It's definitely one of the nicer parks we've been to. There is also one off the 210 called Arcadia's Dog Park (Eisenhower Park) but it's much smaller, and the people there don't seem as friendly. The Silverlake park is our least favourite as our black dog comes home beige from all the dirt there.

chusmabilly: I'm not familiar with the downtown place you're talking about... can you give more info (approx address ot cross-streets)?

I live in the South Bay and frequent the Redondo Beach Dog Park on a regular basis. The park is located on the South-East corner of 190th and Flagler is big, with two separate parks (one for big dogs, one for small dogs) divided by a chain-length fence. I have two miniature dachshunds, so we stay on the small dog side. For the most part, everyone is pretty good about picking up after their pooches and you get to know a lot of the regulars and their dogs. Everyone is really very friendly, but almost every day there is a fight on the big dog side, so if you own a big dog, there may be more potential for drama if the wrong dog is in the mix that day. The park gets pretty muddy after it rains and it is always closed on Wednesdays until noon for maintenance. There are a lot of benches and several trees for shade on the small dog side.


I also like taking my dogs to the beach at Donald Trump's new golf course in Palos Verdes. At the entrance of the course, you park in the lot to the left and follow the sign that says "Nature Trails". It forks off and both sides lead to the ocean, the one to the right slopes gradually but takes longer and the one on the right is steeper but quicker. The beach is the rocky kind, with pebbly sand, like the kind in NorCal. There are no fences and all sizes of dogs but the dogs are all so excited and enamored with playing in the water, they are all pretty mellow. It takes forever to get there but it's a beautiful drive and a great experience.