Results tagged “dog beach” from South Bay Pets

Just got this from a reader who took this picture with a cell phone during a visit to the Rancho Palos Verdes shoreline. The dog looks vaguely familiar, but I can't be sure. Anyway, this is Barkley, who has just come down the steep hill at the super-duper secret dog beach that isn't really a dog beach.

http://losangeles.citysearch.com/profile/map/46291719/rancho_palos_verdes_ca/trump_national_golf_club.html

How much does it cost if you get caught with your dog off leash on a beach? According to an article in this issue of the Malibu Surfside News, one dude was threatened with multi-hundred-dollar ticket! It's on page 15 if you want to see it.

This is a letter I got about it:

I just saw a photo in our local newspaper that states the fine for a dog off leash on the beach is $600. After reading - and commenting on - the Bad Cop vs. Redondo Park Lady, I thought you might find this very interesting at a few levels.

I wonder how these fines stack up against other simple infractions?

Not trying to give you a bad time or start up something, but don't want Rocket to suffer 'those

looks' if you get a ticket like that. I'd gladly take that dog off your hands...

Take care and keep leaving those paw prints on our hearts,

Mari

Take the dog off my hands??? Well, OK, but you  have to take the cat too. And you have to let him burrow under the covers when it's cold at night. And you have to take him for walks 18 times a day. And you have to scratch his belly for an hour in the morning. And he likes a little oat meal in the morning. 

Aw, never mind! 

On December 6 I attended a party for twin 5 year old boys at a park in the City of Redondo Beach.  I live in Mission Viejo and knew I would be gone most of the day.  I decided to bring my small dog with me rather than leave her home alone all day.  Since the party was taking place at a park I had no hesitation about bringing her.  She is about 5 pounds and pretty much sits on whoever's lap she can crawl up onto.  I figured it would be no problem to have her.
To my surprise, while I was walking her around the park area (on her leash), I was stopped by a not-so-friendly Redondo Beach Police officer.  He informed me that dogs were not allowed at the park.  I told him I had absolutely no idea and that I did not live in the SouthBay area.  He proceeded to write me a citation anyhow!  When I asked if that meant I had to leave the party/park, he said I should lock my dog in the car for the remainder of my stay there!!  Knowing this IS illegal, I started to ask about it and he said the outside temperature was cool enough and I would not get a citation for doing what he asked!!  I guess I should be thankful for that much?!
I just received the paperwork from the court and am SHOCKED to see the citation will cost me $158.00!!!  I suggest if the city of Redondo Beach has such strict and nonsensical laws about dogs they make more of an effort to alert the visiting public.  At $158 a citation they should have enough money to post notices next to their "Welcome to the City of Redondo Beach" signs!
Am I wrong to think this makes no sense?  I honestly had no idea such laws existed!  No dogs allowed at a park!!?  Where I live they actually provide doggie bags to collect your dog's waste while you are on a walk with him/her!  I've only owned my dog for about a year and NEVER thought there would be a law against having a dog at a park!!  Don't the two go hand-in-hand?
Don't be too hard on your dog, I can guarantee you he is probably much nicer than that RB police officer!!

So that movie "Marley and Me" made $800 billion over the Christmas weekend, which is more money I'll earn if I live to be 37,000 years old.

As some of you may recall, I am boycotting the movie because I seethe with jealousy. Some reporter got himself an ill-behaved dog and turned it into a national sensation.

I kick myself for not thinking about it.

And what's so special about Marley? His claim to fame is that he's the "worst dog in the world."

HA!

Here's how I spent my Christmas (Yes, I'm Jewish, but it was still a day off). You tell me who's more terrible, Marley or Rocket:

It rained all Christmas morning. But by early afternoon the sun was poking through and the ground was drying.

Around 2 p.m., there was a knock on my door. It was my across-the-street neighbors telling me they were taking their dogs to the Top Secret Illegal Dog Beach (which is really located at the bottom of the Trump Golf Course in Rancho Palos Verdes.) Would I like to join them?

I put Rocket on his leash, and darted out to my car wearing just a sweatshirt. It was cool out, but I figured I'd get warm walking down the trails.

I should mention that I am getting over a cold and am having a hard time breathing.

Anyway, we got to the bottom of the cliffs and Rocket was itching to get off his leash. I looked at the expanse of sand and I looked at the dog. I knew there was a reasonable chance I would regret my decision, but I unhooked his leash and let him loose. 

The first half hour were pleasant enough. Rocket and Buddy were happy as could be as they raced up and down the beach.

But then Rocket decided he wanted to explore the cliffs. Off he went into the thicket of bushes.

It started to drizzle. I looked up and realized that another storm was coming.

Everybody else started gathering up their dogs to leave, but Rocket was just getting started.

"C'mon boy," I called as he popped in and out of the bushes.

Then the rain started coming down hard.

"Rocket, let's go!" I shouted, but he ignored me.

I looked around. My friends were gone. The beach was deserted. Rocket kept ignoring me.

