DOG BEACH | San Diego

I have been remiss about updating my blog lately, so in the next few days I hope to remedy that problem with some new posts sharing some experiences since last Christmas. I thought I would start out with Dog Beach, which is a leash free area to run your dog on the shore of the Pacific Ocean just north of San Diego.

My wife Kim and I, along with our dog Shadow, spent a wonderful couple of weeks at her mother’s house on Point Loma in San Diego over Christmas and New Year’s Holidays. It was our first road trip with just Shadow since losing our black lab Splash in October. Shadow is a dog we rescued from being put to sleep a couple of years ago and has filled a spot in our hearts left by the loss of Splash. For the most part, he is a really good dog, on or off the leash, and wants to go everywhere we go, so it was nice that Kim’s mom, Teed let us bring him out with us. Teed had meet Splash before and knew what a great dog he was, but had never met Shadow. Well, after two days on the road, we arrived at Teed’s house and within fifteen minutes he had already made his impression, leaving a big “land-mine” in the middle of the living room floor, letting everyone know he was glad to be there and out of the car. Oops!!! I am thinking, this is NOT a good way to start the holidays.

After that introduction, we settled into a normal routine where I would wake up around 5 or 5:30 in the morning and get the coffee going and then take him out for a long morning walk. I would come back and get caught up on the news and drink my coffee. Later in the morning I would then head out with Shadow to Dog Beach for his daily romp. He would then get a couple of more walks later in the afternoon and one long one before we went to bed. It was going to work out.

Dog Beach is the original dog beach and one of the most popular places to take your dog. This beach area is located in northern Ocean Beach at the west end of the San Diego River Floodway, also known as the Ocean Beach Flood Control Channel. There is a wide swath of sand and the Pacific surf to roll in. Dog Beach is a special place to bring your pet, or just to come and watch dogs be dogs in the surf and sand. Shadow fell in love with this place right off the bat, even though his first taste of the water surprised him, he would talk to me all the way down the hill to the beach. I would let him off the leash and within minutes he would have a pack of dogs chasing him through the surf trying to see who the fastest dog there was. He became a “Dog Beach” beach bum. It was really fun watching the dogs run with only an occasional time-out sitting in the surf. Below is a slideshow of the Dog Beach pictures or you can click HERE to view the gallery.