npf1
Well-Known Member
OK smarty pants. We use the jacket not for it's bouyancy but for a handle to lift the mut from dinghy to boat. How would you propose getting a 34kg mut up topsides that are 5ft from the water without a lifejacket handle?
Dog life jackets
- Thread starter sarabande
- Start date
OK smarty pants. We use the jacket not for it's bouyancy but for a handle to lift the mut from dinghy to boat. How would you propose getting a 34kg mut up topsides that are 5ft from the water without a lifejacket handle?
AliM
Well-Known Member
The first time I saw a dog lifejacket was on a dog on the Thames near Oxford. Its family were one side of the river. The dog swam across to the other side, removed the ill-fitting lifejacket and swam back to its owners. We walked past them as they were arguing about which one would walk a couple of miles to the bridge and back to retrieve the expensive life jacket!
raven
Well-Known Member
Yes NPF1 just beat me to it in response to CELEBRITYSCANDAL.
We have a large black labrador deceiver who swims like a dolphin and is happy to take any opportunity to do so, problem is getting her back on board - that's where the lifejacket comes in. Also, we moor alongside a wall and when tide is down there is a long trip down the ladder to get to the boat - again the L J helps get her safely down the ladder.
We tried a number of different types before opting for the Crewsaver on the basis that many just have a thin webbing strap that fits under the dog and this offers little/no support as you lift a heavy dog - the Crewsaver has a full padded underside which supports the weight of the dog very well.
We have a large black labrador deceiver who swims like a dolphin and is happy to take any opportunity to do so, problem is getting her back on board - that's where the lifejacket comes in. Also, we moor alongside a wall and when tide is down there is a long trip down the ladder to get to the boat - again the L J helps get her safely down the ladder.
We tried a number of different types before opting for the Crewsaver on the basis that many just have a thin webbing strap that fits under the dog and this offers little/no support as you lift a heavy dog - the Crewsaver has a full padded underside which supports the weight of the dog very well.
CelebrityScandel
Well-Known Member
If you look at my profile you will see that we are used to topsides higher than 5 foot and we manage with an around 25kg dog.
As I said, in our own case at sea (by at sea I don't mean day sailing around the bay) the dog if on deck will likely have a harness on (the cat too) so tethered and never going to go over the side.
If you are anchored or day sailing and your mutt is too heavy for you to get onto a boarding platform (or you have no such platform) make a dog of him/her not a ninny and just put a harness on and lift him with that if he goes over the side. I know it doesn't give one the thrill of dressing your dog up as if it was a little girl child but it is all the dog needs.
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Lady Campanula
N/A
I nominate Sara for 'Troll of the Month Award'.....
CelebrityScandel
Well-Known Member
I nominate Sara for 'Troll of the Month Award'.....
You're probably right - certainly brought some dog dressers out of the closet though.
mon_ami
New Member
Another option you might look at is this American-made lifejacket:
http://usak9outfitters.com/CCLV.htm
I haven't bought a lifejacket for my dog yet, but I bought a harness and seatbelt from this company years ago and it was incredibly well-built. If I ever manage to get the dog out to the boat, she'll get one of these jackets.
http://usak9outfitters.com/CCLV.htm
I haven't bought a lifejacket for my dog yet, but I bought a harness and seatbelt from this company years ago and it was incredibly well-built. If I ever manage to get the dog out to the boat, she'll get one of these jackets.
Victoria Sponge
Well-Known Member
My little dog loves being on our boat. Her favourite thing though, is being in the dinghy. As soon as she sees it being pumped up she wants to get into it. If it's tied on the back she has been known to get in and sit there expectantly! She's wears an orange jacket with a handle when on the boat. We are very well aware that she can swim, but the orange means you can see her and the handle means you've got something to get hold of, both if she falls in and to lift her up on and off the boat. We're all looking forward to the sailing season. Ours might be starting next weekend if all goes according to plan. 
npf1
Well-Known Member
I'm still waiting to hear how you get a large dog up 5ft of topsides (no bathing platform or walkthru) without a handle. I genuinely want to know how you do it then I can try your technique with our muts. Do you use a gangplank? Levitation perhaps?
Ehbendisdonc
Well-Known Member
I can swim - but I still wear a life jacket. My labrador collie cross wears a Baltic buoyancy aid for all the reasons stated in this thread, such as high vis and a strong lifting point. He is an excellent and indefatiguable swimmer; the jacket isn't to help him swim, but to keep him afloat and buy time when panic sets in.
As with anything boaty, everyone needs to weigh up the risks and inconveniences and come to a solution that they feel is right.
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CelebrityScandel
Well-Known Member
I have already explained but it seems that you do not know what a harness is? If you do know then exercise your mind from that point of knowledge and when you do so you will find that it opens up more opportunities for getting a heavy dog on board than does a lifejacket (and that without the encumberance and restriction of a lifejacket).
If you don't know what a harness is then toddle yourself off and find out and again work out the opportunities for recovery from there. You will find that they are obvious (well for most of us I am sure).