The dirt turned into a slick clay and I kept sliding on it as I tried to walk.

My clothes were soaked. I was shivering. I could barely breathe and I kept stumbling on the slippery wet rocks as I tried to catch up with that little jerk. Frigid needles of rain hit me in the face. My nose was running and I was covered in water and mud.

The end.

Ok, not really. But the rest of the story is pretty tedious. I finally caught him and dragged his sorry butt to the car. I got home, took a warm bath and gave him dirty looks for for the rest of the night.

Ok, that's really the end.

Or is it?

Where is this dog beach?

(a) California

(b) Oregon

(c) New Jersey

Answer: None of the above.

OK, so it's not Trump's, but this dog beach is breaking new ground in a far-away part of the world.

It's at Cyprus's popular holiday resort of Ayia Napa, according to this Reuters story. The island's first legal beach for animals came after "complaints it was becoming a dog's life for man's best friend."

Better known for all-night partying by Western tourists, the southeastern resort is now catering for dogs amid growing discontent that pooches had no place to cool off from the sweltering summer heat.

"We have seen lots of people taking their dogs for a walk since the establishment of the designated area, and we have been inundated by phone calls from happy pet owners thanking and congratulating us for this initiative," said Antonis Tsokkos, mayor of Ayia Napa.

Some folks don't like the idea much, apparently. But Tsokkos pointed out that "in older times," shepherds used to take their sheep and goats there.

It's been a while since I riled things up by writing about dog beaches.

But yesterday someone left this comment to a post I made a few months ago about the secret dog beach, which, as you know, can be found by parking next to the club house at the Trump Golf course in Rancho Palos Verdes and walking down the trail.

This letter accomlishes two things: It dredges up one of my favorite blogging topics and it says nice things about me!

 You people are so selfish with your beaches! How is he destroying a community?! It seems to me he is bringing it together! You people probably think because someone who comes up there and isn't wearing designer clothes and sunglasses isn't worthy of being there! Thank you Josh Grossberg! These annoying, self centered PV people who think that just because they have money that they should be the only ones allowed up there at that beach. I'm sorry but my dog loves to run and play just the same as yours. So Kudos to you Josh! You are not ruining this beach for anybody except self centered snobs. As a matter of fact, I am going to tell everyone I know who has a dog to come down there!

That's the spirit! But let me caution my readers that taking dogs off leash at the beach is illegal. And always be courteous and clean up after your dog.

Fall is coming, which is a great time of the year to take your dog for a hike and a romp on the sand. I'll write more about dog beaches soon. 

  Our municipal neighbor to the east, Long Beach, is set to get another off-leash dog park, writes Robert Garcia on LBPost.com.

A groundbreaking is coming soon and construction (which will take about a year) is set to begin later this summer on the westside's "Downtown Dog Park," an idea first proposed by the North Pine Neighborhood Alliance. The park will be built at the corner of Pacific and Ninth. With the many new lofts that have gone up in the district, the park should get good use.

Long Beach already has a fairly spaceous off-leash facility within Recreation Park on Seventh Street on the east side of town. The Long Beach Dog Park opened in the mid-1990s. Some years later, a designated dog beach was approved near Belmont Shore.

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Sometimes I get responses for posts I wrote days earlier. I figure the three people who read this blog --including, but not limited to my sister, Darlene -- looked at my post when I write it and moved on without reading the letters.

I got this letter today, which is attached to the original post about a beach in Rancho Palos Verdes. People like to take their dogs there, a fact that annoys people who live in the gated community next door. I wanted to make sure you all see it:

Just north of the Trump golf course is a very nice, very pricey and very private housing community. It's called the Portuguese Bend Club.

Its well guarded and unnaccesable to outsiders. I've been invited over a couple of times and the people I've met there are have all been very hospitable.

The community has its own private beach. It's a law I don't agree with -- I think beaches should be community property -- but those are the rules.

What bugs me is people who think they don't have enough private beach and try to extend their property lines by tricking or bullying people. The Los Angeles Times writes about this from time to time up in Malibu, where movie moguls like David Geffen like to chase the masses off their pretend property.

I should remind my four readers that while the sandy part of the beach is private property, below the water line is as public as the corner library. I think you should all go there immediately. Your ankles will get wet, but what fun you'll have standing there!

I should also remind my four readers that they should always be polite, pick up their trash, follow rules and keep their unfriendly dogs at home. I think it's OK to have them bark though.

I've received a few amusing e-mails from people complaining about my discussing a secluded beach near there (connected to a public parking lot at the Trump course -- its a splendid, but difficult walk. You should go there after you finished standing in the waves).

Or maybe it's the same person, I don't know. But here's the point they always make: Stop talking about that secret beach. It's nobody's business. And it's about 500 feet away from our private beach and we don't want regular people going there.

Except that regular people actually own said beach. It's a public beach. And, because of the rock formations, you can't really see one beach from the other.

After calling me a poser and an attention seeker, one person actually wrote this:

... Publishing a blog ... destroys private communities by giving the public a new place to go and populate, leave trash, bring their loud untamed children as well as their unruly dogs ... .

