Picnic Island Beach Dog Park — Attraction in Tampa

We visited with family and two dogs. I felt overall the experience was ok. It's nice that there is an area dedicated just to dogs and they have a double-gated area to enter/leave the park. There is a hose there as well to wash off and get water as needed. The beach area is not the nicest but adequate. The area near the water is rocky so water shoes are recommended. The water is dirty-looking but not from human trash just more of sea detritus. For dogs that like to run around and enjoy the water, it's a great spot. Many dogs were having the time of their lives racing around the beach and in the water. Unfortunately, our smaller sized dog (about 12 lbs.) was attacked by a larger pit bull mix dog upon entry without provocation. Thankfully, we were able to separate the dogs without any physical harm but it could have been a bad situation. I do feel that the owner of the other dog was genuinely shocked his dog attacked and immediately left. His girlfriend apologized profusely. We were pretty vigilant afterwards to assess how other dogs were interacting with ours but had no other issues. Our dog was on pins and needles for a bit and it took him a little time to play with other dogs. I guess it is something to keep in mind as it is basically a free for all with the dogs running around and you never know when something might trigger a primal instinct. Something I didn't expect but should have - it's not a real relaxing time hanging at the dog beach. We set up some chairs and a blanket to hang out and talk and maybe play some games but dogs are constantly racing around through, over and among your stuff. A few of the male dogs also "marked" some of our items before we had a chance to stop them so had a clean up job to do when we left. You can't really blame the dogs as they are all just having fun - just something to keep in mind for a visit. I think we would definitely just bring the basics next time (chair, water) and not a lot of the normal beach items. We spent about 2-1/2 hours there in total and it definitely tired...

We've been back twice and we'll be back again. This is a 40 minute drive for us but for our pup to get some off leash beach time it's worth it. By the water is pretty rocky with the exception of one area (shown in the video) so you'll want something on your feet. There's a pretty big parking lot that's free. The first time we went (a Monday holiday) it wasn't too busy and all the dogs were really well behaved. Those who didn't have a good recall on their dog seemed to keep them on a leash. I appreciate this. The last time we went it was busier (a Sunday). One person didn't have control over her dog and it kept going after dogs and being a little too rough. It wouldn't bother me normally, but my dog was clearly uncomfortable with this and she did nothing. It went after our dog when she was in the water playing with us so we got between them. At that point our dog was showing teeth so we moved to the other side of the park. In the meantime her dog went to the bathroom and she pretended not to see it. Besides her, everyone else I saw cleaned up after their dog. It's a big enough area that you can separate yourself from one dog by walking further down. There's more grass as you walk further down and a handful of picnic tables. A couple are in the shade. It'd make a good place to train your dog to stay or practice recall. There's a disk golf area right on the side of the beach and a lot of the disk golfers brought their dogs too. If you can go during the week it'd...

Thorough Review Here We went with our hound and children for the first time today and loved it! The water isn't as amazing as The Gulf of course, but it was nice enough. This area is HUGE! I wore myself out just walking back and forth. There are a dozen or so SHADED tables, along with a tri-level water fountain and a washing station. There are a lot of shells and rocks, so if bringing kids, they need to wear water shoes. My hound was not injured by them, but if you're worried about cuts, there is a ton of green space as well. This area is leash-free and all the dogs there were super nice and played great together - even with such diversify (2 hound pups, mastiff/great dane mix, bulldog, and pit bull.) I've heard it's super busy on the weekends, but a weekday is great (we went on a Thursday.) It was also very clean, with only finding one lump of poop throughout the entire park. One important thing I loved was that the provided poop bags were made of recycled materials and biodegradable. The ONLY thing I didn't like was finding a fish hook in the sand, and there was a guy (without a dog) fishing in the water - this is not allowed, and he refused to leave. There is park staff on duty all day, and if I hadn't had 4 kids and a puppy with me, I would've gone to find them. We'll definitely be...