Dogs onboard

[Offshore57]

It is the owner that normally needs training.

Mudisox is absolutely right on that point. We like dogs, have both had dogs in the past but now we live on board we have made the decision not to have one. However there are a lot of dogs in our marina and its the owners I get annoyed with, One lady owner actually encouraging her mutt to p##s on the pontoon, others left off the lead to wander and mess where they wanted unseen by the owner. Some owners take them up to the carpark which has now become a dog toilet, rather than take them for an actual walk.
Dogs are fine, owners not so much.

 

[Stemar]

Dogs are fine, owners not so much.

I'm not a dog owner, and never have been, but this is totally my experience.

I have met a few where the Korean solution seemed totally appropriate*, but very few. Madame is a great fan of Dogs Behaving (Very) Badly, and she regales me with tales of how hounds are transformed with a little training of the owners. As for having them aboard, if they enjoy it, fine, if not, you need another hobby or another dog


*Any ambiguity as to whether this applies to dog or owner is purely intentional...

 

[Whaup367]

..., One lady owner actually encouraging her mutt to p##s on the pontoon, ...

What's the concern about them pissing on the pontoon? Genuine question, and probably pertains to to the circumstances of some marinas; most of the ones I've seen seem to acquire guano regularly which then gets washed off by the rain & spray pretty quickly and is a lot more unpleasant on the nose and feet in the interim... the pontoons themselves seem pretty much impervious and the wee washes into the harbour/marina/bay along with the rest of the animal waste in the vicinity.

 

[Mudisox]

Any urine that is on pontoons can easily be washed off with the hoses, hopefully supplied by the marina. It just needs an owner to keep an eye on their mutt.
At a push, a bucket can collect the sea water, ...................it not exactly arduous or difficult , just needs an observant owner. It also helps to remove the previous "mark" from a previous canine that has attracted the attention of your better behaved friend.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

What's the concern about them pissing on the pontoon? Genuine question, and probably pertains to to the circumstances of some marinas; most of the ones I've seen seem to acquire guano regularly which then gets washed off by the rain & spray pretty quickly and is a lot more unpleasant on the nose and feet in the interim... the pontoons themselves seem pretty much impervious and the wee washes into the harbour/marina/bay along with the rest of the animal waste in the vicinity.

Indeed. Pee is pretty much sterile, unless you've got a very sick animal! Most of us will flush pee into a marina without pangs of conscience, and male dogs will instinctively "mark" prominent objects while being walked; it's unavoidable doggy behaviour. Non dog-owners might like to know that male dogs are often firing blanks when cocking a leg; they run out of ammunition pretty quickly! I do try and keep my two moving and distracted while on pontoons, as I recognize that non-dog-owners generally don't like such behaviour. But as @Whaup367 says, it's no worse (and perhaps better than) the deposits from seagulls; dog pee washes off, but guano doesn't, and guano probably carries more bugs than pee does; bird's excrement sort of combines pee and poo!

Incidentally, hosing down a marking place won't make much difference to dog behaviour; they can smell incredibly small traces, and merely hosing down won't remove all traces, especially on absorbent surfaces. When training puppies the usual advice is to use a biological cleaning agent and repeat it 2-3 times to eliminate enough traces of a "mark" to dissuade a dog from re-marking it.

I would certainly avoid my dogs pooing on pontoons, and would immediately clean up if there was an accident! And I religiously clean up after them when walking them. Regrettably, not all dog owners are so careful, and that gets all dogs (and their owners) a bad name.

 

[Whaup367]

Is "I don't like dogs" really a reasonable position for someone to take in the UK?

Maybe elsewhere (I don't recall where the discussion started! ) but "A nation of dog lovers"; 12 million dogs in the country; about a third of households. How could you avoid them, even if you were keen to do so?

To quote a newspaper article from a few years back: "...But in Britain, to be a dog-hater is to admit to an unforgivable perversion. There is no socially acceptable way, I have learned, to recoil in horror when someone tries to plonk their pooch on to my lap. "

More people don't drink alcohol (statista.com: 35% men 42% women) than own dogs (same source: 34%), yet it's pretty universal to assume that a bottle of wine is an acceptable small gift, usually without checking whether the receiver thinks the same way. Why is that OK but it's not OK to assume a dog is acceptable in public?

Asking for a friend (yes, she is furry, as it happens, why do you ask?)

 

[mjcoon]

Is "I don't like dogs" really a reasonable position for someone to take in the UK?

