Large Dog

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shewitt

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We have just changed our boat from a Twister 28 to a Sigma 41. Our problem is tht now with a very much higher free board and no boarding platform we are going to find it difficult to board our Golden Retriever from the dinghy. He very much likes sailing and is always amicable in allowing us to get him aboard. We wondered if there are any other sailors who have overcome the same problem and could share their ideas with us. We wondered if there is a suitable lifting harness on the market that would not hurt him if we hoisted him from the dinghy to the yacht??

Thanks in advance,

Wayne and Sue Hewitt - Alpha IV
 
Our dog is some 20Kg (a bit smaller than a lab) and I find that the Crewsaver Pet Buoyancy Aid which has a handle on the dog's back and three broad straps under the dog enables me to carry her (a bit like a brief case really) safely. My vet says this should not injure her at all.
Hope this helps
 
Somewhere in my photograph collection there is one of an Airedale dog belonging to a friend of mine being hoisted up the wall at Portpatrick. It was low tide at the time, so the hoist was probably 5 or 6 metres. This young dog was not exactly happy with the process but submitted to it on many occasions. It was in a harness that as far as I remember was very similar to the Crewsaver one.
 
I was at the Portsoy traditional boat festival last year and there was a guy who had a fairly large dog in one of these boyancy thingys. He was on a motor sailer, and when the tide was out, he was going to get his dog ashore. I was on the peir, and gave him a hoist, while he stayed on board to guide the dog from below.

We probably lifted it up 6 to 8 feet, and the dog was perfectly happy. I think it had done this a few times, as it just hung in the harness and waited.

Hope this helps.

Jim
 
ditto

our boxer looks a bit confused when we lift her by the handle on the back of her lifejacket but she seems no worse for wear.
my sister used to carry hers around her neck with a pair of feet in each hand.
 
We have two, each of whom wear a crewsaver buoyancy aid. We regularly yank them aboard using the carrying handles on the back and have had no complaints from either! (indeed, the smaller one once came back on board on the end of a boat hook after he lost his footing off Harwich and went O/B)
 
Re: ditto

My Boxer was quite happy with same, in fact I think she showed off wearing it whenever on pontoons. I had written on the side of the buoyancy aid "D/T Yacht ......" for Dog To as one does on a dinghy T/T yacht......."
 
Woof woof

Well just to add to the merriment.

Our labrador also gets hoisted up (and down) using her buoyancy aid and our davits. From a initial attitude of bewildered not-being-hugely-happy but putting up with it, she now knows exactly what's happening and seems to think it's just part of the fun.
Going down = going for a spin in the dinghy* and then a walk.
Going up = getting on board = sitting on the aft deck watching the world go by.

Fun, fun, fun - it's a labrador thing.

* the thing she doesn't like, is sitting still so as not to rock it, with her bum down in the water shipped into the bottom of the dinghy. Well, do you?
 
And more!
My Spaniel jumps straight into the dingy no messing,
when its time to board again she reaches up the side until her paw
go's over the toe rail, quite a stretch for her, then proceeds to
literally walk up the side, this is even after having a hip removed!!

regards mike
 
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