Dog Beach Gear: What to Pack for a Day Trip
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Sand comes home with you. Salt water should not go down the dog, and a coat that rides home wet turns the back seat into a problem you deal with on Monday. This kit is a towel that actually pulls water out of a coat, two ways to offer fresh water, and a snack that survives an afternoon buried in a beach bag.
Who packs this and who does not need it
Day trippers. You are driving an hour, spending four or five hours on sand, and driving home in the same car you have to sit in on Tuesday. Anyone with a beach house and an outdoor shower can skip most of this, and anyone looking for the full at home routine after a salty dog wants our guide to bath basics and paw care instead.
Five pieces in the beach bag, and the towel does most of the work
The Rubyloo shammy towel is the piece that decides how your car smells on the drive home. Each towel measures 34 by 26 inches, sold as a single or as a two pack, and Rubyloo describes it as using Rapid Dry Technology and says it dries a dog faster than a cotton towel. Used damp and wrung out, it pulls water rather than pushing it around, which is the difference between a dog that is damp and a dog that is still dripping at the car door. Take the two pack if you have a second dog or a long haired one. A single towel is enough for a short coat.
The Bernal pop up bowl from Wildebeest is two bowls in one zippered case, made from Ripstop nylon, and together they hold up to 8 cups. That is the pair you set down in the shade for a long sit, one kept for drinking and the other for the top up you pour once the first bowl has collected sand. It comes in Sky Blue or Black. Skip it if you are walking a mile down the beach and back, because the case is one more thing in a hand already holding a leash. Wildebeest items are sold and shipped by Wildebeest through Shopify Collective and arrive separately.
Rubyloo's shared water bottle handles the walking half. It is food grade stainless steel with double wall copper vacuum insulation, and an 8 ounce bowl detaches from the bottom under a leak proof chug lid. Rubyloo sizes the base for car cup holders larger than 3.6 inches, so it lives in the console on the drive rather than rolling around the footwell. Rubyloo items are sold and shipped by Rubyloo through Shopify Collective and arrive separately.
Our freeze dried sardines are whole sardines and nothing else, in 1.5, 3 or 6 ounce bags, with crude protein listed at a minimum of 52 percent and crude fat at a minimum of 13 percent. They are the only treats in this kit. Whole fish is the right call on a beach because it does not soften in heat the way a semi moist treat does. It also keeps a dog checking in with you when the water is more interesting than you are. Take the 1.5 ounce bag for a single outing and the 6 ounce if the beach is a weekly habit.
Our strawberry scented waste bags round it out, leak proof and fitting a standard dispenser, because beach parking lots are where people run out.
What we left out
No cooling vest and no paw wax. A wet dog walking on wet sand is already managing heat better than it would on asphalt, and a vest that needs soaking is one more wet thing in the car. Paw wax belongs on winter salt, not on a summer beach, and we would rather point you at the towel twice than sell you a tin you use once.
The afternoon, in order
Water before the first swim, not after. Set both Bernal bowls down in shade as soon as you pick a spot, fill one, and top it up from the bottle through the day. A dog with fresh water in front of it drinks less of what it is swimming in. Sardines come out when you want the dog back, not when it is already beside you. Towel the dog at the car with the tailgate open and work from the chest and belly up, since that is where the sand collects and the last place most people dry. Shake the towel out before it goes back in the bag.
What this replaces
An old bath towel, a plastic bowl and a bottle of water you meant to bring. The bath towel is the real swap. A cotton towel from the linen closet holds the water in the pile and hands most of it back to your seats, and it takes two days to dry in a car trunk. Between the bottle base and the two nylon bowls you also stop carrying a rigid bowl that never packs flat.
Questions
Most of what people ask us about beach days comes down to water and the ride home.
How do I stop my dog drinking sea water?
Put fresh water in front of it early and often, and refill before the bowl is empty. A dog that has a full bowl in the shade goes back to it, and the sardines give you a reason to call it out of the surf for a break every twenty minutes or so.
Is one towel enough for a big dog?
For a short coated dog of any size, usually yes, as long as you wring it out partway through. A golden or a shepherd coming out of the water will soak a single towel before you reach the hips, which is what the two pack is for.
What else is worth adding later?
Two things. Montana Dog Food Co makes a 3 ounce duck Trail Snack, which gives you a second flavor for a dog that gets bored of fish. Rubyloo's first aid kit packs a handbook, a tick remover, tweezers and a thermal blanket into a case that fits a glove box. Montana Dog Food Co items are sold and shipped by Montana Dog Food Co through Shopify Collective and arrive separately.
Pack the towel on top of everything else in the beach bag, because it is the piece you want in your hand before the tailgate shuts.
Related guides
The rest of the trail cluster lives on our bundle guides hub.
If fish is not your dog's thing, the other freeze dried dog treats are listed together, and Explore sorts the whole range by protein.
