Exploring Long Beach with your dog? This coastal city is famous among dog owners for Rosie’s Dog Beach — the only off-leash dog beach in Los Angeles County — plus dog parks and welcoming patios. This local guide covers Long Beach’s best dog parks, dog-friendly patios and breweries, trails and outdoor spots to bring your pup, and what local dog owners actually recommend.

Best dog parks in Long Beach

Long Beach’s Rosie’s Dog Beach is the star — the only designated off-leash dog beach in LA County, where dogs can run and swim in the ocean. The city also has dog parks and off-leash areas, giving pups plenty of room beyond the sand.

Dog-friendly patios, breweries & cafes in Long Beach

Long Beach’s laid-back, dog-loving culture means many dog-friendly patios — Belmont Shore’s 2nd Street, Retro Row, and downtown are full of dog-welcoming restaurants, cafes, and breweries.

Dog-friendly trails & outdoor spots in Long Beach

Rosie’s Dog Beach for off-leash ocean fun, the beach bike path (leashed) for long walks, and El Dorado Regional Park’s trails give dogs great outdoor options in the mild coastal climate. For more, see our guide to the best parks and outdoor spots in Long Beach.

What to know for dog owners in Long Beach

Rosie’s Dog Beach has designated boundaries and hours — check current rules and clean up after your pup to keep it open. Leash laws apply elsewhere. The marine layer keeps mornings cool; bring water for beach days.

What local dog owners in Long Beach recommend

The best dog-friendly spots — the off-leash gem, the patio that actually welcomes pups, the quiet trail — are known best by locals who walk them daily. On Neighborhood Nurturers’ Long Beach community, real Long Beach dog owners share their go-to spots and tips. For more ideas, see our guide to the best things to do in Long Beach. Join your Long Beach neighbors free and get real dog-friendly recommendations →

Where this fits in Long Beach

Dog-friendly spots cluster around the parks and open space, and etiquette varies from place to place. The picks in this guide make the most sense once you know how Long Beach is laid out. Belmont Shore and Bluff Park sit at the center of where locals actually spend their time, so planning a day out with your dog around one of them rarely goes wrong. When you want something calmer, the El Dorado Nature Center pulls you away from the busiest blocks, and the Naples canals is the kind of spot regulars mention but visitors miss. Anchor your plan to one of those and the rest of the day in Long Beach tends to fall into place.

More Long Beach guides

Long Beach rewards people who dig a little deeper. These related guides map the same neighborhoods from different starting points: Parks in Long Beach, Things to do in Long Beach, Best neighborhoods in Long Beach — enough to plan a whole day or two.

Ask a Long Beach neighbor

The best tips never make the guidebooks — they come from neighbors who know which spot is worth it this week. That is what the Long Beach community on Neighborhood Nurturers is for. Ask Long Beach locals what they would do, or join free and get honest answers from people who actually know Long Beach.

Rosie’s Dog Beach: the Only Legal Off-Leash Beach in LA County

This is the headline fact and it is worth stating plainly: Rosie’s Dog Beach is the only legally off-leash beach in Los Angeles County. That single detail is why dog owners drive to Long Beach from across the county.

The details: it is a 4.1-acre off-leash recreation area located south of Ocean Boulevard between Granada and Roycroft avenues, open daily from 6:00am to 8:00pm, year round. Dogs must be leashed on the way to the beach but can run free once inside the designated area. There is metered parking in the Granada Avenue lot, along with trash cans and nearby restrooms.

It also hosts special events through the year, the best known being SoCal Corgi Beach Day, which draws a genuinely large turnout. Practical advice: early mornings are calmest and coolest, the sand gets hot on summer afternoons, and the 6:00am opening is a real advantage in July and August.

Off-Leash Dog Parks Across the City

Long Beach has 11 off-leash dog recreation parks citywide, a count reached when Bixby Dog Park opened in late 2017. That density is unusual for a city this size, and it means most neighbourhoods have an off-leash option within a short drive rather than a cross-town trip.