You may try levitation if you wish but I can assure you that your belief in that as a method is totally misplaced. The dog may find your antics amusing, however.
I mentioned cats - many don't like a harness but we have had two persians on board now over the years and they have both been totally at home in one and also with a tether when needed due to their docile nature (a tether not only for falling overboard or so we know where he is reasons but at times we are under a bond for quarantine reasons that the cat not go ashore). Being natural inside cats they do well on a boat. For them we have found that rabbit harnesses often have wider straps and fit well - the steel plated rings we cut out and replace with stainless steel split ones and on the top of the harness fit a long shackle for both clipping a tether to or for recovery (the latter never needed, cats will climb most anything they can get claws into if they need to, even stocky short legged persians can).
We are considering setting up a website among our portfolio of others for dog dressers.
l'escargot
Well-Known Member
Ignore the sullen look, he just hates cameras. Took this shot this morning. This afternoon I stitched another strip of flotation above the blue bit along his flanks. The side flotation is a section of pool noodle split down the centre. Around his neck and over his chest is closed cell foam about 20mm thick. No flotation over the back and I will be sewing on another longer handle flat down the centre.
Are you sure that won't turn him on his back? Human lifejackets have flotation around the neck, either side of the chest and that's what they do.
salinia
Well-Known Member
My advice is make sure your dog is well equipped like this one near water...In addition to this well dressed dog ours wears his life jacket.
fishermantwo
Well-Known Member
If you check the photo the padding around the neck and down the chest is closed cell foam. it extends about 4 inches back from his collar. He floats with his back just awash. The main reason for making this jacket is to restrain him in the cockpit whilst sailing. The collar area is one piece and slips over the dogs head. Seat belt material passes under his chest, through the chest pad loop them back. The small loop on top is to attach tether. He only wears this when sailing. I spend at least 5 days a week on the water, fishing rowing etc and the dog does not wear a jacket. He loves swimming but I have seen him panic and not all dogs can swim, check out Utube.
Few weeks ago we had flood conditions here in the estuary where I moor. The current was about 5 knots and it was difficult getting my 14' catamaran powered by a 3.5hp outboard alongside. I have a pad on the bow and I bumped the side of the yacht. Dog who loves travelling out on one hull fell in. I chased after him switching to oars to hold station. On this occasion he would not swim to the back of the cat and made for shore. He had to pass a couple of empty mooring buoys pulled down by the current and this spooked him. Meanwhile another yachtie appeared in an inflatable and stoodby. Twice during his swim I saw him slip into an almost vertical position as he panicked. Fortunately he recovered and I eventually picked him up from the bank.
He swims most days and will be again in about an hours time. Side benefit is the buoyancy vest being a light colour keeps him cooler. Black dogs take a beating out in the sun.
sarabande
Well-Known Member
CelebrityScandel's prose style reminds me of .... let me see? A much-missed contributor of yore.
Thanks for the contributions, CS, but I was hoping to direct the debate towards canine function, rather than towards canine fashion.
One of our dogs is a rough collie of fairly advanced years. As you will be aware, even svelte pedigree bitches lose physical endurance after a certain age and, coupled with a coat whose purpose seems to be to act like blotch, her survival time in the 'oggin is not likely to be more than 10 minutes. (Much could also be said of many distinguished and otherwise happy forumites, too.)
The pictures of posters' dogs, and the references to makers' sites show there are - broadly - two styles, analogous firstly to the human buoyancy aid (where some support is given to encourage flotation) and then jackets which provide enough bouyancy to support the whole doggy mass in water.
I am not technically or emotionally the owner of the dogs; they belong to my daughter, and we are just their guardians while she ponders late into the night on turning the triple bonds of alkyne into a diester, and homogeneous catalysis in nanotechnology. No, I don't understand all of that, myself, either.
Our dog-operating envelope on board our rather more modest sloop has two principal non-sailing risk zones: from the inter-tidal littoral into the dinghy (and the other way round, too) and from the dinghy up about three feet onto the hallowed and holystoned decks. Canine enthusiasm for the transfer process does tend to preclude a gentle transition, and dropping a dog overboard into the three-knot spring tidal stream would cause a high level of anxiety in my spousal crew.
That would not be a Good Thing.
Reduction of sailing risk is all about identifying SPOFs and things which might create an aberration in the equanimity of our otherwise stress-free nautical peregrinations. Popping a flotation device onto the dogs is a simple act which is going to give the hounds a better chance of striking off to the distant shore and getting there, and if that device also has a handle to provide a lifting point back into the dinghy or even higher, that is a functional bonus.
Please be assured that I am not in the slightest way into any form of 'designer' fashion, and I strongly support Louis Sullivan's dictum of form following function. I'd rather spend ten seconds putting a float jacket onto a dog, than spend what is left of shuffling around this mortal coil regretting that I had not done so.
You have my admiration for your bravery in having had two Persians on board. They are my favourite cat after the Egyptian Mau. Our husky does not unfortunately possess such discriminating taste.
