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Not a lot of shade, but room to play.
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The Boneyard, an acre-sized off-leash park for dogs, is part of the much larger Culver City Park grounds, and is an ideal setting for dogs to run and play.
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The park entrance is at the corner of Jefferson and Duquesne in Culver City.
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The boom of off-leash dog parks in the last ten years reflects a boom in dog ownership. Parks are changing because households are changing. Homes with pets are nearly double the number of homes with children under 18. Taxpayers want playgrounds for their loved ones, be they two- or four-legged.
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Dogs love racing downhill on the gentle slope at the center of the park play area.
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In Culver City, it took five years to go from idea to reality: an up-to-date play area for our canine companions. There are many standard dog park features. A double-gated entry allows dogs to be taken off and put back on leash out of the reach of other dogs. Many otherwise friendly dogs can react protectively when on leash or aggressively when encountering a leashed dog. The double-gated entries eliminate the problem.
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Like most dog parks today, there are separate play areas for large and small dogs.
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The park has completely separate play areas for large and small dogs. Anyone who has seen a group of dogs at play when they ramp up in excitement until they all join in the “hunt” for a scared or defensive dog knows how quickly the veneer of civilized behavior can vanish both from the dogs and their humans. Separate areas keeps the danger and the adrenaline low.
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The dogs know they need a human to make the bubbler work.
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The park also has a small “time out” fenced area off of the "big dog" play area. This is another social tool so that the people in the park have a mechanism for insisting that humans control their dogs and not ruin the experience for all.
The park has a bubbler water fountain at both dog level and human level. That is a real necessity at this park. At present, there is almost no shade. Trees have been planted, but it will be years before they really make a difference. The park has put some tents up over several of the benches, which provide some relief. More trees and more shade are planned. This is a new park and the Friends of the Culver City Dog Park are by no means finished raising money and fixing up this facility for both dog and human enjoyment.
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Tents provide shade for humans and tired dogs.
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The Boneyard was installed after the city finished a major environmental cleanup on the site.
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The park is not the prettiest dog park, because the organizers opted for decomposed, or powdered, granite, a durable and cleanable surface for their doggie playground. Grass is beautiful, but does not stay that way in dog parks. The running tears the grass up and you end up with bare dirt. When it rains, that dirt becomes gooey mud, and a visit to the park must be followed by a visit to the bathtub. One park in Santa Monica uses wood chips, and while that may look more ‘natural,’ in fact the chips hide a multitude of sins from animal waste to human trash.
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The decomposed or powdered granite is not pretty but it provides a very dog-friendly surface.
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The granite is relatively clean, does not turn to mud in the rain, and doesn't hide anything. The result is the cleanest dog park around.
If you live near Culver City, this park is well kept, well supervised by community members and the only park in Culver City where dogs are allowed, off-leash or on.
The park is located on Duquesne Avenue (about 3/4 mile east of Overland) , south of Jefferson Blvd. in Culver City Park.
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How to find the park.
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