Westminster Dog Park

Dog park that doubles as hobo camp. It’s great that homeless people have a nice outdoor space but it’s a weird mixture of elements for a dog park. We come here a lot since it’s near our house but mine is often the only dog here which kind of defeats the purpose. It’s large and has a wood-​chipped and dirt floor with water fountain. The neighborhood surrounding can be dicey at night so I only come when the sun is up. Parking can also be challenging.

Whoa, what the hell am I doing here! This place is scary as hell! Every time I’ve been here there are some sketchy people hanging around, some who don’t even have dogs, some who have dogs but are crazy town. There are some nice people but overall this is scarier than the boardwalk. No shade and the whole thing is on a huge slant, damn, what is this a prison yard? Also sometimes this dog walker dude comes with like 30 dogs, I think that’s pretty much illegal except I can’t read the signs so don’t quote me on that. Barkout to my buds over at Joslyn, the airport dog park and the main street dog park, if you want to go somewhere a little less sketchy hit up those.

After reading all the negative reviews, I was prepared for almost anything except that it is a very nice dog park with a friendly clientele of dogs and people. The large dog area is quite large and has a nice slope so your dog can be tired from running up the hill when you throw it to the bottom. The park was clean. As one would expect in Venice, the humans were an eclectic bunch, including people who had no dog but like to socialize with the dogs and people. There was no smoking, alcohol or drug use. The homeless, reported by other posters, were not in evidence however I was told they previously were something of a problem. Not a lot of places to sit — — you might want to bring your own lawn chair. Not much shade so can be hot.

Low-​rent Venice dog park.
CONS:
* All the parking spaces are taken by illegally parked tenants, beach-​goers and transients living in their vehicles. No enforcement.
* Filthy and dusty. All dirt. Half-a**ed attempt by highly-​paid city workers to throw a few wood chips around.
* No shade, no trees, all grass is long gone. Extremely hot when the sun comes out.
* Very little seating. Two concrete picnic benches, one bench. All filthy. Used to have a couple of cabanas but they rotted away and were never replaced.
* Owners don’t pick up after their dogs.
* Owners don’t supervise their dogs. Lots of vicious fights. I’ve seen some people drop off their dogs then come back later.
* Many aggressive, un-​neutered dogs.
* Mothers use the place as a day care. Dogs love kids, they jump on them and they cry. Then — ‘How dare you bring an off-​leash dog to an off-​leash dog park while my child is here.’
* Homeless bums wander in and out. All crazy and smelly. Can be dangerous when confronted.
* Bums also drink there at night. Lots of broken glass can be found everywhere.
* The three-​dog limit is consistently ignored as dog «walkers» unload trucks full of dogs. Then loudly scream at them when they inevitably get out of control.
* The small dog area (which is extremely small) is always filled with large problem dogs. If you bring a puppy, it’s going to be bullied and frightened.
PROS:
#

My Logan’s first dog park!
Very big dog park. The dogs are very friendly. The owners are very friendly.
Logan had a great time running around and playing with the other dogs.
It is a bit dirty for my liking but I never been to any other dog park to compare. I washed him when we got home
Would take Logan back here if I am in the area.

The worse!!! There’s glass all over this park mixed in with the sand/​dirt/​wood chip concoction, wish Unilocal allowed negative stars! I for one am not coming back, I wouldn’t walk barefoot here why should my dogs suffer.

I have come here this past week at 7:15am-ish each day and have had no issues. There’s no covering once the sun is up (except for at the bottom of the hill), so the earlier the better. The folks who come at this time are decent and have puppies near the age of the puppy I am currently sitting (8 months), which makes a difference. I stay about an hour and Rooster is pooped for a good chunk of the day after lots of puppy wrestling. The same owners may bring a few toys and they share them among the park until they leave (guarding toys is super serious puppy business). If I lived nearby, I would try to donate more trees for shade and maybe a tunnel for them to run through.
Honestly, it makes a difference to find a group of people of with whom you align and have campions of similar behavior to your dog. Make the effort to find them.

