Dog Beach

Today I took my dog and kids to the Ft De Soto dog beach for our first dog beach experience. None of the major beaches in the Tampa area allow pets on the beach, so I was happy to learn that not only was there a beach that allowed dogs, but a beach FOR dogs.

The dog beach is part of the Ft De Soto Park which is near St Petersburg Beach. I had never been to Ft De Soto, and now that I've driven by, I really want to go camping there. Camping on the beach! The dog beach is on the north beach and there is free parking. Because it is a holiday weekend, the beach was packed, but there was still parking available on the grass across the street from the beach parking lot.

The beach was UGLY! I don't think they ever rake the beach, so its not the pretty soft white sand like the surrounding beaches. It's kinda a grayish broken shell yuckyness. But hey, its for dogs, right? The beach was small, full of people and dogs. Dogs that were just running around greeting people and other dogs. I'm a dog lover, so I thought this was awesome. All the dogs were under voice command or on a leash, and every dog and person was really nice.

Dogs crack me up! They were all so cute and fun to watch. I witnessed at one point a line of dogs waiting to pee in the same spot. It was like a doggy bathroom line. That was great. Dogs were playing with owners, other dogs' owners, and with each other. Fetch, sniff, and chase all over the beach and in the water. It was a blast!

My dog, Titan, is a very social dog. He loves all dogs and people and he loves to swim, so I thought that he would be really happy. I think maybe it was a bit too overwhelming for him because when we first got there he was scared of the other dogs. Eventually, he was able to ignore the other dogs and just enjoy swimming, digging holes, and playing with me and Faith.

Cross, my 5 year old, is as much a dog lover as I am. So he had a blast petting and playing with hundreds of friendly dogs all day long. He was in the water the whole time just playing with the dogs. I had a harder time keeping up with him than I did Titan.

Cross with a random black lab

Christian, my 7 year old, could care less about the dogs. He got excited about seeing some really cute puppies and pugs, but he was more interested in playing with other kids. He turned out to be an awesome sand dollar hunter. He was finding sand dollars for everybody at the beach. He came home with 3, plus one for his sister.

Faith, my 9 year old, was scared of swimming in water that dogs had pooped and peed in. She still had fun playing with Titan and all the other dogs. She liked to throw frisbees and balls in the water for the dogs to jump in and fetch. She liked watching the dogs chase her shadow, chase each other, do the back scoot in sand, and other silly dog antics.

Overall, I had a blast! It was a completely different beach experience, and I was happy to get to have an outing with Titan.

Asleep on the floor board on the way home