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A Short Drive North, a Whole Day of Play
Hermosa Beach is a hard town to wear a dog out in. City code keeps pets off the sand year-round, the Strand fills with cyclists and runners by mid-morning, and a lap down the Greenbelt only carries you so far when a nine-hour workday is waiting on the other side of it. Down Dog Lodge answers that differently: a cage-free, 12,000-square-foot floor a few minutes up the coast in El Segundo, where your dog spends the day playing, resting, and being looked after instead of counting hours at the window. Households across Hermosa Beach have been building our dog daycare near Hermosa Beach, CA into their week since 2017, not as a fallback, but as the plan.
Inside a Day at Down Dog Lodge
- Nothing locked, nothing crated: the floor stays open from drop-off to pickup, so dogs move between play and downtime on their own terms
- Grouped by build: smaller dogs claim the Mini Lodge while larger dogs stretch out in the Big Pen, and both areas open onto outdoor space
- Handlers in the mix: our team runs each play group from inside it, reading the room and adjusting groupings as the day goes on
- Real square footage: 12,000 square feet indoors and out means there’s somewhere to genuinely sprint, not just circle
- Feeding and medication, no surcharge: meals go out and doses get administered as part of the visit, never as an add-on line
- Fresh water within reach: bowls sit in every area and get checked and topped off throughout the day
What Steady Daycare Does for Your Dog
A dog that falls asleep in the car on the way home is the obvious result, but it isn’t the one that matters most. What consistent visits actually deliver is structure; socialization on a predictable schedule, genuine physical exertion, and enough to think about that the brain gets tired alongside the body. Dogs who see other dogs routinely become easier to introduce, easier to take places, and slower to bristle at the unfamiliar. Meanwhile the habits that grow out of boredom, the chewed baseboard, the barking at nothing in particular, the laps around the kitchen island, lose their foothold once the need underneath them is already being met.
Where you’ll notice it is in the evening, when your dog settles instead of pacing. Come watch a group in motion at our dog daycare near Hermosa Beach, CA.
Dog Daycare Rates
Full Daycare (5+ hours)
- One dog: $62
- Additional dog: +$56
Half Daycare (under 5 hours)
- One dog: $52
- Additional dog: +$46
Hourly Daycare
$22/hr/dog
Prepaid Packages (Full Daycare only)*
1 dog, 10 visits: $600 (save $20)
1 dog, 20 visits: $1,180 (save $60)
2 dogs, 10 visits: $1,140 (save $40)
2 dogs, 20 visits: $2,260 (save $100)
3 dogs, 10 visits: $1,680 (save $60)
3 dogs, 20 visits: $3,330 (save $150)
*A package must be fully used before a new one can be purchased. Packages expire 365 days after purchase.
Peak Rates
Holidays are our busiest times of the year! To keep up with our high demand and increased staffing, an additional charge of $10/dog/day applies to daycare and boarding.
- Ski Week: 2/9 – 2/17
- Spring Break: 4/3 – 4/13
- Memorial Day: 5/23 – 5/26
- July 4th: 7/1 – 7/6
- Labor Day: 9/5 – 9/8
- Thanksgiving: 11/24 – 11/30
- Holiday Season: 12/19 – 1/3
Discounts*
- Veterinary: 10% off
- Military: 15% off
- Police Department: 15% off
- Fire Department: 15% off
- Paramedics: 15% off
* Supporting documents required. Discounts do not apply to prepaid packages.
Drop-Off/Pick-Up
Business Hours:
- Weekdays: 7AM-7:30PM
- Weekends & Holidays: 10AM-5:30PM
On a case-by-case basis, we can accommodate early drop-offs or late pick-ups for a fee of $25/dog/service.
Available extended hours:
- Earliest drop-off: 6AM
- Latest drop-off: 7PM
- Earliest pick-up: 6AM
- Latest pick-up: 10PM
Built Around the Dogs in Front of Us
We opened in the South Bay in 2017, and the filter on every decision since, including how we staff, how the floor is laid out, what we’re willing to take on, has stayed the same one: does this work for the dogs standing in front of us?
- Screened before they play: no dog joins a group until it clears our Temperament Test, so play groups get built out of dogs that genuinely suit one another
- Nobody’s ever here alone: staff are physically on-site around the clock, every day of the year, holidays included
- Sized for dogs, not storage: 12,000 square feet laid out so guests can move through the day rather than wait it out in place
- Independent since 2017: locally owned and locally staffed, with no franchise playbook handed down from anywhere else
- Watch the day unfold: photos and video go up daily on Instagram at @downdoglodge
- Across the South Bay: dogs come to us from El Segundo, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, Torrance, Hawthorne, Lawndale, and the neighborhoods around them
Want Your Dog in on the Fun?
Fill out our New Client Application and we’ll pick it up from there.