If you don’t mind a little rough and tumble, this is the place to play. There’s usually a pretty casual attitude among the owners about letting dogs be dogs, but you occasionally run into uptight westsiders who think their pedigreed pooches are to be seen and admired only. It reflects the diversity of Venice. And in my book, that’s a good thing.

Someone please make a web series about this place. It’s full of kooks and characters — from the homeless regulars, to unemployed writers, to the random young girl asking for relationship advice from the previously mentioned homeless person.
If the people weren’t so fascinating and engaging, I might give this place 1 star. there’s no grass, I’ve witnessed many a dog fight, and let’s face it, it’s a little seedy. But as a Venetian, it feels like a long-​lasting staple of my hood, and my adorable dog whiskey can’t tell the difference.

A lot of these reviews are kind of ridiculous, I moved to venice two months ago and little Pearl has enjoyed Westminster Dog Park, yes she gets super dirty and that’s a super bad thing but the people and the dogs are regular people and regular dogs they’re not better or worse than any others, haven’t seen that many homeless peeps there are some but its Venice, come on. Anyways, I’ve met some cool people and Pearl loves it and she’s a small dog, she pulls us towards it every time we take her out. I do wish it was cleaner, every time I get off the bus stop its like as if I hit a barrier of shit. The park would benefit if they changed the mulch to something else and made it smaller. Maybe we need to organize and make it better.

I was dog-​park hunting and came across this park. The size is good but it’s all dirt. So your pet will get dirty and dusty. I’m sure the dogs don’t mind, as long as they get to play. The dogs do get rowdy when a new comer is walking past the gate. When I was entering, all of the dogs rushed to the gate and wouldn’t allow my dog to get through. They actually made her anxious and afraid. Also, there isn’t much shade, except for a small corner. People keep to themselves, unlike other parks where people are friendly. It just feels like a lonesome vibe going around.
The Parking isn’t too great, if your lucky, you can park in their 20 – 25 parking lot space they have. Street parking is no good there.
I probably wouldn’t go again unless I’m in the area.

It’s a large space, with a gentle slope, fenced and what could go wrong?
Everything else.
The mulch is sparse which means when dogs run and play, they’re kicking up dust which absolutely contains feces and urine remnants. An environment that fleas and ticks will leap cheerfully from one dog to another. It’s often busy and it’s a beautiful sight (to me) to see playful dogs running free.
I simply worry that the dust will exacerbate allergies, asthma attacks, etc as well as the possibility of coming home with a sick or flea-​bitten dog.
As well it’s a park with a history of sporadic violence amongst a motley group of homeless people that have issues.
IF the City of Los Angeles maintained a healthy amount of mulch, and it is not cared for, this would be an amazing area two blocks from the beach. Maybe because I do have asthma attacks, my review is harsher than others.
There is a smaller area gated for little dogs. As someone else noted, sometimes the forbidden un-​neutered pit bulls are frolicking in there. My Bernese is large but couldn’t hold his own against a vicious attack so … I can’t risk an asthma attack or my dog’s health.
There’s a small, deeply mulched dog park in Santa Monica on Main Street near Urth Café roughly. Maintained, quiet, immaculate and several inches of mulch. It’s heaven.

It is true that this park is dirty, since several dog owners go there to socialize or talk on the phone and don’t scoop the poop, but my dogs never complained. They are after the ball, chasing another dogs or just sniffing around, glad that there’s no leash pulling them back.
Another good thing about this park is that it is near the beach, so if you are bored there, you can just skip to the boardwalk and jog.
The bad thing about this park are the «dog walkers». Sometimes you see about 40 dogs at noon and none of them are being supervised. When a fight erupts, the dog walkers kick them, drag them by their collars or just lock them by themselves at the small enclosed area.
They always look angry and seem annoyed when they see a dog owner. Apparently, between 11am-​2pm the park is only theirs.

Ugh. I love that this park is 2 blocks from my house, however, I do not enjoy the homeless people, the people that camp out in RV’s and the other Venice weirdos that frequent this place. It’s so dramatic… I believe drug sales are taking place, everyone is always talking smack about each other here. I love Venice, but I do not love the «regular» Venice people that frequent this park.

