Recently in dog beach Category

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

Happy Birthday to the Dog Beach in Long Beach.

And kudos especially to Justin Rudd and Rosie and everyone else who made this possible eight years ago. It was the culmination of much hard work and patience.

On June 24, 2001, for the first time in more than 30 years, dogs were permitted to play along the water's edge on a stretch of beach in Long Beach.

It was a pilot program in which the city agreed to let dogs onto the beach on one Sunday a month through the summer of 2003.

Things went so well that on Oct. 31, 2004, the Long Beach City Council unanimously approved the permanent Dog Beach Zone in the South Bay's neighboring city to the south east.

Now, owners can off-leash their dogs (one dog per person) on a 3-acre stretch near Belmont Shore year-round.

If you haven't been there, check it out. You and your dog will have a blast. There are cones on either side to designate the dog-friendly area, so be sure your canine comes when called and won't run off as there are no fences.

I took my Australian shepherd Pilgrim there two summers ago when a friend came in from Colorado with her dog, Hawkeye, and wanted to take her dog to the beach.

I'll never forget how thrilled Pilgrim was to be there -- up and down the shoreline he raced, practically smiling all the way as he felt the wet sand on his paws, sometimes chasing his ball, other times just enjoying the running for the heck of it. This was during the period when he was being treated for diabetes (insulin shots twice a day). Only a couple months later, in September 2007, he was struck with complications and I had to make that final decision to put him down (he was 8).

But I'll always be grateful he had that carefree afternoon at the Dog Beach. I still smile just thinking about the memory. I'm just sorry I didn't think to bring a camera that day.

So thanks, Justin, and the city of Long Beach.  

Check out the Dog Beach Zone web page to find out all the details, where to park, what the rules are -- and watch a fun video of Justin with his English Bulldog Rosie on the first day at dog beach.

Maybe I'll get there this summer again with Tess and/or Cowboy, my border collies.

(Pilgrim is shown below in his most humiliating moment ever, when I made him pose in a Santa hat for a Christmas ad in the now defunct publication More San Pedro.)

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! 

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. 

The latest misadveture of my dog:

 This is going to be hard to explain because it's mostly a visual thing, but I took the stupid dog to the illegal top secret dog beach a few days ago.

It's a good beach because you have to walk down a really hard path to get there and it's surrounded by really steep cliffs -- like nearly 90 degree drops. You know, your typicall seaside cliff situation.
 
So I get Rocket down there and as usual, he ignores the water and runs straight for the bushes (that's where he got stung in the nose by the cactus needles) A few minutes go by and I don't hear or see him. I look around and finally I hear the tinkling of his collar.

I looked up and saw my idiot dog climbing straight up the cliff! He looked like a goat.

I called and yelled and screamed at him to get down this minute, but of course, he ignored me.

Higher and higher he went until finally, he reached the top, which is probably, what 60 feet at least?

Well, what do I do now, I wondered. Do I stand here like an idiot or go looking for him? It will take me 20 minutes to get to where I last saw him and by that time, he'd be long gone.

And then he reappeared. He decided to come back down the way he came. But it was too steep for him to walk, so he slid all the way down on his stomach.

It looked like he was body surfing.

I was so mad at him. No more walks off leash for him for  a LONG TIME.

  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.