Dog Parks

The last thing we need is more "dog parks." Because of irresponsible dog owners and virtually non-existent law enforcement, everywhere they go becomes "dog toilets." The rest of us are sick of it and them! SUSU LEVY Encino

Dog owners, snap a collar on this app, and quick! Name: Dog Park Finder Plus Available for: iPhone and iPad What it does: Lets you find and review dog-friendly (or unfriendly) places and services such as hotels, restaurants, groomers, walkers and dog parks. Cost: $1.99 for iPad with twice the number of park listings. What's hot: More than 6,000 dog parks and beaches and 12,000 restaurants. Use the search bar or click on "Browse" to find your location, then click "List" to scan icons for fenced or legal off-leash parks, restaurants or less-than-friendly locations (look for the red slash)

Dog owners, snap a collar on this app, and quick! Name: Dog Park Finder Plus Available for: iPhone and iPad What it does: Lets you find and review dog-friendly (or unfriendly) places and services such as hotels, restaurants, groomers, walkers and dog parks. Cost: $1.99 for iPad with twice the number of park listings. What's hot: More than 6,000 dog parks and beaches and 12,000 restaurants. Use the search bar or click on "Browse" to find your location, then click "List" to scan icons for fenced or legal off-leash parks, restaurants or less-than-friendly locations (look for the red slash)

It was dog days at the dog park. Whereas on most sunny afternoons the park near the Silver Lake reservoir is abuzz with tail-wagging, ball-fetching canine exuberance, the place was nearly empty for a while Saturday as temperatures across Southern California hit triple digits. "I was just wondering where everybody is," said Peter Brightman, 45, of Silver Lake. "What are they doing that's cooler?" PHOTOS: Sizzling temperatures in the Southland Brightman, a tattooed counselor at a residential treatment facility, was sharing a table and some umbrella shade with the park's only other human patron, Gabriel Smalley of Los Feliz.

Dogs may offer companionship, protection and some stress release for urban-dwelling humans, but a city does not offer much for dogs, their owners and advocates say. A recent proposal being floated by the city's Parks Commission would greatly expand the number of off-leash canine recreation areas in Los Angeles. But the proposal has some residents worrying that humans might get the wet end of the stick.

San Fernando Valley dogs should have something new to pant about this spring, when the city is expected to open its third dog park. To be located at the corner of White Oak Avenue and Victory Boulevard inside the Sepulveda Basin, the 10-acre park would be the largest of its kind in the city. It would include five acres of fenced-off turf for canines to cavort unleashed.

Triunfo Park will not be the site of Ventura County's first dog park, the Conejo Recreation and Park District's board of directors decided Thursday night. After being swarmed by nearly 50 area residents--both dog lovers who want a gated, leash-free area for dogs and those who don't want it in their neighborhood--board members decided they would discuss the issue again at a future meeting. The board voted unanimously to remove Triunfo Park as the "initial site" of the dog park.

After a year of negotiations among residents, environmentalists, dog lovers and the city, ground will be broken in early January for Los Angeles' largest off-leash dog exercise area, parks officials said. The 9.7-acre park at the corner of White Oak Avenue and Victory Boulevard inside the Sepulveda Basin will be the third such facility for dogs in the city and will cost about $300,000 to build, according to officials from the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks.

Plans to build the city's largest dog park in the Sepulveda Basin are expected to win final approval Wednesday at a meeting of the city's Recreation and Parks Commission in Encino. The 9.7-acre park, proposed for a barren patch of land on the corner of White Oak Avenue and Victory Boulevard, will include a five-acre off-leash area for dogs, and parking for 98 cars.

Canine ecstasy is just around the corner, officials say. Groundbreaking for the city's third, and largest, off-leash dog exercise area is tentatively scheduled for late February or early March, said a spokesman for Los Angeles City Councilwoman Laura Chick, in whose district the park would be built. The 9.

