Your dog can come on the water too
The biggest laughter on a recent Southern Islands paddle wasn’t the tide or the current. It was a Golden Retriever launching herself off the bow into the sea, swimming hard toward a beach, and arriving before the rest of us did.
We’ve been hosting canine friends on some of our trips for many years. Big ones. Calm ones. One extremely sea-worthy cat.
What Actually Happens When You Paddle With Your Dog
It’s just a paddle – with your dog along for it.
Your dog will experience an intense rush of sights, waves, marine traffic going about… This provides incredible mental stimulation that will leave them exhausted afterward. Your dog will also practice continuous impulse control. Staying still in a kayak while the paw parents work their socks off to get them somewhere. And the dogs actually do get a workout! Kinda – while sitting or standing still, your dog’s core muscles are constantly working to adapt to the movement of the water and your paddling strokes.
The two dogs on our last Southern Islands run were both LARGE, a Golden Retriever and a Weimaraner. One was loud about her enthusiasm. The other watched everything with a focused calm. On this trip, as both parents were experienced, they each took a single kayak, and sat with the dog in front.
Our kayaks are wide, stable, and built for loaded expedition use. They don’t tip easily. A 30kg dog shifting weight near the bow is manageable. We’ve designed the experience around regular beach stops, so dogs get to jump out, run, shake water everywhere, and swim before getting back in. Nobody has to sit still for two hours straight. Not the dogs. Not the humans.
For parents with only one dog, both parents can be on a tandem kayak with their dog.
If it is the first time, it could feel a bit chaotic and stressful. Your dog may whine, pace, try to climb into your lap, or even test the waters by jumping overboard once or twice. After some time or even a few trips, your dog will treat the kayak like a floating bed. They will calmly rest their chin on the bow, look at the scenery, and even snooze through gentle waves.
The Trails That Work Best for Dogs
Not every paddle is right for every dog. The trails that are best suited for them are those designed around beach stops.
Your dog doesn’t need to be a swimmer. Several of our canine guests were first-time beach dogs who had never been near open water, let alone kayaking. They figured it out. What matters more is temperament – a dog that’s reasonably calm around strangers and doesn’t bolt in unfamiliar places will do well. A dog that’s likely to jump without warning at anything that moves on the water is worth planning this activity more carefully, like being in tandem or bringing their favourite toy.
The Sentosa trail is our most popular dog trail. It runs along Sentosa’s southern coast with enough variety to keep both paddler and pet interested. There are small beaches, rocky outcrops, and the occasional container ship moving slowly on the horizon.
Ubin Tiga trail is one of our most popular Ubin’s trails. This trail offers scenic coastline with sheltered water, clean beaches, and regular landing spots. Dogs can wade in the shallows, sniff around the tideline, and cool off between paddling legs. The water is calm enough that even a nervous dog settles down within the first twenty minutes.
All our Southern Islands trails – the ones that take you out past St. John’s, Lazarus, Seringat Islands – are dog friendly too. These are longer paddles. The open crossings are short. We are more exposed to the element. The rewards are wide beaches and quiet coves that most Singaporeans have never stood on.
What Items to Bring For Dog Kayaking
A few things make the difference between a great day and a stressful one.
Two items are mandatory. You need to bring along a CFD (canine flotation device), a properly fitted dog life jacket with a sturdy rescue handle. We have some for rent for a nominal fee.
And each dog also need to have a Standard Leash & Collar (Used strictly for shore use during launching, docking, or breaks. Never tie your dog to the kayak while on the water.)
Both these items are to ensure safety for the dogs. And it makes it easy for the owners to retrieve swimming dogs.
Many parents also bring water (with collapsible bowls), treats/snacks, beach toys, poop bags, and post-kayaking showering items (towel, comb, ear wipes, etc).
Could you think of other optional but good to have items that are perhaps useful? Sun hat, sunglasses perhaps?!
Sentosa Trail: A closer look
Sentosa Trail is a 7 km, beginner-friendly coastal morning paddling tour from Tanjong Beach that welcomes dogs for free. The trip offers views of Fort Siloso and allows exploration of 2 small islets, with a late breakfast included. From the water, the islets and coastlines look different from how they look on a map. The shorelines are uneven and interesting. Some beaches are only accessible by kayaks.
This is the most popular trail for dogs as it is a short trail, and there are many beach stops. There are also no tidal restrictions, which means it could be done on most days of the year.
There are also plenty of outdoor showering areas that you can bath your dog, before your journey home.
The trail starts with a safety briefing, where the guides will be sharing safety and kayaking tips. From Tanjong Beach, the group will paddle past Palawan & Siloso Beach. Finally, paddling past the rocky coast of Tanjung Rimau, we will have a completely different perspective of Fort Siloso. From your kayak, you get a dramatic sense of why it was built there in the first place.
To get a closer look, we will land on Siloso Beach and walk to the Fort Siloso Skywalk, a 40m viewpoint. In the quiet morning, you could immerse yourself surveying the vista of Keppel harbour and our southern waterfront, all the way to Indonesia.
Getting back to our kayaks, we have 2 more beach stops on small islets! One of them will be our late breakfast stops, before we end our trip on Tanjong Beach.
Bring Your Dog Kayaking
Singapore’s Southern Islands, Ubin Tiga, and Sentosa trail are running most weekends. Morning departures. Cool water. Beach stops built in.
If you have a dog and you’ve been looking for something to do outdoors together that isn’t a walk in the park – this is it. Message us directly on Facebook or WhatsApp to check the next available date. Tell us your dog’s breed and size. We’ll sort the rest.
Dogs paddle free, cats too.
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About Kayakasia
Kayakasia has been operating kayak tours in Asia since 2000. That’s 25 years on the water.
We are based in Singapore with operating centres in the Philippines, Thailand, and Indonesia. Our guides are professional, trained, and have paddled routes that don’t appear in any guidebook – including pioneer expeditions to places only reachable by kayak. Our youngest guest has been 3 years old. Our oldest, 78.
We run day paddles, multi-day expeditions, school leadership programmes, corporate team sessions, and family trips. Singapore routes include Pulau Ubin, Chek Jawa, Coney Island, Punggol, and the Southern Islands. Our team is bilingual — English and Mandarin.
We are not a mass tourism operator. Groups are small. Trails are chosen for what the water could shows you. Environmental responsibility is part of how we paddle – we’ve picked up thousands of plastic bottles from our paddles.
Our kayaks are expedition-grade, tough enough for open crossings and stable enough for a large dog to sit in the bow.
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