The Laurel Canyon Dog Park itself occupies a slightly rolling shelf entirely fenced off from the valley of Laurel Canyon Park to the south. In tribute to the fact that this park is particularly popular with large dog owners, their area feels empty even with forty or so dogs roaming the turf. Rare dogs for more modestly sized city dog parks, Bull Mastiffs and Great Danes and German Shepherds can run themselves exhausted in so much space, getting drinks from the basin at the concrete watering slab in the northeast corner of the park when necessary.

The smaller dogs have their own fenced off area near the children's playground, and although it is moderately sized, it could be doubled without doing any harm to the bigger area. In this same corner at the west end of the parking lot another fenced grass area prohibits dogs entirely and gives small children a safe place to play.

The grass plain is spotted with half a dozen picnic tables, over a dozen trees, and at least as many plastic lined trash cans with metal waste scoopers leaning against them. This system works great as long as everyone watches their dog. Although the rules prohibit the practice, a couple different people let their dogs loose and promptly returned to their cars for coffee and cell phones. The fair number of Bluetooth users inside the park proved that the abandoners were just lazy

Seth Emos
Contributing Writer

Location: 8260 Mulholland Drive, 90046
Neighborhood: Universal City - Southwest
Phone: 323-913-7390 (Park Rangers)
           818-785-5798 (Event Permits)