We are off to the coast soon for a few days and plan to spend a lot of time walking along the beach with Maisy. She has been for the odd few hours before but not for any extended period of time. Does anyone have any tips for beach holidays with your dog? I know that drinking salt water will make her sick, stay away from the sand dunes (adders!). Don't eat anything on the shore - contaminated fish, starfish, jellyfish etc. Should I wash her with fresh water at the end of each day to get the salt out of her coat? What about sun protection? (It's only going to be 16 degrees max in the UK) Any ideas would be appreciated, thanks.
No need to wash her - a good brush will get the sand out. I used to rinse Coco with the hosepipe because I thought he felt "sticky" with salt water, but last time I didn't and he dried beautifully soft - much to his disappointment as he loves a game with the hose. Sea water seems to dry more quickly too. Is she is exposing any patches where here hair is thin? Then you may need sun protection - my friend has a white & black Staffy who definitely needs sun cream. I would take a spray bottle of Cowboy Magic - just in case she finds a delightful, smelly dead thing to roll in. And towels. I take a floating bumper dummy to throw for Coco, but a half filled water bottle is a good substitute. Sadly, you can probably find one on the beach if you haven't got one Plenty of fresh water for drinking. Camera - we want "swimming" "running" "digging" "sunbathing" "romping" "paddling" and any "picnic raiding"
I was just thinking of her nose having prolonged exposure to the sun but thinking about it, she is sometimes outside for 6 hours anyway when she is at daycare and has had no problems. Apart from that she is very furry. I have towels and water on my list but something to help with smells is a good idea, I have some Pet Head stuff that smells of blueberries (dogs smelling of fruit is so wrong) - it does the trick though. Thanks
Towels. Lots of towels! You will find mounds of sand wherever she’s been lying down. So you’ll want her to lie on a towel if you’re staying in a rental - helps control the sand that comes inside. We use a plastic trough outside under a tap. Snowie learned that he had to walk through it after the beach to wash the sand off his paws - makes a huge difference for preventing sand being traipsed into the house. While he was standing in the trough, I splashed water on his tummy/underside cos a lot of sand got trapped there. We washed our feet in the trough, too.
Yes I will add some more towels I think, and that's a good thought about sand in the paws because we are staying in a rental cottage. I hope they have a good vacuum cleaner! Usually we would go in the car from the beach to home after walking through fields so sandy paws were clean by the time we got home, this time our cottage is quite close to the beach - good idea, thanks.
Not so much a tip for her as a tip for you: 'sand-proof' your stuff. I use a messenger bag that is essentially waterproof and has a double flap seal, but dogs + beach means that sand WILL get everywhere. Plastic zip food/freezer bags make great cheap protection for your mobile, camera or any other electronics. I also double bag my flexible water bottles so that if they break inside my bag, they won't drown the rest of the contents. Also don't forget extra SD cards and batteries for your camera. You know, for all the photos that you'll be taking and sharing here. Finally, you may want to use some of the extra towels to line the floor of your car and shake out each day if you want to minimise sand in your car - it's a bear to thoroughly vacuum out of the carpeting. Personally I don't do this as I measure happiness by the centimetres of sand and dog hair in my car, but not everyone feels this way.
If I was going to be on the beach all day then one of these pop up shelters is pretty useful. Also check that dogs are allowed on the beach at all. I'm not used to t eng an issue in Scotland....there are only a few that dogs are banned from but I know it' a lot more common on England from 1st May onwards.
Plastic bags - yep good idea thanks. Keeping the car clean? Me and my car are the 'happiest' (dirtiest, sandiest, hairiest) in the world. I never clean it (what's the point?) and the windows are covered in dog slobber. Unfortunately we are going in houseproud hubby's car, so there will be a stack of towels in the back of that!
Yes they are allowed, we are going to Winterton in Norfolk - you might have seen it on the news - where all the sand was washed away with the last storms, and next door is Hemsby where all the houses are falling into the sea! Before all that it was supposed to be one of the best beaches - trust me! May to September there are often restrictions, this area is very dog friendly though, also cafe and pub is dog friendly. Such a lot more planning goes into taking a dog - Maisy's suitcase will be bigger than ours! We won't be on the beach all day though, just a romantic skip along the sands in the morning and evening together - I might even take my hubby with us!
Thanks, water is always with us as well as chews and toys - she has her own 'day out bag', very chic!
Let's hear it for hairy, sandy cars! It was so depressing how clean my car was the first year after Brogan passed. Now it's just a big mess of sand and hair that I occasionally shovel out when the mood hits. Sooooo much better! Oh, and scientifically speaking, I can now officially confirm that Labradors shed/moult precisely 5 times the quantity of fur as Rottweilers.
In our experience they only drink too much salt water once (Cooper never did) and they they figure it out.
My friends dog drank so much salt water that when she barked a stream of salt water shot out of her bum.
Yay! My little car is very happy then...full of hair, slobber, dirt, sand When we had our beach holiday earlier this year hubby spent an entire day building a large crate that fits snugly behind the drivers seat in his SUV. I found it amusing that he went to such lengths and I was sure Maxx would hate it as he had never been in such a confined space. He could stand up and turn around but that was about it. Wrong! He loved it. I could turn around and tickle him from the passenger seat and he had a Kong and his favourite toy at the time and nestled in calmly and slept for most of the 2 hour journey. I told hubby he would make a fortune building custom-made dog crates for cars but I just got 'the look'. oh well
I call my car The Dog Mobile. When I drive my husband’s clean car, I feel I’m sitting in luxury! I once had a message left on my car at the car window repairer - fixing a smashed back window - “Too much animal hair, cannot clean car” !!!
