I know I'm a bit late writing this, but better late than never.  We all know with dogs as our companions that we hate to leave them behind when we go on our daily life maintenance duties.  Even worse is when we go on vacation.

This page is meant as a little salvo to help you if you've come to Halifax with you canine life companion - or if you have the great fortune to live in Halifax and you're looking for something fun to do with your best friend and you want to support businesses that have seen the value of catering to our section of the niche market and included us in their business plan, or by some lucky happenstance, don't mind - or even better - LOVE dogs!

The first fun thing I have to mention is the tall ship Silva - http://www.tallshipsilva.com/ - they have 3 harbour tours a day in the summer time that loads up at the foot of Prince Street in Halifax, and if you've never been on a tall ship - it's a once in a life time experience!

The Atlantic Film Festival - http://www.atlanticfilm.com/ - has an outdoor component every year that they put on.  It's called "Al Fresco Film Festo" - http://www.atlanticfilm.com/af_index.php - and it's dog friendly!  They even have one night that has contests for dogs - can you believe it?  It runs from July 28th to September 1st and is at the Tall Ships Quay and the movies are projected onto the Electropolis building on the waterfront.  Admission price is a $5 donation.

Go for an ice cream with your dog... where? Several places - vanilla ice cream will work for your dog, and any kind that YOU like will work for you - but what about ice cream or gelato made ESPECIALLY for your dog!  There's a place out in Hammond's Plains that is an ice cream bar that is JUST for dogs!  (They also carry some home made ice cream and gelato to keep humans happy too!)  They have "Stinky tuna melts", "peanut butter banana splits", and "fruit solids" - among others - along with your usual human stuff.  Check out http://www.pamperedpawsinn.com/menus.php for pictures and more information and their exact location in Hammond's Plains.  I know how to get there, but if I gave you directions you'd be sure to get lost!  They might also be a good place to STAY in if you're coming from away because if you'll notice they have the word "Inn" in their title.  But they only have 3 rooms - so they book up fast.  They also have a doggy day care on site.  I can tell you that that business is a perfect place for dog lovers.  I don't know why there isn't one on every corner.  

The Halifax International Buskerfest which is going to be August 10th to 20th this year - their site is at http://www.buskers.ca/ - is dog friendly - the outdoor bits anyway.  Just make sure that you treat your dog as well as you treat yourself!  Bring water for them, and if you're on pavement take lots of breaks and look for shady spots to hang out in and if he looks like he's getting freaked out from the crowds and the noise then a nice retreat to somewhere calm might be in order.  I'm not that big of a fan of crowds my own self.  Charlie on the other hand, loves crowds.  More pets per inch is what he thinks.

The Halifax Ultimate Recreational League is holding the Canadian Ultimate Frisbee Championship in Halifax August 17th - 20th the locations of events and times are going to be various - so you'll have to go to their website and watch the news to find out where to go http://www.canadianultimate.com/cuc/2006/ - you can bet that will be dog-friendly - but I'll bet you'll have to hold your dog back from trying to catch all the frisbees flying around!

August 20th is the sand castle building day at Clam Harbour Beach.  This is my one warning.  DON'T go to this.  There are 1,000's of people there every year - if you don't like HUGE crowds and long arduous walks - avoid this beach on this day!  I happened to go to Clam Harbour beach on this day one year - me and the dogs still had fun - but man, it was a lot of work finding a patch of beach to hang out on.  But the sand castles were fun to look at and stuff, but it was about a 1 hour walk to the beach from where we had to park - that took a huge chunk out of our fun for the day!  My Clam Harbour Beach page is at http://www.geocities.com/imadogkisser/clam_harbour.html 

Other dog friendly tourism things to note?  Well - you can also check out my Shopping page - at http://charlieloveshalifax.ca/shopping.html - because I list a ton of stores in downtown Halifax that are dog friendly.   When you're out cruising around on your walking tours you can take your dog with you!  As well you can check out my page where I list parks that you can have fun in the Halifax Regional Municipality at http://charlieloveshalifax.ca/parks.html - dog ARE allowed in EVERY park in the city - the only thing is that they have to be on leash.  The only off-leash spaces are Point Pleasant Park and Seaview park - and Point Pleasant Park is a place that you should definitely check out if you haven't already.  It's a pleasure for humans and dogs alike!

You should also check out my upcoming dog events page because there might be something excruciatingly fun locally that you don't know about that you'd miss unless you check out that page - and once you got home you found out it was a once in a life time experience that was happening while you were visiting that super-duper dog friendly city of Halifax!  It's at http://charlieloveshalifax.ca/upcoming_events.html 

While you're downtown you can also avail yourself of any of the numerous restaurants that have outdoor sections to their seating areas - just sit along the outside edges so that your very cherished family member seems to be outside while you're sitting inside.  A lot of the businesses are seeing the value of your patronage and realize that your money has the same colour as everyone else's and are willing to work with you as a multi-faceted family a little bit.  They might even put a bowl of water down for you.  And if they won't - there's another restaurant just about next door where the food is JUST AS GOOD!  And don't forget to tell the maitre-d that as you are leaving! haha!

And never leave home without some water and poop bags!

If you know of anything else let me know and I'll add it!

#1 - there is no breed specific legislation in Halifax and surrounding area - so feel free to bring your pit bulls, your tosa innus and your rottweillers here!  Just as long as they're friendly and well socialized as we all know they tend to be (just like all well bred, well socialized dogs are!) - they are welcome in the Halifax Regional Municipality!

#2 - there are only 2 off-leash dog parks in the HRM currently - so that means that everywhere else your dog legally must be on leash.  What I personally say about that is, and I CAN say this because I'm just a joe-blow nobody with a personal vanity website is - do whatever everybody else around you is doing! If you're at a park and all the other dogs are off-leash and your dog is a dog who is used to be off-leash - go for it!  The park is obviously a place where local people take their dogs to run - so let your guy have some fun with the local dogs!

#3 The law about parks is that dogs ARE allowed in Provincial parks - as long as they are on leash - so if you see a provincial park on your travels - like Long Lake Provincial Park, or Shubie Park, or Hemlock Ravine Park - or anyone of other numerous local parks - your dog is allowed to be there - it's just that they are supposed to be on leash.  That also goes for all beaches in Nova Scotia too.  Dogs ARE allowed on any beach in Nova Scotia - as long as they're on leash.  So go ahead - go to the beach!  Have fun!  I've got a lot of local beaches listed on my parks page which is mentioned above.