How to teach your cavoodle puppy to love the beach
When the weather starts getting warmer, it means many Australians head to the beach on their weekends and summer holidays, but what about your cavoodle puppy? Are they going to be able to tag along, and will they love the water?
Being mixed with a spaniel who was originally bred as a hunting dog, they were good swimmers and had no trouble staying afloat. Poodles also like water, as their ancestors were duck hunters and were always in or around water. This means naturally, cavoodles should also be good swimmers and love the water.
In saying that though, if cavoodles have not had the best experience around water as puppies, then this is where anxieties and fear around the water can occur. A beach can also be very different to a pool, lake or river, the loud noise of the waves is something cavoodles tend to be scared of most.
This is why the first experience your cavoodle has with the water and beach is so crucial to set them up for loving it in future.
How to introduce your cavoodle puppy to the beach?
When you can take your cavoodle out of the house after their vaccinations, a great day out is taking them down to a secluded, quiet beach or dog-friendly beach that doesn't get many visitors, this is because you don't want your cavoodle to get distracted by other humans or dogs as it can just get too overwhelming for them. Also you need to be careful around restrictions about letting dogs off the leash at certain times during the day for certain beaches as you can get fined by rangers.
Don’t force your cavoodle to go in the water if they don't want to. Just get them running up and down on the sand, be playful with them, throw around their favourite toy or let them chase the kids, making them have a fun first experience while they listen to the noises in the environment is enough to get them used to the beach and be a step closer to loving it. If you can pick a beach that isn't known for its big waves, the better their first experience will be.
When they are super confident, try running in the shallow parts of the water yourself and seeing what your cavoodle does, they can be little copycats sometimes so this is how you can get them to start interacting near the wet sand and shallow waves.
Once they are more confident, go further into the water and see if they follow you, naturally they will either chase you in and start “doggy paddling” to get to you or they just whine from the sand until you go back to them.
Doing this over and over again a few times we found Bambi eventually got confident enough to chase us in. Don’t be deterred if they shake, shiver, bark, whine and cry, they will do this to get attention, especially cavoodles that are less confident, remember they are still very young so they just want to be close to you, they will get better and do these things less and less with every experience.
You can even do this with older cavoodles as well to re-introduce them to this environment if they previously have had bad experiences at the beach and with the water.
Remember to be patient and take it at their pace, if you rush them, you could scare or scar them for life.
List of dog friendly beaches around Australia:
Be sure to check on your local council website about off leash times at these beaches as they aren’t always allowed to go any time during the day.
QUEENSLAND
The Spit, Gold Coast
Tallebudgera Beach
Palm Beach
Moreton Bay
Red Beach
Woorim Beach
Deception Bay Dog Beach
North Stradbroke Island
Home Beach, Point Lookout
Stumers Creek – Coolum
Ballinger Beach -Currimundi
Warana Beach (4pm-8am)
Moffat Beach
Hervey Bay
Dundowran Beach
Mackay
Far Beach
Townsville
Pallarenda Beach
Cairns North – Cairns Esplanade
Machans Beach
Holloways Beach
Palm Cove
Trinity Beach
Yorkeys Knob
Queens Beach
Kings Beach
NEW SOUTH WALES
South Golden Beach
Main Beach – Belongil Area
Tallow Beach – Suffolk Park
Manly Lagoon – Manly
Greenhills Beach – Cronulla
Silver Beach – Kurnell
