sailing with a dog - advice please

Bluetack42

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It’s like using a sand wedge, you’ve got to get under it and impart some lift, contact too high results in a smudge into the nonslip. Truth is I am happy to do this in walking boots but not on the boat in deck shoes, what I need is a dedicated plastic flicker.
 

Pete7

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This thread gives me hope. We've just put down a deposit on a cockapoo... ?

Our cockapoo is more than capable climbing saloon stairs to escape or join us if we move to the cockpit. Also climbed out of a canal boat over rear doors whilst we waited for a lock just to be with us. Ex rescue puppy so quite clingy which is good. Nervous at first but soon learnt if shown she can do stairs.

We did do mesh on the life lines for the pug as she only had one eye, but cockapoo quite nimble and learns quickly. Twice she has tried jumping for the pontoon and failed, now she waits to see what happens to dad :unsure:

6am wake up call now a fact of life, if the sun is up then so should we, followed by dinghy trip with dad to the shore.

Goes down below if cold, bumpy or raining.

Blankets or throws for seats essential.

Dog bowl with base larger that top so it doesn't spill essential. Place on plastic tray to catch drips to save the holly and teak.
 

Babylon

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One thing about my pup: NEVER allowed on furniture at home, so quite natural to him that he ONLY goes on the cabin-sole when below. His bed wedges nicely between the two bunks at the base of the mast support.
 

Pete7

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I've seen good arguments for that being the case for two-legged grew as well :)

Absolutely, keep the fine bone china safe for use in harbour and feed the scurvy crew who are complaining about a F6 with wind over tide in the channel a dog bowl to eat out of instead. ?

"Sailing Frenchman" video capture of them eating out of dog bowls on the Clipper Yacht, wrong shape though :rolleyes:
 

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convey

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Define "short"?

If it helps, I just saw someone selling a doggie lifejacket for £20 on Preloved.

Who was it described sailing as being inside a cupboard, with a big wet dog, and ripping £50 notes up, and you want to do it with a big wet dog too? Just joking. Would not want to do it with a young dog going through their adolescence which is scientifically proven that they do.

And if you dare do with a yap dog and he starts in the marina berth next to me, I am going to scuttle your boat.

Some breeds are a lot more content at just chilling than others. Funnily enough, greyhounds and the like score well in that department. Plenty out there to rescue. A cockapoo and sand foreshores sounds like a recipe for a disaster.

Saw a guy with a Hurley 22 take his small dog with him all the time, he put up a wire mesh/fence around the stanchions and wires.
 

Mudisox

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Mine {a sprocker] like all before him is well abe to swim- he collects birds shot, from water after all. Trained to jump in and swim ashore to do whatever, between High tide and low tide level and swim back to the boat before climbing the stern ladder, back onboard. He knows to stay outside until dry. ..... And don't even start me on lifejackets for dogs.
 

convey

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Do dogs lick their coats down like cats? It'd be a little concerned about the amount of salt they'd take in if they did.

I must admit, I wish at least half the people who have dogs didn't and shouldn't, and that we shouldn't encourage for profit breeders as there's a whole lot of terrible abuse going on out there, especially with the "latest fashion accessories" whatever they might be, eg French bulldogs or the terrible, terrible inbreeding of showdog Alsations and the health problems it causes.

But, it's hard to argue that some animals don't enjoy the experience ... but what happens, and what are you going to do, if yours does not?

As I write I am also thinking of those two crazy American women who took two dogs on a boat from Hawaii to Tahiti and ended up spending 5 months at sea until they were rescued near to Japan. Never got to the bottom of that story, but that's animal abuse too.

 

jimi

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We sail with our two springers, they are excellent swimmers but always have a harness on when on pontoons in case they decide to go for a swim.on the boat they have life jackets and are always hooked up to a lifeline when upstairs. We encourage them to go to the loo on the boat although they only do as a last resort. I don’t want them hurting themselves
 

Quandary

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Our Collie/springer cross sailed with us for all of his fourteen years, enjoyed every minute until arthritis caught up with him. He was a fastidious animal resolutely refusing to 'go' on the boat, or if ashore avoiding paving and always choosing a rough patch of unmaintained vegetation. He regarded astroturf as lawn and definitely would not piss on it. In his youth he could manage up to about ten hours but later on we had to get him ashore after about six, meaning some scheduling of of stops on passages to suit his needs, on the West coast and across the North Channel this was not too difficult.
He enjoyed going ashore in the dinghy so much that we were never sure if his demands for it to be launched were essential or simply recreational.
 

convey

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like this...
Thanks, but I don't get one of those.

BTW, I read one dissenting opinion about lifebelt harnesses for dogs, I wondered what the bad experience was? I thought the big advantage of them was the handle to pull them out of the water in case they fell in.

Do you folk practise DOB or COB runs?
 

sailingmartin

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Our dogs have Ruffwear life jackets which do have a sturdy handle on the top, and which they can’t slip out of. Also tethers like humans in bad weather. Haven’t practiced DOB, but have fished them back when they “fell out“ of the dinghy - we are certain deliberately - to go swimming!
 

convey

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Damn, nope, still don't get an option to re-edit. DOB = Dog OverBoard.

I did see a cool "dog ladder" while I was looking. This ad will, of course, go out of date very quickly. I couldn't see how you could safely/easily pull a large dog out of the water if you have normal freeboard heights.

Doggie davits, may be?

boat dog ladder | in Fareham, Hampshire | Gumtree
 

anoccasionalyachtsman

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Thanks, but I don't get one of those.

BTW, I read one dissenting opinion about lifebelt harnesses for dogs, I wondered what the bad experience was? I thought the big advantage of them was the handle to pull them out of the water in case they fell in.

Do you folk practise DOB or COB runs?
I assumed it's because @Mudisox knows that dogs can swim and don't need them. My dog has one - for the handles, there's only a tiny amount of buoyancy in it. He's only been on the boat four times, but has misjudged the gap to the pontoon twice so far - handles are great.
 

Babylon

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Pup, now 9 months old, has quickly taught himself to swim from a slipway into the Hamble until he paddled further out without touching the bottom, then further out still (swimming after the tennis ball) so he could experience the effect of the running stream.

That evening he was bombing around on the hard, when he suddenly - stupidly -launched himself at very high speed off a concrete wall. It was low tide and the river was a good five or more meters below. From my position further back I couldn't see anything but - with the old cartoon image in my mind of blurred legs rotating in thin air just before the plummet starts! - I heard the eventual splash.

I couldn't stop laughing! Fortunately he was completely intact, as his high horizontal speed saved him from the broken back which would have been his certain fate had he just fallen straight down. Given that he'd earlier chewed the straps right off his buoyancy aid, this little episode has given me some confidence that he's learnt an important lesson.

I've just ordered a florescent-coloured harness for him to wear instead of buoyancy when aboard, the hoik-out handle being the important thing, and will encourage him to swim as often as possible to build up muscle-strength.

PS - also taught him to use my own mid-river pontoon for his business. This means he'll also use marina pontoons, but there's always plenty of water about to wash it all straight off.

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Biggles Wader

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Ive sailed with Spaniels and they are fine as long as you remember they are terminally bonkers. I would only go out for a few hours as the stress of wondering what they will do next gets too much :oops:
They never grow out of it, just get a bit slower.
 
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