When heat gets too hot there’s only one thing to do! Pack the dogs, towels and snacks in the car and hit the best dog beach in Italy!

Baia Canaria in Senigallia!

No, we didn’t drive to Africa, but a small town just north of Ancona in the Marche region of Italy. Where there just so happens to be the best place to enjoy the Adriatic Sea with your best furry friends.

Last year our friends were raving about this beach made just for dogs and their people. You get your own private fenced-in space, all the amenities of being at a summer Italian lido, and dogs. All the dogs.

So when the heat started rolling in this summer, we knew we had to go.

Dogs didn’t complain!

Did you know Catahoulas have webbed feet? It’s because their swampy Louisiana ancestors needed that traction while hunting all those rowdy wild boar in the marshlands.

Did you know that it also makes them excellent swimmers?

When we first got Mucca, I made it a point to get him used to the water. I’m a swimmer, so I knew I wanted our next pup to know all the joys that water brings me, so that we could enjoy them together as: swimming friends. I even wrote a song about it.

Swimmin’ friends, swimming friends. We goin’ swimming, cause we’re swimmin’ friends.

Genius. I know. Sometimes I even blow my own mind. But I digress.

So really, any chance I can get to get into the water with the dogs, I’m all about it. What didn’t help things was me finally getting my hands on some Outex underwater camera housing so I can take The Big Camera to the beach for some action shots.

Unfortunately, when we got to Baia Canaria, the sea had other plans. We got slapped with the DANGER! RED FLAG! both days we were there. So I didn’t get the underwater shots I was anticipating, because I was being knocked around by mega waves and couldn’t venture too far out into it anyways.

Safety first, folks.

But we did get to play around on the shore a bit and get our paws wet.

Back to this dog beach though!

For around €50 a day we got our own, front row box. Prices go down by €5 the further back from the water you go. It had a full structure for shade, came with two beds, dog bowls with bottomless water and cooling pads for the pups. Each box is for 2 people and 2 dogs but our neighbors had 4 people and 3 dogs soooo…

We ended up reserving two spaces for two days and it could not have been more comfortable.

Did Mucca, Nola and Sligo have a ball borking at our neighbors from time to time? Sure. But it’s also a dog beach so it wasn’t frowned upon either. How nice! Kinda like a flight meant entirely for families with babies. Sure, when one starts I’d imagine everyone wants to join in, but what did you expect when you booked a flight full of babies?!!

Aside from the private areas for rent, you can also just get an umbrella and sunbeds without the fences, if you actually have a chill dog that’s ok with that. They have showers, restrooms and even a giant play area for the dogs where they can be off leash and splash around in the kiddie pool all they like. There are also lots of toys around and they even have life vests for the dogs if they’re new to the water.

As far as food, they offer a really nice menu of focaccia, a couple of pastas, salads and snacks. They also have a bar and tagliere plates. That’s for the humans. For dogs they have popsicles that come in the shape of a cake, a heart and one other thing that I’m totally spacing on at the moment. They’re made of yogurt and homogenized beef and all the dogs went nuts for ‘em!

So although the sea didn’t work out as well as we’d planned, we still had such a nice time. Dogs got to steal our beds, get some splash time in, lots of snacks, while the people parents got to relax, have a drink or few and work through some books under the warm Adriatic sun.

Next time you’re on the back side of the boot of Italy, with your dogs, and want to feel at home by the water, please stop by Baia Canaria!