Cue the Barry White music: Angelenos are having sex more often than other poor slobs around the country, according to the Trojan U.S. Sex Census. Awwwwwwwwwwwwww yeah. We're acknowledging right up front that maybe the national 1,000-person survey sponsored by Trojan isn't the most scientific investigation on sex in the history of mankind, but what the heck, L.A. is No. 1! Well, sort of. According to the survey, the average 18-and-older American has sex 120 times per year, but Angelenos are doing it 135 times a year.

Don't bring your dogs to a park in Redondo Beach. Not Andrews Park, nor Anderson Park, nor any of the 26 or so parks in town unless you're prepared to pay. It doesn't matter if you've got your dog on a leash or wearing a muzzle, whether it's a Chihuahua or a Great Dane, if you're caught walking Fido in a Redondo Beach park, it can cost you about $250. Redondo Beach is one of the few cities that has made its parks dog-free zones. The only exception is the lone dog park, where they can roam unleashed in enclosed areas, one for big dogs, the other for small pooches.

It's a pet peeve common with travelers: Where is Fido welcome? DogFriendly.com, the Internet face of Dog-Friendly city guides, has some answers. What's hot: Accommodations are its main focus, but the site also lists dog parks, pet stores, dog-friendly restaurants, doggy events. I like that it notes which places are its advertisers. You'll find listings in other countries too. What's not: A design face lift would help: It's cluttered. And it's heavy on chain hotels.

The City Council has voted unanimously to open the new Santa Monica Airport dog park to nonresidents and their pets. But dogs that use the park must have a 2008 Santa Monica dog tag, which will cost $15.50 and probably will be available Nov. 1, said Karen Ginsberg, the city's assistant director of community and cultural affairs. In the meantime, Angelenos and others may use the park without fear of a citation.

Re "L.A. residents told to keep their paws off dog park," May 3 The residents of Mar Vista have discovered what we in Venice have known for years: Santa Monica is a bad neighbor. Santa Monica has long addressed regional issues of traffic, parking and recreation by establishing "locals-only" zones while doing nothing to mitigate its impact on adjoining communities. It's like the guy who is always putting his trash in his neighbors' cans and routinely blocks their driveways but gets indignant whenever anyone sets a toe on his lawn.

Mar Vista residents have a bone to pick with Santa Monica. Under the Santa Monica city code, only dogs with tags from that city are allowed in the off-leash area of the new Santa Monica Airport Park, which opened Sunday at the northwest corner of Bundy Drive and Airport Avenue. The situation has prompted howls of protest from indignant Angelenos, including Councilman Bill Rosendahl, who noted in a statement that L.A.

The Los Angeles City Council unanimously approved extending the life of the city's only dog park Wednesday, with no discussion and none of the theatrics that marked a commission hearing on the subject earlier in the week. Under the motion introduced by Councilman Michael Woo, Laurel Canyon Park on Mulholland Drive will remain open to dogs through March 1, 1990, instead of closing in September.

The Los Angeles Board of Recreation and Park Commissioners on Wednesday decided to temporarily halt a construction project at Laurel Canyon Park after neighbors complained that the additions were spoiling one of Los Angeles' only two dog parks. "You have ruined it," said Cathleen Doyle, executive director of ParkWatch, a grass-roots community group that helped create the dog park. "We are asking you to put it back to the condition that it was in."

One supervisor calls it the political version of a pit bull attack. The mayor says grimly he'll probably solve the homeless problem first. Often-rabid opponents face off in city parks, public meetings and on the Internet, and sometimes resort to shoving matches and name-calling. Canine politics here can be dog-eat-dog. In this city named after St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals, the 120,000 dogs outnumber children.

After an impassioned meeting that lasted for hours Wednesday, the Los Angeles Parks and Recreation Commission unanimously voted to approve a parking lot for Runyon Canyon, home to the city's largest off-leash dog park. Those opposed to the lot argued that it would cause more people to use the park, paradoxically creating parking problems for the surrounding neighborhood and increasing traffic and noise as cars lined up to enter.