With crowds expected at Orange County beaches as summer heats up, officials said four-legged visitors are the biggest problem.
Read more Six protesters to be sentenced in Texas immigrant detention center shooting
The most frequent violations, several agencies reported, are people bringing their dogs to beaches where canines are either entirely off-limits or where there are only specific hours they are allowed or where they are running loose when they are required to be leashed.
Coastal towns allowing frolicking pups on the beaches while leashed are Laguna Beach and Newport Beach. In the summer months, though, pups are restricted to early morning or evenings.
Huntington Beach Dog Beach welcomes them with options to be unleashed, though they must be leashed in the parking lot and the upper bluff before arriving at the beach.
But, the rest of Orange County sand is off limits, along with piers in Seal Beach, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach and San Clemente.
A man runs with a dog near the pier in San Clemente on Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)
A sign lets visitors know that no dogs are allowed on the pier in San Clemente on Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)
A dog runs on the beach near the pier in San Clemente on Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)
A dog runs on the beach near the pier in San Clemente on Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)
A dog runs in the surf near the pier in San Clemente on Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)
In Seal Beach and San Clemente, officials said dogs on beaches remain among their highest sources of citations.
In Seal Beach, Marine Safety Lt. Nick Bolin said a lot of people come to the city’s nearly 2-mile stretch of sand thinking they can bring their four-legged friends with them. Of the 2,739 citations given out last summer between Memorial Day and Labor Day, 1,152 of them were for animals, he said.
Service dogs with legitimate paperwork are allowed on beaches with their people, Bolin added.
Read more Retrofitted Qatari jet takes flight as Air Force One for Trump’s trip to North Dakota
Second to dogs, he said, are people who bring alcohol to the beach. All beaches in Orange County prohibit alcohol and glass containers, smoking, vaping, and open fires unless they are in established fire pits.
In San Clemente, dogs on beaches illegally were also the town’s No, 1 reason for citations, said Mayor Rick Loeffler, followed by alcohol consumption and e-bike usage on the beach and beach trail. Illegal fires and illegal camping also remain problems in San Clemente, he said.
Newport Beach Chief Lifeguard Brian O’Rourke said that while the city’s animal services routinely monitors dog-related violations, his staff tries to educate people who they see with their dogs about the city’s rules.
“We contact people multiple times a day,” he said, adding that the hours are set to keep dogs off the beach when the beach crowds are at their peak. “Dogs can pose a nuisance and danger to the public because we don’t know the animals’ behaviors. All of them have to be on a leash.
“We had dogs attack other dogs and dogs attack people,” he added. “People have a reasonable expectation to enjoy the beach.”
While Laguna Beach restricts the hours dogs can be on city beaches —at Thousand Steps Beach they are never allowed — most violations are dogs off-leash, Police Lt. Jason Farris said. He said the city’s Park Rangers typically approach two or three people a day on weekends who’ve brought their dogs to the sand.
Service animals are allowed, he said. But, if the animal is catching a frisbee or a ball, rangers and animal control will be less likely to believe the dog is in “service” to someone, Farris said.
Read more Wall Street weakens as technology stocks drag indexes lower