The practical implication is that Rosie’s is not your only choice, and on a hot or crowded weekend it is often not the best one. The inland parks stay cooler, have shade, and do not involve washing sand out of a dog afterwards. The very large regional park on the inland side of the city has extensive open space and miles of path, and is the better option for a dog that wants distance rather than a social scene.

Dog-Friendly Patios and Breweries

Belmont Shore is the most dog-friendly commercial district in the city, and it sits directly adjacent to Rosie’s, which is not a coincidence. The fifteen blocks of 2nd Street are full of cafes, shops and restaurants that welcome dogs on their outdoor patios, and several keep water bowls out front as standard. Dogz Bar + Grill on 2nd Street is built around being canine-friendly.

On the brewery side, leashed dogs are welcome at Trademark Brewing, both inside at a table and on the outdoor patio, and Ambitious Ales keeps a shaded pet-friendly patio. Up in Bixby Knolls, the district locals call “Brewery Knolls” holds the highest concentration of breweries in Long Beach, and the beer-garden format there is generally dog-tolerant, Rasselbock Kitchen and Beer Garden at 4020 Atlantic Avenue included. Always check on arrival rather than assuming.

Walks Worth Doing With a Dog

The best dog walk in the city that is not a beach is the Rivo Alto Canal loop around Naples Island: a flat public mile with no traffic, no gate and no ticket, running between the water and the backs of the canal houses and crossing five small bridges. It is leashed rather than off-leash, but it is quiet, shaded in stretches and consistently pleasant. Details in our Naples Island guide.

The Bluff Park stretch along Ocean Boulevard offers 13 acres of ocean-view walking above the beach, and Shoreline Aquatic Park gives 37.6 acres of waterfront path with the harbour and the Queen Mary in view. Neither is off-leash, but both are easy, scenic and rarely crowded on a weekday.

Practical Notes for Dog Owners

Parking is the recurring constraint. The Granada Avenue lot serving Rosie’s is metered, and Belmont Shore’s street meters run $3.00 per hour from 10:00am to 7:00pm and accept cards, so an early morning beach trip before ten is both cooler for the dog and free to park. Side streets and public lots are consistently easier than 2nd Street itself.

Bring water. The off-leash beach has restrooms and trash cans nearby but shade is limited, and Southern California afternoons on open sand are harder on dogs than owners expect. Note the boundary rules too: the off-leash area is a defined stretch, and dogs need to be leashed outside it, including on the walk down from the parking lot. Because Long Beach draws dog owners from across the county, weekend late mornings at Rosie’s are the busiest hours of the week; if your dog is nervous around large numbers of unfamiliar dogs, a weekday visit or one of the inland off-leash parks will be a much better experience.

See also parks in Long Beach, things to do in Long Beach and free things to do in Long Beach.

Bringing a Dog to Long Beach for the Day

If you are driving in specifically for the off-leash beach, the efficient version of the day looks like this. Arrive early, ideally not long after the six o’clock opening in summer, when the sand is cool and the parking lot is empty. Give the dog an hour or so on the beach, then walk north into the neighbourhood main street for coffee on a patio while the dog dries off. Mid-morning, move inland to one of the shaded off-leash parks if the dog still has energy, or take the flat canal loop at a walk if it does not. That sequence keeps you ahead of both the heat and the crowds all day.

Frequently asked questions

Does Long Beach have a dog beach?

Yes — Rosie’s Dog Beach is the only designated off-leash dog beach in Los Angeles County, where dogs can run and swim in the ocean (check current boundaries and hours).

Is Long Beach dog-friendly?

Very — it has LA County’s only off-leash dog beach (Rosie’s), plus dog parks and dog-welcoming patios in Belmont Shore and Retro Row.

Where do local dog owners go in Long Beach?

Locals favor Rosie’s Dog Beach and Belmont Shore’s dog-friendly patios — Long Beach dog owners share their spots in our community.