Hey, I hate children as much as the next guy, but they have as much right to go to enjoy the ocean as any jerk who doesn't want to share it with them.

Like I said, you should all go there immediately.

Thanks to Tony Barboza of the L.A. Times pet blog L.A. Unleashed for linking to my previos post about how to get to the illegal dog beach in Rancho Palos Verdes.

I'm pumping my fist at you Tony in a gesture of blog solidarity!  We pet bloggers need to stick together. We're like the dwarves and elves in the Lord of the Ring movies. We're competitors, but we stand together in the face of a common enemy: namely people who were mad at me for giving directions to the beach. Click here to see them again.

I've been speaking with some local dog beach experts. One of them is Justin Rudd, who was also kind enough to give my post a little boost by mentioning it in his newsletter.

Justin,  helped create the legal dog beach in Long Beach. It took three years for that location to get the OK.

Justin has some advice for people who want to create their own seaside animal oasis: Don't give up. Write letters to the editor, organize with your friends and keep track of which city officials have dogs.

"We tried to create a place where dogs can recreate and people could congregate and socialize."

And if they don't have legal beaches, people will just become scofflaws.

"It's going to happen," Rudd said. "Unless it's a dog that's going to go out and hurt somebody, I don't think it's a big deal. In the scheme of things, it's not a big deal."

There are already people who are trying to organize a South Bay dog beach. Their efforts have not been successful, but, well, we'll write about them later in the week.

UPDATE:

I just got this comment. I wanted to share it with everybody. I'll have more to say about this later -- LOTS more.

Josh Grossberg seems to have an attitude which is to remain immune to how he must have hurt the residents in the private community of this "secret beach". Mr. Grossberg has the mentality that negative publicity is still publicity, and he apparently needs something to make him feel worthy and important. If this is called being an author and a writer, but publishing a blog that destroys private communities by giving the public a new place to go and populate, leave trash, bring their loud untamed children as well as their unruly dogs, then Mr. Grossberg really needs to make an assessment of his career. There are so many others like him, they just aren't as rude as he is for publishing this "secret" news which most people brighter than him already knew about.

I received this anonymous comment regarding my post about directions to the illegal dog beach in Rancho Palos Verdes.

For some reason, it didn't post, so I'm reprinting it here in full. The writer makes some very good points: No matter where you go with your dog, always be polite and aware that not everybody loves animals. And always be respectful of your surroundings.

However I disagree with his argument that some beaches are being overused. While that might be true, I'll make a deal with you. If you think an area is being overused, YOU stop going and let somebody else have a turn.

Wow, I really opened a can of worms when I talked about the secret South Bay dog beach. I didn't even give directions there, but got a bunch of angry e-mails from people who either didn't want dogs to go there or from people who do take dogs there, but don't want to share.

And a couple of days after my original post ran, the authorities showed up and started handing out tickets to people who had their dogs off leash.

This morning I spoke to the guy who helped get the dog beach going in Long Beach, as well as the woman who started a group to get one (so far unsuccessfully) in Playa del Rey.

I'm going to be writing about this issue a bit as I gather more information, but I also want to know what you guys think.

Would you guys like to see a dog beach in the South Bay? Where would you like it? And do you take your pets to beaches, even though you're not supposed to?

I feel Josh has proven himself as a self centered egotistical attention-freak by publishing this "secret beach." Perhaps the intentions were just to get a reaction and to piss people off who rely on this place for possibly rehabilitation of aggressive dogs or just having privacy, like Anonymous. There's actually a private community living down from the beach Josh talks about, and thanks to his public announcement, the residents now can enjoy the craziness of all the public humans, screaming children, and their animals. Gee, Josh, I bet you are voted Mr. Popular of the south Bay by the residents in this secret location which is now public. Hurray for Josh for being Mr. A-Hole of the k9 secret hideouts, of which some of us have been living at for quite some time. I hope Josh never finds out where my private address is for the public will surely surround my place with their families and dogs: fortunately, I like zoos, so bring it on Mr. Media! ooops, yes, I forgot to mention, I enjoy the circus, too, so the more the merrier - NOT!

I got an angry comment from Laura, who was responding to a post I made earlier this month about a secret dog beach in the South Bay.

Laura writes:

I was there this afternoon and the police and animal control were there

giving out tickets to dog owners on the beach. So thank you to everyone

that just felt the need to advertise this "secret spot" to the masses. Now

please, everyone go back to the ridiculous rules dog beach in long beach

and leave us alone....

Sorry about the ticket, Laura. I agree, the beach is secluded enough that the police should just leave the place alone. It's not like anybody goes there to sunbathe.

But, like I noted in my original post, it is illegal to bring your dogs there, so you can't blame me. I've gotten a few tickets over the years and it's not fun, but here's the way I look at it: I've been taking my dog to parks and beaches for years, so if I get busted every now and again, it's just the cost of doing business.

Anyway, off-leash dog walkers be warned. The Man is on to us!