Dogs on Boats

[Guest]

We are thinking of getting a dog, but it will have to have sea legs!

I would be interested to hear of any tips or experiences that others may have had.

Joe Cole

 

[Guest]

Hi Joe,
I have a Sheltie which sails with us.
Got him a life preserver.. it has a handle on it which helps to lift him into and out of the dinghy..

He can get inquisitive as to whats on deck.. netting around the guard rail will save a splash..

Regards

 

[Danny]

Make sure that you get one that is BOAT SIZE. You will then be able to lift on and off from the dingy with the liftjacket like a hand bag. Also with a small dog but not a Jack Russell you should be able to keep it down below when the going is rough( I have nothing against Jack Russell's but if my freind's is anything to go by there is nothing will keep her down below). A dog that hates water is a must then there is less chance of accidents and a salty wet dog in the boat. Hope you get one like my Ruby but remember you will lose your name as well as being the guy from ***** the Moody 31 you will also be known as ******'s master. I dont know about dogs but bitches seem to have long lasting bladders or is it just a female thing.

 

[byron]

Dogs and boats just go together like cheese and onion.

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[Guest]

good idea

We sail with a golden retriever bitch. We put her on the boat in the marina when she was 8 weeks old. Didn't go anywhere just let her get used to the idea and she loved the attention she got from other berth holders. Started sailing with her when she was 6 months. She is now 5 and enjoying it. She prefers sailing to motoring and when you say 'wash' to her she flattens herself low or if she sees a power boat comming too close she also flattens herself. She enjoys the inflateable. She still gets a lot of attention from other boatowners... She has never 'performed' on the boat and has gone for 16 hours without a pitstop, our vet reckons she could go for a lot longer without hurting herself, but said if she really needs to she will!!!!!

I would recommend that you go for it.


Pete

 

[Guest]

Took a mate and his labrador cruising one summer. The dog did fine on the boat, but when having dinner the first night in a (dog friendly) hotel dining room, the dog decided to chuck up the contents of her stomach including fish meal that she had guzzled in Tobermory that morning...

It was the noise that was most offputting!! No one wanted to look under the table.

Your cruising will have to adjust to fit with the dogs needs. Our Great Danes don't come on the boat but our Lab does occasionally. As they get older, dogs become less adaptable to sailing. Putting an old dog in kennels is always difficult too. So.. don't sail other than daysails, put them in kennels or put them down. Tough choices, but you will be faced with that.

KCA

 

[bob_tyler]

Took some non-sailing friends out for a day some time ago. Perfect sailing day, sunny, moderate breeze. My friends were fine, their dachshund was seasick - luckily on the cockpit sole so a couple of buckets of water soon washed it away down the drains.

 

[peterg]

Re: Dogs on Boats- no problem

We have a 2 year old, 7 stone Hovawart (looks a bit like a Gordon Setter that's been on steroids and done some serious weight training!) and he has no problem in the dinghy (so long as we keep his bum dry!) or on our motorboat and has a bladder that will easily outlast either of ours.

We took him onto the finger pontoons at 11 weeks and bounced them up and down to make sure he got used to movement from an early age and now he doesn't even notice it - he usually sleeps in the wheelhouse when underway after a first 10 minutes or so of checking out the scenery etc. ....'ie. what's out there, what's that smell, have I missed something?'

He always wears a lifejacket when under way but fortunately we've never had to try and lift him out wringing wet! - I reckon it might take both of us out on the bathing platform with all our strength!

The only time he has been sick is when he ate some rotten seaweed on the beach before we could stop him and as stated above we hosed the cockpit out so not a real problem (easier than at home!)

 

[Guest]

Do it! I,ve got a 7 year old dog and been living on board full time for 4 years and he loves it. The only draw back I,ve had is hairs blocking my bilge pump filter. So it makes me keep a cleaner bilge! I,ve met a lot of people crusing with dogs of all shapes and sizes. I think the advantges well out weigh the disadvantages. Where I,m wintering in Greece 5 boat out of the 12 staying have dogs.

 

[Guest]

Took our Old Eglish Sheepdog onboard a catamaran. Plenty of room and he loved it. The paws did tend to scatch the gel coat, when he was looking for balance/traction.
On one occasion we were unable to get ashore for 24 hours. The dog jumped on deck and relieved himself against the mast. Well I suppose it bears more than a passing similarity to a tree!

 

[Guest]

What about cats

Any advice on sailing with a couple of cats...??

 

[bob_tyler]

Re: What about cats

I don't know about cats on board but I was anchored off East Head in Chichester Harbour while a family were rowing ashore in a dinghy. There cat was looking like a figurehead and about 50 yards off shore jumped in. It reached the shore OK. Until then I had thought that cats couldn't swim!

 

[Guest]

We sail with two dogs on a 29 footer.

Although they are of mixed parentage, they are both labrador sized. Both are also rescue dogs who weren't introduced to sailing until they were 3/4 years old.

They both seem to enjoy it (they haven't said otherwise!), one being happy to sit in the cockpit or down below, the other liking to patrol round the deck when moored.

The only drawback is that it does restrict where we go, in and out of an inflatable when anchored being too much of a trial, and rafting also has its problems. We do therefore tend to swell the coffers of the marinas - a price we are prepared to pay to have them with us.

 

[Guest]

I have always thought that dogs never look really happy on boats. They seem to suffer it because their owners say they have to. Just see how excited they get when they realise that they are about to reach land! I was in Weymouth the other day and a 'boat-dog' crossed several boats to poo on the teak deck of another boat on its maiden voyage! It was not really the border collies fault. It would just rather have been running round in a large field.