Fairlight Beach – Fairlight
Horden’s Beach – Bundeena
Spit West and Spit East Reserves – Mosman
Sirius Cove – Mosman
Rowland and Bayview Reserve – Bayview
Bicentennial Park – Glebe
Clontarf Reserve – Clontarf
Flora and Richie Roberts Reserve – Curl Curl
Dumaresque Reserve – Rose Bay
Seven Mile Beach – Lennox Head
One Mile Beach – Forster
Boomerang Beach
Sandbar Beach Smiths
Lake Blueys Beach
Tuncurry Beach
Blackhead Beach
Caves Beach
Croudace Bay
Speers Point park (on the same lake as Croudace Bay)
Horseshoe beach (harbour)
Terrigal Beach
Ocean Beach
Umina Beach
Pearl Beach
Putty Beach
Forresters Beach
Lakes Beach
North Shelly Beach
Horderns Beach, Bundeena
Gunyah Beach, Bundeena
Collers Beach – Mollymook
Shoalhaven Heads
Culburra Beach
Currarong Beach
Swan Lake
Bendalong Beach
Bawley Point Beach
Wanda Beach
MM Beach – Port Kembla
Sharkeys Coledale
Coniston Beach
East Corrimal Beach
MCauley’s Thirroul Beach
Tathra Beach – Tathra
Short Point – Merimbula
Main Beach – Merimbula
Aslings Beach – Eden
Keith’s Pinch Beach – Eden
Haywards Beach – Bermagui
Beares Beach South – Bermagui
VICTORIA
Hobsons Bay Region
Altona Beach
Williamstown Beach – Williamstown
Ocean Grove Beach – Ocean Grove
Narrows Beach – Queenscliff
Marengo Beach – Apollo Bay
Middle Park Beach
St Kilda Region
St Kilda Beach
St Kilda West Beach
Birdrock Beach
Dava Beach
Hawker Beach
Fosters Beach
Royal Beach
Mt Eliza Beach
Flinders Beach
Rosebud Beach
Safety Beach
Tassells Cove Beach
Rye Beach
Shelly Beach – Portsea
Somers Beach – Somers
Edward St Beach Foreshore
Sandringham Beach Foreshore
Hampton Beach – Hampton
Sandown St Beach – Brighton
Lillydale Lake – Lilydale
Cape Woolamai
Cowes
Newhaven
Rhyll
San Remo
Smiths Beach
Sunderland Bay
Surf Beach
Ventnor
Cape Paterson
Coronet Bay Beach
Corinella Beach
Tenby Point Beach
Grantville Beach
SOUTH AUSTRALIA
Port Adelaide Enfield
Foreshore – Largs Bay
Almond Tree Flat Reserve – Largs Bay
WESTERN AUSTRALIA
South Beach
Leighton Beach
CY O’Connor Beach
Rocky Bay foreshore
North Fremantle foreshore
Whitfords Hillary’s – Hillarys
Peasholm Street Dog Beach – Scarborough
Between Margaret Street and Castle Street, North Beach
Between Bennion Street and Kathleen Street, Trigg
Part of Quinns Rocks Beach, Quinns Rocks, north from Tapping Way.
Part of Yanchep Beach, Yanchep, south from the northern end of Compass Park.
Part of Two Rocks Beach, Two Rocks, south of the southern groyne.
Geraldton – Very specific so make sure you view the link below and follow the directions.
Point Moore Lighthouse (West End) to 150km north of Hadda Way Beach Access near the Geraldton Surf Life Saving Club (Mahomets Flats)
Southern end of Glendidnning Road (Tarcoola Beach) to north of the Greenought River (Cape Burney)
Pages Beach (West End) to north of the Point Moore Lighthouse between the hours of 1600 and 0800
150km north of Hadda Way Beach Access near the Geraldton Surf Life Saving Club (Mahomets Flats) to the southern end of Glendinning Road (Tarcoola Beach) between the hours of 1600 and 0800
North Floreat Beach
South City Beach
South Cottesloe Beach
Vera View Beach – restricted
Mandurah- From Halls Head, Mandurah, Silver Sands, San Remo, Madora Bay
Wireless Hill Reserve (Ardross)
Booragoon Lake Reserve (Booragoon)
Melville Reserve (Melville)
Piney Lakes (Winthrop – as posted)
Foreshore areas between: Flannagan Road and Canning Bridge (Applecross)
Queens Road and Cranford Avenue (Mt Pleasant)
Secret Harbour
Golden Bay
Singleton
Port Kennedy
Waikiki
Safety Bay
Peron
Whiteman Park (Whiteman)
Reg Bond Reserve, Viveash
Cable Beach
Riddell Beach
Entrance Point
NOTHERN TERRITORY
Casuarina Coastal Reserve – signs indicate leash and leash-free areas
TASMANIA
Black Beach
East Devonport Beach
Adams Beach – Bridport
Howden Foreshore – Howden
Tyndall Beach – Bonnet Hill
Long Beach
Blinking Billy Beach
Nutgrove Beach
Cornelian Bay
Kent Beach Road Foreshore – Dover
Franklin Foreshore – Franklin
Mickey’s Beach, Randalls Bay
Lymington Road Beach Area – Cygnet
