The dog days of summer are no problem for canines living in, or visiting, the Summerland area.
Sunoka Provincial Park offers an off leash dog beach that is equally as large and beautiful as the one designated for people.
From the east parking lot of the park, there is a sign pointing to the dog beach.
A bark mulch path meanders through the trees and leads one to this doggie heaven.
On any given day, happy, healthy dogs of every size and description can be seen bounding about on the sand, swimming for a ball, interacting with their humans and socializing with other dogs.
Dog owners using this beach say there is nowhere else like it in the Okanagan or the province.
“It’s the best one in the world!” exclaimed Cynthia Ullmark. “I have never seen a dog beach like this anywhere we have travelled.” She and her husband Jan visit from Canmore, Alberta year after year.
Michelle Weston holds a similar view.
“There’s no place like this in all the places I’ve gone in B.C., that has this much space for the dogs to play with each other and their owners,” she said. “What I love is on the weekends when you see whole families here, the mom, the dad, the kids and they have their family pet with them. The dog is not left at home. I think that is just the perfect world, where the family in its entirety, can be together for the day.”
For the local residents using this beach, it has become a gathering place and a community of people who meet and see each other on a daily basis. “I think it is just the best beach,” said Darlene Matheson. “The dog owners that come to this park are responsible. We’re a community.”
Her husband Warren added that “most dogs that come here are well behaved.”
Living in Trout Creek, Marcy Craddock finds the beach to be very accessible.
“We just wander down. The dogs can be off leash and everybody is in good spirits,” she said. “I don’t know what we would do without it.”
Penticton resident Joan Shaffer hopes the beach is here to stay. “I’m always worried that they will take it away for some reason,” she said. “It’s just so awesome that the dogs have this.”
Branka Knez said some people are getting lax about cleaning up after their dogs. She uses the park every day, all year round and is worried that the beach may be taken away because of this.
The park attendant said 95 per cent of people who use the area are responsible dog owners, but it can be the other five per cent who ruin it for everyone else.
The park has bio-degradable bags for owners to use when cleaning up after their dogs and compost bins for the waste.
It is also important to keep dogs on a leash until arriving at the off-leash beach area. A $115 fine can be imposed for having a dog off leash in a provincial park.
The parks department is working on improving signage about the rules and on educating the public to be responsible dog owners.
The popular, well used attraction is a benefit to the town.
Weston said she has made a lot of friends in Summerland. She spends time at a local coffee shop and quilts here as well.
Even though Knez lives in Penticton she said, “My doctor, dentist, optometrist and friends are all in Summerland.”
Ullmark showed off a hand bag she had bought at a local boutique.
A couple from Mission, B.C., Coleen Smith and Kyle Goosen take their dogs to the beach every day when they are here and are looking at property with the possibility of becoming future residents.
“We have a deep appreciation for this beach,” added Deanne Gawne.
It would only be natural to assume that the dogs do too.
