Dogs first trip

F

firecadet613

Well-Known Member
May 10, 2007
5,253
Indiana
Boat Info
SOLD - 2007 Four Winns V358
Engines
Twin VP 5.7GXi V-Drive / ZF63s
We are tempted to take our 5 year old Jack Russell on the boat with us this weekend.

I picked up a life jacket for her this morning...but really do not know what to expect.

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We keep our boat on the trailer, but will have a slip this weekend which will help.

I'd say she is a more hyper type of JRT which has me a bit concerned. She does travel real well in the car though.

Any tips/tricks would be appriciated. She's not a big fan of the water and hates baths...but I've never tried to see if she'll swim.
 
I have a shiba inu that has spent many nights on the boat with me. He's adjusted well to being on the boat and loves the food dispensing toys. They're more like a 'puzzle' that keeps him busy instead of being bored. It might be something to try... Good luck !
 
Great a Shiba Inu! My wife wants that as our next dog...she had one when she was real little and has great memories of it. She has one of those Kong toys...its the only toy that lasts with her. I will have to pick up some other versions and try the food in them to keep her busy!
 
We take our Shih Tzu on the boat. The first time he was not sure what this thing (boat) was but now he is used to it. Just lays around, not hyper or nervous at all.
 
We take our dog with us all the time, he is a small dog also, havanese/maltese mix. The only time he has trouble is when we are in big waves for a long period then we give him a quarter of a dramaine pill which calms him down.
 
We take the lopsided A$$hole (Lhasa Apso) and the Golden Retriever on the boat all the time. They love it and can't wait to get on boat. The Golden loves swimming and the Lhaso just sleeps until it's time to eat. Make sure they get their potty breaks and you're fine!
 
The first time I took my JRT on the boat he jumped overboard when I was looking the other way. He was a "nutcase" at times. After that I kept him on a leash and kept him secured to something or held the leash. After 2-3 years he calmed down and got used to the boat.
 
For the first time I would say start the boat and let it idle for 15 min. so she gets used to that noise first, then go at slow speed only for a while. The idea is to not scare her by doing too many new things fast. Also don't make a big deal out of it or be nervous....they will pick-up on your vibes. Ric
 
We have an 8 year old JRT that LOVES the water and the boat. We started taking her out at 10 weeks. She starts going crazy when I pack the truck on the weekends to head to the lake. The whining starts about two miles from the marina as she recognizes the turn off. Once on the boat all she wants to do is "play ball" which consists of throwing a floating ball as far as I can off the back of the boat, she launches on a run and flies about ten feet off the swim platform, crashes in water and swims out to retrieve the ball. We do this over and over and over until I get tired and hide the ball.
 
Offduty how old was he when you first took him on the boat?

Jim I have a feeling after she gets used to it she will love it!
 
I take my pit on the boat all the time. He seems to like the boat, but he never wants to go in the water. He's a big wuss in that regard. Like others have mentioned, start slow and work up to speed and see how they adjust.

Doug
 
Our Australian Shepherd is almost 11 years old, and only goes in the water up to her shoulders. Our friend's Yellow lab teases her to get in further, and she only takes so much from him, when she snaps at him to leave her alone. The yellow lab is one of those "jump off the dock for 12-15' chasing a throw toy that's as far out as we can throw it, till he drops dog". It's also good training for fall duck season where he does his real job.

We took the Aussie on her first boat outing last year. Prior to this, we left her on shore, and she'd go ape on us, running for a mile up and down the shore trying to follow us on the lake. When we took her out, first thing we did was just let her get on the boat and get comfortable with it, then we slowly added other things like others have said, just take it slow and add things and they should settle in with it. This year, she got on, and was waiting for us to join her. - once this year, it was very high waves (whitecaps), so we decided to leave her with the 20-something kids... she went ape on them, and took off down the main road(50mph std 2 lane road) looking for us almost getting hit by a couple cars. Luckily, one stopped and grabbed her when he saw the kids chasing to catch her.

-VtSeaRay
 
Do you guys have a small crate you keep on board? What do you do when you go on shore to say a restuarant or such for a bit....
 
You'll think us crazy, but it's not usual for us to have four miniature schnauzers and one Rhodesian Ridgback-German Shepherd mix on our boat at one time. Two of the schnauzers belong to my daughter, two of them belong to my wife and me, and the RR-GS mix belongs to my son. Yes, it's gets a little loud when they all get on the boat. I hightail it out of the slip to give my dockmates some peace, but when we start moving, they all calm down. Two of the schnauzers and the RR-GS mix will come swim with us, but none want to jump into the water on their own. For the most part, they just lay around the cockpit area or down in the cabin.
 
I don't trust her that much! Although she doesn't chew that much anymore...she was fairly bad as a puppy. A friend had his two big dogs on board and they TORE up his cabin...he had to get all the vinyl redone.

I found this....

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which would be perfect to keep on board as it folds up and would be good enough for a few hours...but they only carry the medium size in the stores which is HUGE!

So we may settle with this and just break it down to store it when we aren't using it.

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Scratch that....wife just reminded me this is THE dog that chewed through our chain link fence to get a rabbit!

Hard one it is.
 
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