Recently in dog parks Category

This little item comes by way of the Dog Clothes Horse blog about an ongoing experiment that originated in the college town of Ithaca, N.Y.:

Several years ago, dog owners (in Ithaca) began worrying about all the plastic bags filled with dung that ended up in the landfill.

Leon Kochian, a professor of plant biology at Cornell and, more to the point, the owner of a yellow lab, recalled the thinking at the time: "This is Ithaca. There's got to be a more environmentally sensible way to do this."

This year, with Mr. Kochian's nudging, one of the city's dog parks -- part of the Allan H. Treman Marine State Park  -- became a dog waste composting park.

Special corn-based bags, made by the Biobag Company based in Florida, are available at several stations in the park. Dog owners put the bag and its contents into large bins near the park's entrances, which are removed once a week by a company called Cayuga Compost.

AT its composting facility, Cayuga dumps the waste into a pile -- mixed with a bit of yard and wood waste -- quite separate from the company's regular food-waste compost.

And there it will sit -- until the company figures out what it might be good for.

Late next year, Cayuga plans to run tests to determine the composition of the dog waste (after all, a dog's diet is arguably more varied than virtually any other animal's, in accordance with the whims of their owner). If it matures into nutrient-rich compost, it might be applied to potted plants or landscaping, said Mark Whittig, Cayuga's operations manager. If the compost is of poorer quality, it could be used for blending with topsoil, he said.

So there you go.

For the full story, go to the The New York Times.

K-9 corner, the fourth off-leash dog park in Long Beach, opened on Sunday at Ninth Street and Pacific Avenue.

(And that's not all -- two more dog parks are in the works in the Wrigley District at Golden Avenue and Wardlow Road and Scheer Park in North Long Beach, according to the city's parks and recreation department.)

K-9 Corner boasts solar power and cost the city $300,000 to develop.

Photo: Stephen Carr, Long Beach Press-Telegram 

Justin Rudd of Long Beach reminds us that Long Beach will see the grand openings of two new dog parks in the next couple weeks:

Long Beach's 3rd dog park to open this weekend at Lincoln Park downtown by the library @ Broadway. (No other details available yet) ...  The 4th off-leash park "K-9 Corner" will have its Grand Opening at noon on Sunday, Sept. 27. Recreation Dog Park and the Dog Beach are the other two parks for dogs.

The ceremony for the K-9 Corner at 906 Pacific Ave. in downtown Long Beach will take place from noon to 3 p.m. Sept. 27. Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthall will be on hand along with several Long Beach city officials. The park features solar power lighting and drought tolerant landscaping.

The event also features free food, drinks, pet adoptions, information booths and children's activities.

It looks tiny, but nice:

Time to catch up on that ongoing effort by Bruce and Maureen Megowan to establish an off-leash dog park on the former Palos Verdes landfill site between Hawthorne and Crenshaw boulevards, north of Palos Verdes Drive North. (Here's a recent report  on the landfill parcel for background.) An aerial view of the property is shown below.

The Megowans have collected 814 petition signatures that they plan to formally present at several upcoming city council meetings on "The Hill," which is where supporters come in. They're asking that they have good turnouts for the meetings to show support for the idea. The park would be designed to serve all four of the cities on the Peninsula.

Here's the schedule of meetings:

• Rolling Hills City Council, 2 Portuguese Bend Road, 7:30 p.m. Monday -- Sept. 14
• Rancho Palos Verdes City Council, Fred Hesse Park Multipurpose room, 7 p.m. Tuesday -- Sept. 15
• Rolling Hills Estates City Council, 4045 Palos Verdes Drive North (northwest corner at Crenshaw Boulevard), 7:30 p.m. Sept. 22 (a Tuesday)
• Palos Verdes Estates City Council, 340 Palos Verdes Drive West, 7:30 p.m. Oct. 13 (a Tuesday)

From the email they sent out this week urging supporters to attend the council meetings:

"This will probably be our best chance to build support for this effort. This email is being sent to over 500 of those who signed the petition and gave us their email addresses, so we hope to see a large turnout at each of the city council meetings. City council members only understand what they see at their meetings, so a large crowd in support of this idea is important."

Questions? You can reach Bruce and Maureen at 310-541-2980 or be added to their email list by contacting them at mmegowan@cox.net.

Here are more posts  we've done on the Palos Verdes dog park issue. Bruce first announced a launch of this movement more than a year ago. We posted about it back then for the first time.  He was motivated by his miniature Australian shepherd, Pepper (shown below).

You can read the Megowans' most recent message to supporters in full on the jump along with email addresses of city officials if you want to contact them about establishing the dog park.

I have heard that some people active in the equestrian community might have concerns about putting a dog park in this location, but I don't know the specifics. Anyone have any more details on that? Others may also question the safety of the soil on the property (see this April 2009 Daily Breeze article by Melissa Pamer on this topic.)  

Any strong opinions out there, either way?

Since it was hotter than blazes at San Pedro's small, off-leash dog park over this past weekend, I decided to drive Tess and Cowboy about 15 miles northwest to visit the much larger (and, weatherwise, much, much cooler) Redondo Beach Dog Park. (Not complaining, just sayin')

Cowboy has been keeping his distance from me since I started spraying him for a hot spot that had cropped up by Saturday morning. He hates being sprayed. This only confirms to him that I am up to no good and he has taken to running in the other direction whenever I call him. He clearly has "trust" issues. He is shown here slinking away & making his escape from me when I called to him at the park. Note that he's giving me what is known around my house now as "THE LOOK":

He seemed to like this other person he found at the dog park a lot, though.  I suspect he would have happily gone home with her.

As for Tess, she couldn't get enough of herding those pesky little dogs on the other side of the divider fence. She's such a border collie. Here's the girl in focused action below, showing 'em all how it's done:

Thanks to Justin Rudd in Long Beach for alerting us to the news that Long Beach's new downtown dog park is set to open in just about three weeks.

It will be a good addition to serve residents living in the downtown lofts. The park is at 186 W. Broadway (at Pacific Avenue) in Lincoln Park:

You can also check the park on this Google map.

I thought we'd posted about the park plans just about a year ago, but that apparently is a different, smaller park that is still under construction at Pacific & 9th.

If you live nearby and plan to use the park at Broadway & Pacific, you can volunteer to serve on the dog park advisory board by calling 562-570-6684.

When these two downtown area parks open, Long Beach will be the home to four off-leash facilities. That's no doubt part of the reason Dog Fancy Magazine has named LB as one of the nation's most dog-friendly cities.

The other facilities: Inside Recreation Park, (2 acres) at 5201 E. 7th St.; and the popular Dog Zone Beach (3 acres) at 1 South Granada Ave.         

Way to go, Long Beach.  

(Right, dog owners and their canines socialize in the shade at the dog park at Recreation Park in Long Beach.)  

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.)