Camping With Dogs: Plan a Stay Everyone Can Enjoy

The beach rules, and why they change

Every beach town on this coast runs its own ordinance, and almost all of them split the year into a summer regime and a rest-of-year regime. In summer the leash requirements tighten and there are often hours in the middle of the day when dogs are not permitted on the strand at all; outside the season the rules relax, and in some places voice control replaces the leash.

Oak Island is our closest beach and the one most guests use, so here is its rule: properly leashed dogs are welcome on the beach strand at any time of year, and they may be off leash there seasonally from 15 October to 15 March. The town publishes the current version at oakislandnc.gov, and it is worth a look the week you travel, because ordinances do get amended. And do not rely on the sign you remember from last year, enforcement on Oak Island and the Brunswick beaches is real, and a citation on a holiday is an unpleasant way to learn.

The broad shape of it: autumn through spring is wonderful for a dog on this coast, with miles of empty sand and water still warm into October. High summer is the restricted season everywhere, and it is also the season when the beach is least pleasant for a dog anyway.

Heat, sand and the seven-second test

This is the part that sends dogs to a vet down here, and it is entirely preventable.

Sand gets hot much faster than air, and a dog’s pads are not boots. The old test is the back of your hand held flat on the sand for seven seconds: if you want to move it, the dog does too. On a July afternoon the sand above the tideline will fail that test comfortably.

Go early or go late. Walk on the wet sand. Carry more water than you think the dog will drink and something to put it in, a collapsible bowl weighs nothing. Watch for the early signs of heat trouble: heavy panting that does not settle, bright red gums, a dog that lies down and does not want to get up. Get them into shade and wet them down with cool, not ice-cold, water.

Flat-faced breeds have a much smaller margin here than the rest. If you have a bulldog or a pug, a Carolina August beach day is not the trip.

Camping with dogs at the campsite

The rule that matters is that a dog is never left outside unattended, and it is a rule for the dog’s sake as much as everyone else’s. A tethered dog alone on a site in an unfamiliar place is a dog that barks, and a barking dog is a dog having a bad time.

Inside the rig with the air conditioning running is the normal arrangement for a beach day. If the thought of losing power while you are twenty minutes away bothers you (and it should), a 50-amp site and a temperature alarm is the combination most full-timers use. The alarm sends a message to your phone if the inside temperature climbs. They cost very little.

Pick up every time. On forty acres with a lot of dogs on it, this is the whole social contract.

What we have for them here

We love seeing four-legged guests enjoying themselves here. The fenced dog park is a great place to run and play off leash, and the walking trails are made for exploring. Everywhere else in the campground we ask that dogs stay on a leash and under their owner’s control, so that nobody’s dog disturbs another guest or another guest’s pet, and so that everyone, four legs included, gets the peaceful stay they came for. There are twenty acres of mown trail through the pines, which is a genuinely good walk in the cool of the morning and shaded for most of its length, worth knowing on a coast where shade is otherwise in short supply. Every site has a picnic table and a fire pit, and the pine straw underfoot is kinder to feet than gravel or shell.

Two pets per reservation, dogs or cats, in cabins as well as on sites. The full pet policy is here.

Before you leave home

• Vaccination records, on your phone at least. Vets down here will ask.
• Flea, tick and heartworm prevention, up to date. Coastal Carolina is warm and wet and the tick season barely stops.
• A spare lead. One always goes missing.
• The emergency vet, in your phone before you need it. The two our guests use are Priority Pet Urgent Care at 3556 Leland Town Center Drive #130, open noon to 10 PM, 472.213.8476; and for the middle of the night, Eastern Carolina Veterinary Medical Center at 50 Greenville Ave in Wilmington, open 24 hours, 910.790.1070. Hours do change, so call on your way rather than turning up.
• Something of home, a bed or a blanket that smells right. A rig is a strange small room until it smells like the dog.

Rinse them off

Salt water left in a coat makes a dog itch, and sand left between the pads makes a dog limp. A rinse at the end of a beach day is not fussiness, it is maintenance. Several of the Oak Island accesses have outdoor showers at the top of the dune crossing, which is the easiest place to do it, and it means rather less of the beach comes home in the car. Please rinse them there or back at your own site: dogs are not allowed in the bathhouse showers, or in the pool and pool area.