 

[Grehan]

Woof woof

Our 2+ year old labrador Chloe loves yachting. Bouncy pontoons get her a bit excited, but she mastered leaping up onto deck from the pontoon, via under the guard rails, after two goes. Quite amazing.

She's not keen on the actual process of travelling through bumpy water, but settles down under the saloon table and tries to sleep. No real complaints and she's not (yet) been sick - but of course all dogs especially labradors seem to like eating grass and then throwing it all up. When we're moored she loves sitting up on deck and checking out what's going on around her.

Claws on polished surfaces . . they do scratch a bit, but hey, what's more important? Yes, and we do have to impose a regular 'clean the hairs from the cockpit scuppers' policy. And we make big efforts to make sure she doesn't have to learn unusually extended bladder control. It's a small price to pay.

In spite of all this positive comment and plenty of fun with her (we hoist her in and out of the dinghy using our davits and her lifejacket's handles . . ) I would not impose a long trip on her - fun neither for her, nor us, I very strongly suspect.

 

[byron]

Re: What about cats

Not advice but an anecdote. I was in Bolougne a couple of years back moored bow to bow with a Dutch Ketch. It was a blazing hot day and I heard this weeping and wailing from the Ketch, the lady was truly upset because her two cats were missing. We organised a search party and hunted for hours around the marina to no avail. Eventually everyone gave up and went back to their boats leaving this poor distraught women to her tears. It was time for my afternoon nap so I stripped off and went to lay on my bunk in my back cabin only to find the cats sound asleep there. Anyways, these bloody cats refused to go home until the evening when it was cooler and after that came over to my boat every day as soon as it got hot. My aft cabin being nice and cool on hot days.

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[Guest]

Well, not so much advice as an anecdote.

In our harbour, we have a dog (Pollo) that once was a stray in either Western Sahara or Cap Verde. He's about the size of a big Jack Russell.

One of the guys from the harbour was crewing a 60' copy of a polynesian double-canoe (a kind of archetypal catamaran) from Denmark to Tahiti. In Gran Canaria, he agreed to look after Pollo for a few days for his owners - two spanish guys on another boat. They never came back to pick him up.

Pollo sailed all the way to Tahiti on Aramoana. I've had him on board several times, and you'd think he was a good seaman: he gets very excited when he realises we're on our way out, but within an hour or so he gets very green about the gills and curls up at the foot of the mast, down below, and stays that way for more than a day - seasick?

He'll 'hold himself' for a long time when out, but if you get a bit of rag or some toilet paper and throw it on deck, he'll gladly relieve himself - but almost never without.

Another dog in the harbour insists upon getting up in the bows and barking at the waves - and other boats - when it's a bit rough!

Lost in Denmark - a yachtsmans paradise!

 

[ArthurWood]

Byron - they're OK if you can put up with their smell. Haven't you noticed how boats with dogs aboard stink of..... dog. It must be very unhygienic in a confined space, too. And how some of those sailors like to leave their dogs aboard to bark their heads off whilst they are away boozing or whatever. Bah, humbug!

 

[Guest]

http://www2.hdo.com/archtours/miami/Miami_02_19_2001_2_22_2001/miami_02_22_2001/Dsc00005.jpg


the above link is to a picture of my dog on my boat.

She is a Belgian Barge dog, bred, I've been told, as companions for the captains on the barges in Belgium. I've also been told that they are good "rat" dogs. They are also refered to as "devil dogs".

I have two boats, a 10 ft paddle boat, which she loves to stand on the deck and look into the water, but seldom will she jump off. Usually she falls off.

Onboard my other boat, a 49 ft Hinckley Center Cockpit, she is fine as well. She only complains when left alone. if she is down below and we all go topside, she barks to be a part of the group. Same for the opposite. if we leave her topside, she will run around on deck for a while, then start yelping for someone to come get her and bring her down below.

As for bladder control, she usually waits until I tender her to shore. She hasn't been perfect and unfortunately has a favorite spot on the galley runner ($1,000.00 persian).

She also loves to ride in my car and she's great in my plane too. When Flying, she just sits in the back seat and knows that she can not be on my lap until the wheels touch the ground. Amazingly, within a few seconds after the wheels are on the runway, she's found my lap.

I mention the latter simply to illustrate how smart she seems to be.

I am happy to have my dog onboard, and aside for the few times I've had to change socks because I stepped in "her" spot on the runner, or had to drag myself out of bed to take her ashore, I have no complaints.

Once ashore, I've found American restaruants to be far more restrictive than european restaurants. Many, if not most, don't allow us in with our dog, unless we sit on the terrace, which is not a problem with us. But not being able to eat in most restaruants can be a bother, if one cannot find a restaurant in town that WILL allow a dog, and our Schipperke would be a bad dog if left alone onboard. she'd bark for hours.

I did see another Schipperke in Southwest Harbor, Maine, onboard a Grand Banks 42 this summer (2001) and the owners never (or rarely) took her ashore. She used the deck and they hosed it down. So, I suppose if properly trained, a Schipperke might not bark when left alone.

Long monologue to suggest that I'd rather HAVE a dog onboard than not and highly recommend it.

good Luck,
Bob

 

[J_Priedkalns]

We have a Portuguese water dog named Radar that seems to be the perfect companion on a boat. He loves the water, is a powerfull swimmer and a perfect guard dog when you are away from your boat. He is also non shedding which make it easier for visiting friends with allergy problems and the boat does not have a lived in "dog" smell. He barks once when he has to pee and twice if he has to poop! Back in the old fishing days, the Portuguese fishermen used to pay these dogs a daily wage as they were considered working dogs on fishing boats retrieving nets, gear and fish. Radar has not lost some of these abilities, but will not swim under water as they are supposed to do; he does not like to get his head wet!!!