A DAY AT THE BEACH WITH ROXY

As a pet owner here in Naples and not having a specific Dog Park where we can go with Roxy, our wonderful swiss cattle dog, I find it interesting that pet owners are now adding walk-to dog park to their new home search parameters. Many savy communities, Naples not being one of them, are taking heed of this emerging trend and either building them or designating existing parks as being dog-friendly.

Recently, Pat and I took Roxy to Bonita Springs and the Dog Beach there for her second outing. Bonita Springs in its wisdom, saw the benefits and created the dog beach. On any given nice weekend day, one will find some 50 or 60 dogs running and playing unleashed and having a ball. It really is amazing that with all those dogs, there are very few problems between them and the beach itself is a lot cleaner than some of the other non pet friendly beaches that we have seen in the area.

Always a bit cautious when we first take her off the leash because she so seldomly gets to interact with other dogs unleashed, after a few minutes, she is running and playing in and out of the water. As I watch her, I find myself wishing that Naples would get on board. They don’t necessarily have to designate a portion of our beach to pets, but they might want to consider one of the nearby parks as a pet-friendly park. It could really be a benefit fort those pet owners searching for property.