Memorial Dog Park

Searching for a dog park in Santa Monica, California? You'll find a good one in Memorial Park. This community park has baseball fields, tennis courts, and a skate park. But more importantly to a four-legged fur baby, there is a dog run. If you are arriving in a vehicle, use the parking lot or if you park outside, make sure you feed some coins in the meters which are on the side of the street.

The Memorial Park Dog Run is over on the west side of the park. This means keeping your pup on its leash until you get to the designated area. It does not take long, and most dogs enjoy their on-leash time almost as much as when they are off of it. Exercise is exercise, after all. The dog run in Memorial Park is tucked away alongside the tennis courts. 

Okay, it may not be the biggest of spaces, just a long rectangular stretch of dirt which has been fenced and had some conifers planted down one side. Dogs are not capable of measuring things, so they do not notice the lack of acreage. In fact, they are just happy to be running around without a leash. 

While there is no segregation between large and small dogs in the enclosure, there is the bonus of lots of tennis balls which fly over the fence separating the dog park from the tennis court. That is something dogs really enjoy. Santa Monica has some rules on dog behavior in off-leash dog parks. If a pup barks or is noisy for more than five minutes in an hour, then they need to be taken out of the park. 

So much for getting excited about tennis balls. If dogs have a history of aggression, then they need to be muzzled, which kind of spoils their tennis ball fun too. All owners have to do to keep the park authorities happy is make sure they keep poop bags and scooping equipment in hand while in the off-leash area. Not too much to ask for, though be warned, they also expect it to be used.