Rancho Palos Verdes Opens Dog Park

After rescinding plans for a pilot dog beach program at Rancho Palos Verdes Beach earlier this year, the city of Rancho Palos Verdes opened an official dog park at Point Vicente Park and the Civic Center on Thursday as a consolation prize.

The half-acre, temporary facility—dubbed Rancho Caninos—is located next to the tennis courts near city hall. The area is separated into areas for small dogs and large dogs and has a cedar chip surface and watering area.

"I'm glad they have this," said Yvonne Schreiner, who brought her daughter Sage and their dog Pepper to the park on Friday. "It's a really great location, too."

Schreiner, a Rancho Palos Verdes resident, said she used to frequent the unofficial dog beach until the city cracked down on enforcing the ban on dogs.

"This is really convenient," she said. "It's such a pretty setting, who wouldn't want to come here?"

The dog park, which is not staffed, is open during normal park hours, e.g. one hour before sunrise to one hour after sunset, seven days per week.

In the future, the city of Rancho Palos Verdes, along with other cities on the Peninsula, plans to lobby Los Angeles County to build a permanent dog park on the Palos Verdes Landfill site adjacent to Rolling Hills Estates. Representatives of the county have said they don't plan to open another dog park until a test program in La Crescenta has operated for at least a year.

The county dog park in La Crescenta opened mid-October.

Anyone with questions, comments or suggestions for Rancho Caninos should contact the Recreation and Parks Department at parks@rpv.com or 310-544-5260.