Beach hazards for dogs: jellyfish, hooks, seaweed and salt water

At the time of writing, Gloucester's public beaches allow dogs from October 1 to April 30, Good Harbor on even-numbered days and closed to dogs from April 1 for the piping plovers, Wingaersheek on odd-numbered days, with Plum Cove and Cressy open to dogs in the off-season. Rockport bans dogs from its public beaches from June 1 to September 15 and asks for a leash or direct voice control the rest of the year.

That calendar shapes the hazards. Jellyfish that drift in on late-summer water overlap the October reopening for a few weeks. After that the risks are what the winter ocean leaves: rope and buoy line, hooks and lures lost off the Dog Bar Breakwater and the Good Harbor rocks, dead fish and birds in the wrack, and the kelp and rockweed that dry into a chewable ribbon a dog swallows whole. Every nor'easter brings a fresh load with the high tide.

The beach tests three cues. Drop it, for the crab or the hook already in the mouth; leave it, for the dead gull twenty feet ahead; and a recall that pulls the dog off the tide line when you spot something first. Our how-to pages cover drop it and beach recall on a long line step by step, and the Bright Beginnings and Adventure Academy programs build the same skills in real places. Until those cues are reliable, do the first pass along the wrack on a leash.

Cold water is its own hazard from November to April. The AVMA's cold weather guidance notes that pets can suffer hypothermia and frostbite, and a dog that swims at Wingaersheek in February is soaked in a north wind on the walk back to the lot. Keep winter swims to a few retrieves, towel the dog at the car and dry it properly at home; our how-to on drying a dog after the beach explains why. Watch the tide too: the how-to on reading tides and flags is about exactly the sandbar that cuts a dog off at Wingaersheek.

Each beach has its own page with the dated rule and the source: Good Harbor, Wingaersheek, Gloucester's neighborhood beaches, Long Beach with its two towns, the Rockport beaches, Singing Beach and Crane Beach, and the Cape Ann dog beach calendar puts them on one page. The piping plovers page explains the April 1 closure at Good Harbor. The ponds, quarries and algae page is the freshwater version of this one, and the seals and wildlife page covers what to do when a dog finds a seal on the sand.

For the kit, the how-to on packing a dog first-aid kit for the beach lists what fits in a jacket pocket, and the how-to on cleaning ears after the beach covers the sand and salt water that get in. If a dog is in trouble on a winter beach, call your vet; the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center takes calls day and night about anything swallowed, and the vets and emergency care page lists who is open when on the North Shore.