A dog walk in a beach dog park is a very natural healthy dog walk
Sometimes I wonder why dogs aren't happy in urban areas. and the answer is invariably the limitation that their owners impose on their dogs.Sometimes its about "time" or the allocation of time to their last family member. The one that comes behind work, relaxation and family needs. Many dogs live in the backyard of their home week in week out and the owners wonder why their dogs are fearful, fat or not friendly to other dogs and people.
But if you are reading this, you are not liklely to be such a person, as you care enough about yoru dog to find out more about what makes them happy.
I regularly have a situation where an owner will seriously quiz me about whether taking a dog to a dog beach will be safe or some such thing. Or that their dog doesn't like water etc.
You would be amazed by the number of dogs that I walk that I am told don't like dogs or dont like water or dont like trees, that actually do like all these things after they have seen other social dogs having fun with these things.
I thought the reason might be frear of dog fights or a dog getting cold or a dog drowning or a dog running away. But since I take dogs to beaches where the likelihood of these things is next to zero, it was a puzzle for a long time.
The puzzle remained because I kept hearing the same responses, even thought I have plenty of experience, photographs and videos of dogs having a great time at dog beaches.
Then one day a client told me their truth. The main concern was their dog might roll in something stinky or come back "dirty". And don't worry this is actually my wife's number one concern too. Being a male and a dog walker, I hadn't really given this concern much thought. And that is even though I own a spoodle who's fur is very susceptible to retaining sea sand until we get home and he jumps on the lounge.
There are of course obvious solutions to minimising the bringing home of sea sand and its pretty simple. If a dog is going to be brought home and go straight inside, and they are going to leave sand, and they are not going to be washed before they get inside ... then the answer is to let them dry themselves and run around on grass next to the sea sand for a while.
That answer is simple, but a lot of people are time poor even at the beach and want to get straight onto the sand then when they finish straight into the car. That will maximise the sand transfer to your house. By allowing a few minutes at the end of a beach romp with your dog, for a dog to run around on grassed areas, playing with other dogs and drying off, they will effectively drop a lot of sand off
I regularly have a situation where an owner will seriously quiz me about whether taking a dog to a dog beach will be safe or some such thing. Or that their dog doesn't like water etc.
You would be amazed by the number of dogs that I walk that I am told don't like dogs or dont like water or dont like trees, that actually do like all these things after they have seen other social dogs having fun with these things.
Number 1 reasons people don't go to dog beaches
Well you might think that it is because other beach goers don't like their dog - but there are plenty of beaches around most water side cities that you can find to take a dog off lead.I thought the reason might be frear of dog fights or a dog getting cold or a dog drowning or a dog running away. But since I take dogs to beaches where the likelihood of these things is next to zero, it was a puzzle for a long time.
The puzzle remained because I kept hearing the same responses, even thought I have plenty of experience, photographs and videos of dogs having a great time at dog beaches.
Then one day a client told me their truth. The main concern was their dog might roll in something stinky or come back "dirty". And don't worry this is actually my wife's number one concern too. Being a male and a dog walker, I hadn't really given this concern much thought. And that is even though I own a spoodle who's fur is very susceptible to retaining sea sand until we get home and he jumps on the lounge.
There are of course obvious solutions to minimising the bringing home of sea sand and its pretty simple. If a dog is going to be brought home and go straight inside, and they are going to leave sand, and they are not going to be washed before they get inside ... then the answer is to let them dry themselves and run around on grass next to the sea sand for a while.
That answer is simple, but a lot of people are time poor even at the beach and want to get straight onto the sand then when they finish straight into the car. That will maximise the sand transfer to your house. By allowing a few minutes at the end of a beach romp with your dog, for a dog to run around on grassed areas, playing with other dogs and drying off, they will effectively drop a lot of sand off
