Dogs at the beach

Does your dog like it?

We’ve taken ours to the beach a few times but it’s been a while, so we went yesterday just because. (Well, also to see the beach restoration project.)

First thing she does upon hitting the sand? Poops, of course.

In general, though, she’s not a fan. Not a fan of the water, the sand, the heat or the birds. After about 15 minutes, we all headed back to the car. 

We've got one in his final weeks and my wife was going through old pictures of them last night. We'd forgotten how much he loved just running as fast as he could, chasing sea gulls, etc. Never wanted to swim, but would wade out until it was close to "swimming" depth and then come on back. As he got older, he liked it less and less. Far as I can tell, due to his diminished ability to walk on flat/firm ground making sand a real chore. We haven't taken them in a while. We discussed a beach/sandbar trip for the dogs after getting the bad news at the vet last week as part of the "What might Lug Nut like to do in his last few weeks" thought exercise, but we decided he'd probably rather not.

Ada loooves the beach. Really, she loves chasing tennis balls, and the beach happens to be a great ball-chasing place.

The only thing my current dog seems to like about the beach is rolling in dead fish.  

And, looking back, I think a few things didn’t help yesterday’s outing:

The sand at Flagler Beach is way, way soft. I’m guessing that’s due to the restoration.

Even though it was late in the day, it was hot. 

And, wow, it was windy, so lots of sand in everything. 

We went inland a bit and walked a trail. She was much happier and didn’t seem to notice the approaching thunder. 

My wife, who loves the beach, had fantasies of our dogs running in joyous splendor on the beach during the off-season. So we drove 4 hours to the beach only to find out one was terrified of the waves and the other just plopped down and watched everyone else just like she does at the park at home. Then I got to drive us another 4 hours back home.

Our dog is a BIG fan of the beach. He hates baths, but will swim in the ocean in a heartbeat! Also loves to dig only at the beach.

fun story, the first time we took him he caught a jellyfish (dead), almost drowned chasing a bird in the ocean, and sprained his tail from wagging it so much! Didn't know that was possible 

My dogs have always loved the beach and ocean. The problem is that they don't understand things like undertow. Once I was on a several-hundred-foot high bluff overlooking a beach and didn't realize just how close to the edge I was as we played fetch. I threw the ball and my dog leaped off the edge at full tilt. My first thought was wondering how I'd explain killing the dog to my wife. I got over to the  edge and there he was, about half the way down looking up at me going "What a rush! Can we do it again?"

This one used to ride on my spray skirt when kayaking. If it got rough, I'd open the skirt and he'd tuck in between my legs. Glad that I never had to roll with him down there!

Oh my dogs over the years 

The beagle enjoyed it, but not overly so. 

The lab/golden mix enjoyed it as much as she enjoyed everything, she preferred it in the fall/winter and early spring. 

The Chesapeake Bay retriever/GSP mix loved everything about it and would happily swim out past the breakers with me and go on open water swims with me, she was actually a great pacing partner on long swims.

The border collie mix is not a fan at all. 

What can I say?  When I hear the words "dogs on the beach", I think of this:

My lab would immediately run into the shallow water and deposit a #2

This was on a very crowded dog beach in CA. We were pretty mortified, but also paralyzed...are we supposed to pick it up?

The first time the waves took it so quickly there was nothing we could do but laugh. The second time we vowed never to take her to the beach again, as it was clear this was going to become a habit. 

Spearfishin said:

We've got one in his final weeks and my wife was going through old pictures of them last night. We'd forgotten how much he loved just running as fast as he could, chasing sea gulls, etc. Never wanted to swim, but would wade out until it was close to "swimming" depth and then come on back. As he got older, he liked it less and less. Far as I can tell, due to his diminished ability to walk on flat/firm ground making sand a real chore. We haven't taken them in a while. We discussed a beach/sandbar trip for the dogs after getting the bad news at the vet last week as part of the "What might Lug Nut like to do in his last few weeks" thought exercise, but we decided he'd probably rather not.

He's in the background, going full bore, his sister in foreground. He's 100lbs, for scale. Used to love it. We're also lucky to have access to pretty empty beaches where their shenanigans were acceptable.

Bella liked the people. The sand, sand spurs, and water, not so much. 

Popular dog beach in northern CA. We got there early. Normally there will be 20+ dogs. Zora isn't afraid of the water, but only goes into it to chase a human.

Zora is a Belgian Malinois named for Belgian engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov.

calteg said:

My lab would immediately run into the shallow water and deposit a #2

This was on a very crowded dog beach in CA. We were pretty mortified, but also paralyzed...are we supposed to pick it up?

The first time the waves took it so quickly there was nothing we could do but laugh. The second time we vowed never to take her to the beach again, as it was clear this was going to become a habit. 

Good question on the poop. I mean, do we pick up after the dolphins? (Dolphins poop in the ocean, right?)

We're at Emerald Isle, NC right now with our almost-two Lab. She's discovered digging in the sand is fun and does a lot of that but I haven't been able to get her in water more than a few inches deep. She won't go anywhere near the pool. We couldn't keep our previous Lab out of the water.

In reply to David S. Wallens :

We settled on "don't pick it up." Mostly because CA weathermen have a daily beach report that includes how much effluence is currently in that part of the Pacific. We figured our lab's contribution was a drop in the proverbial bucket

Rusty loves the beach. The sand is soft, so he goes zooming around ripping turns and changing direction as fast as he can, to the point where I get mildly concerned that he might hurt himself. He also loves chasing the waves which occasionally and hilariously take him out when his back is turned, and will carefully and quietly stalk any unwary birds in the area.