Dog friendly and Dog un-friendly places – April 3rd, 2011

Sunday morning was cloudy and cold for the third day of April, but we’d been promised an excursion and so off we went in the car to a place called White Rock.  It was bright and blustery and me and H were so excited, shrieking and yelping as we pulled in to the parking area.  We could hear seagulls and anticipated a lively walk by the ocean.

We made our way up to the boardwalk and down to get a picture by the pier, as I sat nicely, nasty person number one came up and told me that I wasn’t welcome there.  HuMum’s friend said, ‘she justed wanted a photo by the sign, then we’ll leave’….So, we had a quick photo and then turned to walk away from the pier along the sidewalk, then nasty person number two said, ‘you’re not from here are you?’, then proceeded to tell us that dogs weren’t allowed on the walkway OR the pier.  So we walked up the road and back and then thought that surely we’d be allowed on the actual beach because nobody owns the beach, right?  Wrong…nasty person number three came along and said, ‘no DOGS allowed!, there is a fine! that’s $100 PER dog, that’s $200′.  It’s times like these that I wish Holly would unleash well, her Holly-ness.  But she didn’t.

On our way back to the carry we passed a pregnant barefoot man jogging along the boardwalk and couldn’t help but wonder why he wasn’t being shouted at by the nasties…

Back in the car and we headed off to Peace Arch park which straddles the

Welcome to the USA, dogs are welcome here!

border between Canada and the USA.  This place was so much nicer, we were even allowed to SIT on the monument itself, and not one person shouted at us or threatened us with a fine, imagine that.  Score one for international relations.

We then decided we’d try one more local park and test it’s dogfriendliness factor.  We went to Crescent Beach and saw many dogs wandering along with their owners by the ocean.  We came across a sign that reassured me that we were in my kind of place.

dogs ALLOWED as long as owners are leashed.

We had a nice walk by the windy ocean and saw lots of people and dogs and kids and kite boarders and people fishing and no one was barking the ‘rules’ at anyone, well Holly was barking but that’s just Holly.

We even had a chance to be off leash and do some sprints on the beach.  Mostly I let Holly win.  I’m an old boy and I do like to run fast but the beach had so many fabulous smells to investigate, and seaweed and shells and bits of driftwood and it was just fantastic.  I hope dog heaven is a lot like this place.

racing on the beach

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