To be a dog mom in Los Angeles
Ah,
Good ol’ sunny California. In Los Angeles you could say we are pretty spoiled with good weather year round. You never really have to worry about not having anywhere good to go with your furry companion. On this blog there will be a large focus on California dog culture because it is honestly one of the best places I have experienced for dog friendly businesses and living.
I first moved to California in 2012 from Portland OR where I had been living for almost 5 years before moving to Oakland.I spent almost a decade in the bay area before relocating south to the high desert in 2020 to a small town located next to Joshua Tree called Yucca Valley.
Then in 2024 I left the desert for LA and began an entirely new chapter that is still quite new and mysterious to me.
I will say LA is my favorite out of the three places I have lived in California so far, especially when it comes to the amount of places I can go with my dog. A lot of this is due to not just the fact that a lot of places allow dogs, but that so far dogs overall seem way more relaxed here in comparison to the bay area or even the desert. I am not sure why this is from a scientific outlook, but anecdotally I have a lot of theories. I won’t bore you guys with them yet.
While I plan on sharing my experiences of California dog culture from all over the state, LA is my current location so I will be emphasizing what this city has to offer on a more regular basis.
When I first moved here to Hollywood I moved with my senior Boston Terrier, Bam Bam. He was 11 at the time and had been living a very comfy quiet life in a scenic and very silent neighborhood in Yucca Valley. Our house was close to 1900 sq ft and he also had his life long buddy, my french bulldog Bruce. They had spent their whole lives together and my entire life dream was to give them the easiest and sweetest life for their senior years. Unfortunately life had other plans for me, and my marriage fell apart resulting in the sale of the house and Bam Bam and I heading out alone to start a new chapter. While I could have moved in with my parents, I did not feel this was the right move for us. I found a pet friendly apartment in the heart of Hollywood and so our new chapter began.
I was extremely nervous about moving Bam Bam from his luxurious house life to an apartment with stairs in an extremely loud and busy neighborhood, but to my surprise, Bam Bam absolutely loved every second of this place and actually seemed to be the happiest I have ever seen him in his life. We started out making a routine of going to a nearby park where people allow their dogs of all breeds and sized to run around off leash. This park is not technically a dog park but the locals of Hollywood have claimed it and it was one of Bam Bam’s favorite places to go in the last year and a half of his life. The park is called De Longpre and while I do not recommend this park for untrained or anti social dogs, it was great for a slow senior who wanted to sniff the entire perimeter, say hi to every person, and meet other well behaved dogs who were open to his occasional humping. Bam Bam and I made a lot of new dog and human friends in this park and it was a great place to find community as we adjusted to our new life.
Bam Bam with his park buds Feb 2024
A lot of the patrons of this park also ended up being my actual neighbors, residing in some of the apartment buildings just across the street or around the corner from mine. In past cities I have lived, and even apartment complexes with dogs, I have experienced a lot of dogs who are reactive (including my own) who are unable to really manage their stress in a busy neighborhood. Here in Hollywood I actually bare witness to a lot of dogs that are able to meet on leash, hold their own, and do not have a problem being around a lot of action.
I really feel that Hollywood dog culture is pretty fantastic, most of the apartment buildings here seem to be pet friendly and also not overly expensive for LA prices. A lot of my neighbors in my own building have helped me out with both Bam Bam and Cosmo and I feel like I can actually rely on my community to keep an eye out for us.This entire area is booming with dogs on leash walking around the neighborhood everyday. I have never experienced so many dogs who are so friendly on leash and well behaved in such a busy and congested area. Especially for a high tourism place that is extremely loud and obnoxious every weekend. It is also very rare to see people treating their dogs poorly with prong/choke collars or abusive training methods which I am very grateful for.
Not only are the dogs of Hollywood typically friendly, but the people around here tend to be too. I think this may say a lot about how dogs and humans can impact each other on both ends of the leash.
Now with that said, it isn’t perfect around here. There is a lot of crime and it isn’t the most beautiful place to walk around. My biggest complaint isn’t the noise, crime, or tourism, but the level of garbage and poop all over the sidewalks. I believe a lot of the poop is dog poop but it also seems to be a lot of human feces as well. This has made living here quite annoying and reminds me of visiting France in the 90s as a kid.
I am not sure why people do not clean up as consistently after their dogs here.
A little more about Cosmo!
Cosmos adoption photo
Cosmo was found in San Fernando roaming around an alley. I can only assume he was born there as he was only 3 months old when he was found. I adopted him from his foster mom on September 7th 2024 when he was about 6-9 months old and moved him to my apartment in Hollywood.
When I rescued him he was prone to getting car sick, and so him traveling around the city with Bam Bam and I took some getting used to for him but he bounced back quickly and was super playful despite some upset tummy so I never worried too much about it. Eventually he outgrew this.
Luckily for me, Bam Bam loved the car, and Cosmo was extremely influenced by this. When I was looking for my next dog I wanted to make sure I had a dog that would emulate Bam Bam and learn from him, and to my luck Cosmo did just that. Bam Bam loved road trips, traveling, meeting strangers, hanging out in cafes and restaruants, going to the park, so all of this was easy to transfer over to teaching Cosmo how to handle these environments in the right way. I am very grateful to Bam Bam for all of his help.
Cosmo and I in one of my favorite dog friendly LA restaurants, Cafe Gratitude
I share this because training a dog to be comfortable and confident in the car is a lot of work and not all dogs end up acclimating to this well. Some dogs stay prone to having fear or discomfort on car rides. If Cosmo had ended up being a dog who didn’t like to travel, I would not be here creating this blog. My approach to dogs is to bring out the best in who they are, not force them to be something they aren’t. With that said, it was important to me to find a dog who would adventure with me and who was curious enough about the world, and trusted me enough, to explore and grow with me.
After over a decade of being a dog mom, and almost a decade of working with dogs, I feel confident in being able to determine what dogs will enjoy the travel lifestyle vs what dogs are just not cut out for it.
The other requirement I had for Cosmo was that he would be able to support me with my own fears around travel. For almost two decades I had a severe phobia of flying that I was sick of allowing to have so much control over me. I decided that I needed to have a dog that I could bring with me on my travels. I would like to share this part of the story in another blog post so I will save the details of that for another time but safe to say that Cosmo ended up checking the air travel box as well.
Being a dog mom has brought me the most joy in my life. It gives me purpose and keeps me motived to keep exploring and learning about my environment in ways I may not think about if I was on my own.
Dogs have a way of interpreting the world around them that is very different than us and I enjoy learning through their lens. Every dog I have had or worked with has taught me something about life and about my environment in an interesting way.
They have helped me slow down and live more intentionally.
I hope sharing my life with Cosmo helps inspire people to slow down and take time to connect more with nature, other species, and think outside the box on how we can build a better world for our pets.
I will share more reviews and recommendations in future blogs about what our favorite dog friendly parks, hikes, cafes, restaurants, shops and more are around the LA area.
