Travelling in Poland with a dog

This is a short summary of what I think might be useful if you plan to travel with a dog to Poland - we just got back after walking some days along the north coast.

All following bans have to be interpreted in context - it depends on the situation and the dog whether they will be enforced or just silently ignored.

General notes
The dog has to be kept on leash (na smyczi) everywhere unless specially permitted. Mostly respected, especially in cities. But if the dog is friendly, people usually don't say anything. Some breeds are considere aggressive (officially), those have stricter rules.

On the coast we've me mostly german shephard dogs, yorkshires and golden retrievers. From time to time there was a pit bull terrier - with a muzzle and on a short leash.

Transport
There are two main transport companies - PKP trains and PKS busses, then there are multiple local bus companies. We had no experience of dog not being accepted. Unless you travel in a crowded busses it is usually even ok without the muzzle/kaganiec. Often the dog is silently ignored by the driver (no need of ticket) in busses.

We've been told by Polish people that we can just travel without the dog ticket even in trains, but we haven't tried that. In trains the dog pay either 4 zloty or 15 zloty (EC/IC), in busses they travel free or pay like children.

If you plan to travel in a couchette or sleeping wagon, you have to (in theory) buy the whole coupe, that is six places for a couchette or three for a sleeping car.

Beaches/Coast
On guarded beaches the dogs are allowed only to pass through not to stay there and they should have a muzzle and be on a leash. On wild beaches it's ok just to keep them on the leash. In reality there are dogs everywhere, even on guarded beaches and it's just on a common sense to keep or not to keep them on the leash when outside the guarded beaches. As long as you keep it under control and it does not endanger somebodys children it's usually ok. People and children mostly interact well with the dogs, fairly often the children run to the dog to hug it.

In Slowinski National Park the dogs are strictly forbidden on the beaches. In reality you can argue that there a trail on the beach - so you can walk there. We discussed this with the guards and they just asked us to leave the beach on the first exit. Possible reason for this ban are foki/seals that sometimes come here - the dogs will disturb them.

Food
There are shops with things for animals in every small city and it's sometimes possible to buy raw meat. Fish is available everywhere along the coast. People generally do ask you before feeding your dog with something.

Shops/restaurants
Mostly no dogs allowed.