Beach making splash with 'salty dogs'

PANAMA CITY BEACH. FL - Sir Malcolm strained at his leash, held by owner Debbie Sasser, and sniffed a trail along the beach sand Wednesday morning near Pier Park.

The 190-pound English mastiff was enjoying his day out, despite the chilly weather, and he stopped along the way to playfully butt heads with Dexter, a 65-pound boxer owned by Dagney Johnson.

"If you have dogs and you don't socialize them, you are just training them to be mean," said Debbie's husband, Howard, explaining what the pet-friendly beach means to dog owners.

Despite a few complaints since the so-called "doggie beach" was instituted near Pier Park in late 2007, the 400-foot stretch of sand just west of the city pier has been a success, Mayor Gayle Oberst said.

Click here to see a gallery of photos from doggie beach.

The city is in the process of adding additional signs to better define the boundaries of the "dog park," along with penalty warnings if the dogs are allowed to stray too far, she said.

The mayor said she walks along the sand there often and "has never seen any problems."

"We have had very few complaints," Oberst said of what is officially designated as Dog Beach.

Stephanie Somerset, executive director of Bay Families with Dogs, said her group has spent 238 hours with 13 volunteers monitoring Dog Beach since the City Council opened that stretch of beach to pets in October 2007.

"We have seen minimum negative impact," she said. "There are very few accidents left behind."

Dogs are permitted from sunrise to sunset each day but owners must abide by several rules, including:

• Dogs must have ID tags and proof of vaccination
• Dogs must be on a leash or under control at all times
• perOwners must clean up after their dogs
• No more than three dogs per owner at a time.

Johnson said 98 percent of dog owners who use the beach pick up after their dogs. Humans leave more trash, she said.

Somerset said that at the time of the resolution's passage, several studies were presented to the City Council showing that health dangers from dogs were minimal "as long as you didn't shove a handful of sand in your mouth."

"I believe that beach is one of the very cleanest in Panama City Beach because we have been monitoring it," she said.

The city provides plastic bags and waste stations along the beach to deposit doggie waste, Oberst said.

Kathy Docken, who was out walking her yellow Labrador retriever, Kayla, Wednesday said the small stretch of beach is used especially by snowbirds, who bring both their money and their pets.

"The Canadians that come down, they want to bring their dogs and the dogs need a place to socialize," she said.

Docken and her husband, Don, said they live along the water just a couple hundred yards west of Dog Beach. Don Docken said he was skeptical about the beach at first.

"But I have been impressed by how much people have been responsible," he said. "I've been here 15 years. I worry more about cigarette butts than I do the dogs."