Maybe elsewhere (I don't recall where the discussion started! ) but "A nation of dog lovers"; 12 million dogs in the country; about a third of households. How could you avoid them, even if you were keen to do so?

To quote a newspaper article from a few years back: "...But in Britain, to be a dog-hater is to admit to an unforgivable perversion. There is no socially acceptable way, I have learned, to recoil in horror when someone tries to plonk their pooch on to my lap. "

More people don't drink alcohol (statista.com: 35% men 42% women) than own dogs (same source: 34%), yet it's pretty universal to assume that a bottle of wine is an acceptable small gift, usually without checking whether the receiver thinks the same way. Why is that OK but it's not OK to assume a dog is acceptable in public?

Asking for a friend (yes, she is furry, as it happens, why do you ask?)

For starters, a bottle of wine is innocuous unless opened, and can be passed on acceptably unless kept too long. Similarly, pop music is assumed to be universal so one can be subjected to it without apology...

 

[KeithMD]

For starters, a bottle of wine is innocuous unless opened,

some say it only gets dangerous after it's been opened.

 

[Luminescent]

Indeed. Pee is pretty much sterile, unless you've got a very sick animal!

Pee is not sterile... not even "pretty much sterile". This is a myth. Unfortunately there are a lot of people that think you should use urine for certain first aid applications, because "it's pretty much sterile"... it's got about as much basis is reality as leeches curing the plague.

 

[ashtead]

Haslar marina supply buckets and brooms for slightly more serious issues deposited on the pontoon . I believe certain actresses used to drink their urine .

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Haslar marina supply buckets and brooms for slightly more serious issues deposited on the pontoon . I believe certain actresses used to drink their urine .

Remind me not to kiss an actress!

More seriously, most dog owners carry disposal bags for "serious issues".

 

[NormanS]

Remind me not to kiss an actress!

More seriously, most dog owners carry disposal bags for "serious issues".

Yes, they do. And having undertaken the not very pleasant task of bagging their dog's excrement, a worrying proportion of said owners are so proud of their public spiritedness, that they then find a handy fence or branch of a tree on which to hang the bag. What's that all about?

 

[ashtead]

So it dries in the sun?

 

[jamie N]

I find myself gazing at people following their 4 legged toy around, picking up its shit, and can't feeling that Darwin would view it thus:

 

[mjcoon]

So it dries in the sun?

Not in a plastic bag presumably formulated to retain the smell...

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Yes, they do. And having undertaken the not very pleasant task of bagging their dog's excrement, a worrying proportion of said owners are so proud of their public spiritedness, that they then find a handy fence or branch of a tree on which to hang the bag. What's that all about?

Lack of disposal facilities, I think. But I don't understand it either.

 

[mjcoon]

Lack of disposal facilities, I think. But I don't understand it either.

Plus unwillingness to carry the disgusting item even a short distance. But surely dogs love carrying things? Maybe have to put the bag in a ball...

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Plus unwillingness to carry the disgusting item even a short distance. But surely dogs love carrying things? Maybe have to put the bag in a ball...

Once the poo is bagged, it is not particularly disgusting, and you can even buy pleasantly scented bags - but as the bags are impermeable, there's no odour. As I have two dogs, I frequently use a bag for the first to perform and then keep it until the other performs, only looking to dispose of it once both have done their business. There's no unpleasantness involved; indeed in cold weather, the warmth might even be welcome Like others, I simply can't comprehend why a few people bag their dog's poo and then hang it in a tree!

Anyone with children has coped with much nastier messes when the children were babies!

 

[Buck Turgidson]

As a teenager learning to fly I also learned to hate dogs. The chief instructor used to bring his lab flying whenever he was instructing and it was docile for most of the flight but would sit up and start licking my ear on final approach! Pretty sure he had trained it to do it but by god it was annoying.

 

[Buck Turgidson]

Once the poo is bagged, it is not particularly disgusting, and you can even buy pleasantly scented bags - but as the bags are impermeable, there's no odour. As I have two dogs, I frequently use a bag for the first to perform and then keep it until the other performs, only looking to dispose of it once both have done their business. There's no unpleasantness involved; indeed in cold weather, the warmth might even be welcome Like others, I simply can't comprehend why a few people bag their dog's poo and then hang it in a tree!

Anyone with children has coped with much nastier messes when the children were babies!

Picking up animal faeces is never something a sane human should do. Even worse to put it in a non permeable (read non biodegradable) plastic bag so it can be buried in its own ecosystem for eternity! Madness.