Dogs at Crane Beach: October 1 to March 31, with a No Leash Zone

Outside the No Leash Zone, Crane is a leashed beach, and that is a different discipline from an off-leash one. Crane is long enough that a dog who pulls will pull for an hour, and a dog who lunges at gulls will lunge a hundred times. What the beach asks for is a loose leash at a walking pace, a dog that can pass another leashed dog without a scene, and a sit when you stop to look at the water. A long line does not meet the rule there, because the handout caps leashes at 6 feet; inside the zone the test is a recall, not a leash.

Salt and cold are the other two. Crane faces open water, and the surf is where dogs drink; a dog that swallows enough salt water is sick on the ride home, so bring fresh water and offer it often. In January and February the sand is hard and the wind is constant; keep the walk shorter than the dog wants, check between the toes for ice and shell cuts, and towel the belly before the drive back down Route 133. Our beach hazards page covers what the tide leaves: jellyfish, hooks and the dead things a dog will roll in.

Ipswich has two state properties for the closed season: Willowdale State Forest and Bradley Palmer State Park, both on mass.gov with their own dog rules, which we send you to rather than summarize. On Cape Ann, the Trustees also run Ravenswood Park in West Gloucester, which welcomes dogs, and Coolidge Reservation in Manchester, where dogs are kept off Gray (Magnolia) Beach and the Ocean Lawn.

Gloucester's beaches open to dogs on October 1 as Crane does: Good Harbor on even dates to March 31, Wingaersheek on odd dates to April 30, Plum Cove and Cressy without a date rule. Essex, between Ipswich and Gloucester, closes its beaches to dogs only in June, July and August. The Cape Ann dog beach calendar puts all of these dates in one table.