Buddy recently got to go to the beach, and it was so much fun for him! We took him to Rosie’s Dog Beach, which is located in the heart of Long Beach. I actually had never heard of this place. For the longest, I thought that the only dog beaches in the area were the ones in Malibu and Huntington Beach, so I was pleasantly surprised to find one in Long Beach. Overall, it was a really great, hassle-free, experience. Here are some things you should know if you’re interested in checking it out.
1. There is plenty of free parking on the street along Ocean Blvd.
We only had to circle around the block a couple of times to find a spot, which is pretty good! Be careful with residential parking though, from what I saw, a lot of that is permit parking. There’s also a large metered parking lot, but for some reason, it was closed when we went. All in all, it was pretty easy to find a spot.
2. Don’t take your dog off the leash unless you’re confident he/she won’t run away.
This is a leash-free dog beach, but that doesn’t mean that every dog should be left off of his/her leash. Personally, I as really weary of letting Buddy off of his leash, so we played around with him on the leash first. After we saw how he was behaving, we decided to take him off the leash and it wasn’t a problem. I did, however, see a couple different owners racing towards the street, in pursuit of their dogs! There is a wall that separates the beach from the street, but there’s a staircase that any dog can easily scale to get around that.
3. If your dog is aggressive, you shouldn’t bring him/her here.
There’s an unspoken code between everyone at the dog beach that if their dog is there, it means they’re friendly. Some might be a little more jumpy, energetic, or yappy than others, but I didn’t see any acts of aggression from any of the dogs there.
4. Make sure your dog pees/poops before he gets to the beach.
It’s very difficult to pick up poop when it’s being carried away by a wave. It’s also gross when the dog poops and the owner doesn’t pick it up, because people are walking around on their bare feet. I actually saw one guy just bury the poop with his foot. WTF! Not great. Just try to avoid this by having your dog go before he hits the water.
5. Don’t take any treats out at the dog beach!
This last one was my personal takeaway. Like an idiot, I took out some dog treats while we were there, and I was ambushed by dogs. When Buddy saw other dogs trying to get at his treats, he got a bit aggressive. At that point, another big dog got aggressive too and started to go after him. To avoid a bad situation, I stepped in between them instinctively before my husband could grab Buddy by the collar and get him away from the other dog. Unfortunately, I walked away from the incident with a scratched up leg. This was 100% my fault though, so I don’t blame the dogs at all.
For more information on Rosie’s Dog Beach, check out this link: http://hautedogs.org/beach.html
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