Dog-friendly vacation towns on East Coast

[Discussing Labradoodles & Goldendoodles]

I would like to take a trip with my pups this summer.  Ideally I would rent a beach house that has a fenced back yard.  I'm interested in going to either OBX, Hilton Head, Martha's Vineyard or Cape Cod.  Are these places dog-friendly?  Anyone have other suggestions?  I live in Delaware and am willing to drive 8 or so hours.

[Melissa, Samson & Shelby]

This is probably too far south for you, but in case someone else is interested, we have found South Carolina to be extremely dog friendly. The state parks allow dogs on the beaches anytime as long as they're leashed. We frequent South Carolina because of that. I don't know about Hilton Head, since we prefer quieter areas, but I love SC. Florida doesn't allow dogs on the beaches in the state parks. In Florida, my experience has been that some towns have dog beaches and are dog friendly and some aren't. I love taking ours to the beach, we go every year.

I loved the picture of the Doodle chewing on the sea shell. Mine love shells!! They love to chew on them. I bring many home and it's a game of my dogs to take them out of the landscaping and distribute them around the lawn as they chew on them.

[Dr. Judith P. LaVorgna]

It's not on your list, but our favorite spot is St Georges Island, FL, mid panhandle of Florida. We have been twice, rented two different houses...lovely, all fenced, dog friendly, and close to great restaurants. Sand is white, white. Really dog friendly.
We had four dogs! Both houses had swimming pools. It's definitely a place to rest. Quiet at night, and lights off for sea turtle nesting. There is a rental firm on line, can't think of name (believe there are two big ones). We would go back in a minute. Only issue is it's hurricane season! However, we were there in hurricane season both times, had glorious weather with a few afternoon quick showers. If you google the island you will see the bridge leading across the bay onto St Georges, We stayed in homes about 4 to 5 blocks West of the Bridge and one road back from the beach. We brought staples and bought stuff locally at the markets, mostly ate out. We just loved it, would like to live there in fact. Walked to the beach each day, had the pool, houses all safely fenced, made sure we cleaned up poopies and left the house as clean as we found it. There are photo's of the interior of the homes and exterior and a map of their location on the island and the week's available. Can you tell we loved it...and so did the doods. Most all houses have wifi, etc. Very, very nice, and house quite beautiful, some fairly high some moderate. Seems to me it's Sat arrival and Sat by ten departure. They provide all lines, both times there were staples that we brought and didn't need since the people before had left them.

[Diane Dolphin Rocker]

Duck in the OBX is very dog friendly and allows them on the beaches all year. We went down with one of our guardian families last August and took some of the girls. I'll try to embed a little slide show I made of the girls on the beach...don't know if it will work :)

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

[Diane Dolphin Rocker]

Thnx! You know, I'm only about 20 mins away from you. My parents live across from Zingos....
Oh, and I rented through Southern Shores Realty....they were good.

[BetteB]

That's a great slideshow!! i love the title!

[Leslie, Dexter & Kirby]

I also vote for OBX. We've taken Dexter there several times. We rent a dog friendly house. It is a plus if you can find one with a fenced outside area. We take Dex on the beach early in the morning and in the evening for a run. The houses always had a hose so we just rinse him off when we get back.

We rented on Hatteras Island (Hatteras, Rodanthe, Avon)...and rent mostly through Hattaras Realty (but found Midget Realty to be good too).