Thanks for the contributions, CS, but I was hoping to direct the debate towards canine function, rather than towards canine fashion.
One of our dogs is a rough collie of fairly advanced years. As you will be aware, even svelte pedigree bitches lose physical endurance after a certain age and, coupled with a coat whose purpose seems to be to act like blotch, her survival time in the 'oggin is not likely to be more than 10 minutes. (Much could also be said of many distinguished and otherwise happy forumites, too.)
The pictures of posters' dogs, and the references to makers' sites show there are - broadly - two styles, analogous firstly to the human buoyancy aid (where some support is given to encourage flotation) and then jackets which provide enough bouyancy to support the whole doggy mass in water.
I am not technically or emotionally the owner of the dogs; they belong to my daughter, and we are just their guardians while she ponders late into the night on turning the triple bonds of alkyne into a diester, and homogeneous catalysis in nanotechnology. No, I don't understand all of that, myself, either.
Our dog-operating envelope on board our rather more modest sloop has two principal non-sailing risk zones: from the inter-tidal littoral into the dinghy (and the other way round, too) and from the dinghy up about three feet onto the hallowed and holystoned decks. Canine enthusiasm for the transfer process does tend to preclude a gentle transition, and dropping a dog overboard into the three-knot spring tidal stream would cause a high level of anxiety in my spousal crew.
That would not be a Good Thing.
Reduction of sailing risk is all about identifying SPOFs and things which might create an aberration in the equanimity of our otherwise stress-free nautical peregrinations. Popping a flotation device onto the dogs is a simple act which is going to give the hounds a better chance of striking off to the distant shore and getting there, and if that device also has a handle to provide a lifting point back into the dinghy or even higher, that is a functional bonus.
Please be assured that I am not in the slightest way into any form of 'designer' fashion, and I strongly support Louis Sullivan's dictum of form following function. I'd rather spend ten seconds putting a float jacket onto a dog, than spend what is left of shuffling around this mortal coil regretting that I had not done so.
You have my admiration for your bravery in having had two Persians on board. They are my favourite cat after the Egyptian Mau. Our husky does not unfortunately possess such discriminating taste.
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William_H
Well-Known Member
LJ for Pooch
I am not a dog owner however I have recently made myself a life jacket/buoyancy vest which was rather successful. I used some lovely red polyester fabric from a sail bag.
For a dog I would suggest a fabric under the belly and perhaps up under the neck between the front legs.
The fabric could join at a line along the spine with velcro (hook and pile) to hold the 2 sides together. A handle on each side could be velcroed together to make one handle for easy grabbing. The front flap between the front legs would have velcro or small clips to hold it to the main body.
If you want buoyancy it would as said be best at the front under the neck and at sides. Use high density foam as in camping sleeping mat. make a pocket for the foam sewn on the outside.
A standard domestic sewing machine should do all the sewing happily. You can add reflective strips (and even a whistle if you want.) Give it a try. olewill
I am not a dog owner however I have recently made myself a life jacket/buoyancy vest which was rather successful. I used some lovely red polyester fabric from a sail bag.
For a dog I would suggest a fabric under the belly and perhaps up under the neck between the front legs.
The fabric could join at a line along the spine with velcro (hook and pile) to hold the 2 sides together. A handle on each side could be velcroed together to make one handle for easy grabbing. The front flap between the front legs would have velcro or small clips to hold it to the main body.
If you want buoyancy it would as said be best at the front under the neck and at sides. Use high density foam as in camping sleeping mat. make a pocket for the foam sewn on the outside.
A standard domestic sewing machine should do all the sewing happily. You can add reflective strips (and even a whistle if you want.) Give it a try. olewill
Lady Campanula
N/A
You bet yore sweet bippy!
And that's not all they lose....
njsail
Active Member
Our use of dog life jackets varies on where we are and what the conditions are. We have a Portuguese water dog and a silky terrier. The water dog can swim all day but in the dark murky waters of New Jersey a black dog disappears pretty quick so a bright yellow jacket helps give a little piece of mind if she does end up going over. The other benefit of a jacket is a handle on the back of the jacket. If you needed to pick a dog up from the water you could use a pole with a hook to walk them to the back of the boat or if they're small enough just pick them up. Both our dogs have no fear of wandering around the boat under sail even when the weather is a little rough.
Summers in NJ can be very hot and humid (over 100 degrees F/40C) and we usually have to keep the dogs wet to cool them off so we're always spraying them with water. Before the end of the day we try to rinse them down with fresh water to help rinse out salt.
I attached pics one of each dog in their pfd and one of how the water dog is usually seen...without. I like to put a vest on myself with a set of swim fins and swim for an hour or so with the water dog.
Summers in NJ can be very hot and humid (over 100 degrees F/40C) and we usually have to keep the dogs wet to cool them off so we're always spraying them with water. Before the end of the day we try to rinse them down with fresh water to help rinse out salt.
I attached pics one of each dog in their pfd and one of how the water dog is usually seen...without. I like to put a vest on myself with a set of swim fins and swim for an hour or so with the water dog.