Rangers Help Keep Peace in Off-Leash Dog Park

When Tracy, Lenny, Emily, Bailey and Corn Chip start to run and tumble at the Sepulveda Basin Off-Leash Dog Park, things can quickly get rough, rowdy and loud.

Someone has to referee all the baying, barking and biting, especially on weekends, when as many as 400 dogs of all breeds come to play each day.

The solution: uniformed guards. But dogs aren’t the only aggressive creatures the rangers have to bring to heel.

Emmanuel Araneta and Ann Waisgerber, armed with pepper spray, a radio, handcuffs, a baton and a love of dogs, spend the weekend hours between 11:30 a.m. and sunset discouraging antisocial conduct.

The Nestle Corp. recently donated $5,200 for the weekend ranger patrol.

That makes the off-leash park, the largest of its kind in the country, the only one with a corporate sponsor and the only park built specifically as a dog playground, officials said.

The weekend rangers are assisted by people like Lynn Stone, president of the park’s citizen’s advisory committee, one of the red-shirted volunteers who help patrol the area. Along with Destiny, her black Welsh Corgi mix, whom she describes as “29 pounds of gut-crunching muscle,” Stone helps keep an eye out for potential trouble.

Recently, the two rangers answered patrons’ questions as they patrolled the park, reminding people grooming their pets not to leave dog hair on the ground. Visitors are sometimes gently reminded to use the pooper scooper supplies provided by the park to tidy up any pet faux pas.

“This is more of a public relations detail than policing,” Waisgerber said.