Dog Daycare FAQ
What vaccinations are required for daycare?
All guests must be current on Rabies, DA2PP, Bordetella, K9 Influenza (2 rounds + 7-day wait), and Leptospirosis (2 rounds + 7-day wait). We do not accept Titer Tests in lieu of updated vaccinations.
Spay/Neuter Policy: Puppies between three and six months old are welcome intact. After six months, spay/neuter is required for admittance to Down Dog Lodge.
Does my dog need a Temperament Test first?
Yes, all new dogs must complete our two-phase Temperament Test ($40/dog x 2 days) before their first daycare visit. The test takes place over two days and ensures your dog is a good fit for our cage-free environment.
Are reservations required?
Yes, we require reservations for all services at least 24 hours in advance. Contact us by phone, email, or through our Client Portal to book.
What are your daycare hours?
Weekdays: 7AM to 7:30PM
Weekends/Holidays: 10AM to 5:30PM
Early drop-off before opening and late pick-up after closing are available for a flat fee of $25/dog/service.
What are Peak Rates?
Holidays are our busiest times of the year! To keep up with our high demand and increased staffing, an additional charge of $10/dog/day applies to daycare and boarding.
- Ski Week: 2/9 – 2/17
- Spring Break: 4/3 – 4/13
- Memorial Day: 5/23 – 5/26
- July 4th: 7/1 – 7/6
- Labor Day: 9/5 – 9/8
- Thanksgiving: 11/24 – 11/30
- Holiday Season: 12/19 – 1/3
Can I pick-up or drop-off outside of business hours?
We always prefer drop-offs and pick-ups to be within our normal business hours; this ensures the smoothest possible transaction with our Front Desk.
- WEEKDAYS: 7AM-7:30PM
- WEEKENDS/HOLIDAYS: 10AM-5:30PM
However, we understand that certain circumstances may require an early D/O or late P/U. On a case-by-case basis, we’re happy to offer these services for an additional cost.
The earliest we can accommodate ANY D/O is 6AM.
The latest we can accommodate ANY D/O is 7PM.
The earliest we can accommodate ANY P/U is 6AM.
The latest we can accommodate ANY P/U is 10PM.
We can not accommodate any early/late pickup/drop offs outside of these hours.
Any early D/O or late P/U needed will incur a flat rate fee of $25/dog/service.
Please give us a call to add a late D/O or P/U option.
Other Services We Offer
Dog Boarding near Hermosa Beach, CA
Traveling without the dog? An overnight here runs on the same cage-free floor with the same play groups your dog already knows, and someone from our team is physically present through the night, all 365 of them.
Dog Grooming near Hermosa Beach, CA
Skip the extra errand. A bath or a nail trim can ride along with any daycare or boarding day, so your dog comes home clean without a second appointment landing on your calendar.
Puppy Program near Hermosa Beach, CA
Intact puppies are welcome here. Dogs between three and six months old can start with us before spay or neuter, picking up supervised, age-appropriate socialization during the exact stretch when it shapes them most.
Why Hermosa Beach Pet Parents Choose Daycare at Down Dog Lodge
Hermosa Beach is a genuinely hard town to tire a dog out in, and anyone who lives here has figured that out the hard way. City ordinance keeps pets off the sand at all hours, so the two miles of beach outside your window are effectively closed to your dog. What’s left is the Strand. Leashed, and elbow-to-elbow with cyclists, runners, and strollers for most of the day, plus the Greenbelt running up Valley Drive, the grass at Valley Park, and the stretch of Veterans Parkway that carries on north into Manhattan Beach. Pier Avenue will happily seat the two of you on a patio. None of it, though, is a place where a dog gets to run flat out with a pack of other dogs for six straight hours.
That’s the specific gap daycare fills for Hermosa Beach families. Drop your dog off on the way up Sepulveda in the morning and they get what the Greenbelt can’t give them, like open space, off-leash play, and a group of dogs they actually know, while you spend the workday not picturing a high-energy dog alone in a small beach-town house. A lot of our regulars started with a single visit during one overloaded week and simply never went back to the old arrangement.
How to Get Here from Hermosa Beach
Hermosa Beach to the Lodge runs about fifteen minutes door to door, and most of it is one road. Head out of town on Hermosa Avenue and pick up Gould Avenue heading east. That first leg is roughly a mile and a half and takes about six minutes. Gould drops you at Sepulveda, where you’ll turn left onto CA-1 N/S Sepulveda Boulevard and simply stay on it for the next three miles; a Taco Bell goes by on your left a little over half a mile in, which is a good sign you’re on track. When El Segundo Boulevard comes up, use the left two lanes to turn left onto E El Segundo Blvd. We’re a couple of tenths of a mile ahead at 1501 E. El Segundo Blvd, El Segundo, CA 90245, about four and a half miles from where you started.