We decided to walk around Venice and check put the park.
Dog Park — the size of the small dog park is tiny, so we didn’t even bother. The big dog side was fairly nice. Everything is covered in wood chips instead of regular dirt and grass, which I like. The fence is also too short for my liking. Our little pup us an experienced high jumper and the height of the fence worried me a bit. There were many land mines and the smell was unforgiving.

Parking — finding parking is a nightmare. It took us forever to find a spot. The parking lot is shared with a senior center so spots could be very limited. We ended up parking blocks away. I felt like it was worse than trying to find a parking spot in San Francisco.
Ambiance — There were a couple of homeless men in the park just hanging out and a few sleeping on the grass. One playing the guitar ‘for the dogs’ and the other explaining why he does any mind being arrested.
I think the ambiance of the park is what did it for me. Please don’t think I’m am being snobbish. I just want to enjoy the park with my fur baby without distractions. I don’t think I will be coming back to the Westminster Dog Park any time soon.

Certainly, not the greatest dog park in LA. Dirty and on a steep slope — it doesn’t make for a great place for Reese to full out run. She’s part Whippet and loves to run.
But, the location is good. As a beach dog owner, real estate is hard to come by. If your dog wants to play there, then don’t expect Fido to be as clean as before you arrived.

I’m not a fan of this dog park. It’s pretty much just a giant hill semi-​covered in grass/​wood chips/​dirt. The seating area for humans is dirty and janky. If your dog is like mine and hasn’t mastered the «bring the ball back» portion of fetch don’t bother with the ball or you’ll end up hiking down and (back up :-() the stupid hill.
My dog didn’t hate it here; he got to run around and play with other dogs. However, he also licks his own balls, so I don’t know how reliable a source he really is.
I now take my puppy to Oberrieder dog park in Playa Vista. Much nicer! :-)

I hate to give 1 star, but I have mixed feelings about this park. I have been a few times because it is so close to where I live, but I still find myself driving to parks farther away for a few reasons. Just like everyone has said it is really dirty. You have to watch your step everywhere or you will end up stepping in poop and your dog ends up covered in dirt. The type of dogs there do seem to be a little rough and tough than in other parks. The first time I went it was fine. My pup found a friend and they played for an hour and he went home happy and tired. But on the next visit my pup was being picked on to the point where I had to leave. So it not always a bad crowd of dogs, but I don’t want to take that chance anymore.
Basically, there are other, better options when it comes to dog parks so I would not necesarily reccomend this place.

Too much dirt. Run-​down, overturned chairs. One park bench with a cabana. Unspeakable acts of humping.
I give this dog park 1 star based on my own scale of dog parks with the William S. Hart Park (WeHo) and the Dog Zone (LBC) being 5s, Runyon Canyon a 4, and Recreation Dog Park (LBC) a 2.
It doesnt’ have to be that big as long as there are wood chips unless it’s the beach This place has too much dirt for the size. Recreation Park is all dirt, but there is a separate area for the smaller pooches.
My dog always seems to get herded and I don’t like it when she starts rolling around in dirt. Yes, Runyon Canyon is mostly a dirt trail, but there are lots of bushes and trees and an uphill challenge for exercise.
If there are too many aggressive dogs or owners who don’t control their dog’s libido, then that takes off points. Penguin was being violated like it was prom night and 2 men there were watching the live action dog porn… ew!
This place needs some more shade for the people and the dogs. A few more trees would be nice, maybe a couple more stationary benches instead of chairs that could just be tossed around, and maybe a revamped bulletin board that looks like someone is interested in taking care of the place. Not that they shouldn’t be honored, but pictures of a couple dead dogs is depressing.
This place needs some love for the ones we love!

What do you do when you have no dog?
You stop at the dog park and watch everybody else’s play. I am always amused & never bored at the antics of groups of doggies off leash.
This dog park is good-​size, well-​maintained, near the beach, and shares the property with a senior center.
My photos tell the story, but include no cute shots of dogs because they were barking at me through the fence & causing a scene as I aimed my camera. I am glad they belong to someone else.