How do you make your Sea Rays Dog Friendly?

[320Bob]

One of the reasons my wife and I traded up to a bigger boat was to have more room for the puppies pictured below. I know the life jackets are a bit over the edge but my wife made me do it.:smt021 So what are the do's and don'ts of boating with our four-footed friends?

 

[VTSeaRay]

I was a little leary about this, until this summer, we took my ex-gf's Australian shepherd out on the boat, we got into some huge 4'+ waves at one point, that made her a little nervous, but for the most part, once we got out of those, she seemed to love it. Previously, if we left her on shore, she'd run up /down the shoreline following us as much as she could, which isn't good. We also put on her life jacket, because she's not a strong swimmer in the water. She likes to get in it, up to her shoulders, and will play a little, but she's nothing like our friend's yellow lab, he does 12-15' jumps off the end of the dock chasing the throw device he has, and will do it, until he can't hardly breathe anymore.

This is just on a 21' Select, so others that take their dogs with them on overnighters can talk to that.

 

[Lazy Daze]

I love taking our Yellow Lab. He acts like VT mentioned above - total water hog; can't keep him out. But, that's part of the problem - he has a hard time settling down inside the boat. He well trained and all, but I just have not been too successful at keeping him calm on the boat, so unfortunately we don't take him as much.

Keep their nails trimmed - blunt - no sharp edges. A Dremel "drum sanding" attachment works great!

In lieu of that, you can get little booties at places like Cabela's that velcro above their wrist.

Make sure to find spots where they can get ashore to go potty - keeping in mind you may have to swim there yourself to clean up.

Getting them back in the boat can be challenging, depending on size and the dog's ability. You can buy doggie boarding ladders. I've been experimenting with making one - a little lengthy to explain for this post, but you can probably figure it out. Usually we have to hold his collar to keep him from falling backwards as he climbs the ladder.

Once, we let him swim around while we were sitting in the boat - all of sudden we didn't hear him and looked back to see him standing on the sunpad (bowrider)... wagging his tail... I swear to this day he was grinning ear to ear as if to say "Look at what I did!"

 

[skibum]

Getting them back in the boat can be challenging, depending on size and the dog's ability. You can buy doggie boarding ladders. I've been experimenting with making one - a little lengthy to explain for this post, but you can probably figure it out. Usually we have to hold his collar to keep him from falling backwards as he climbs the ladder.

One of the guys at our marina has a really cool black Labradoodle named Duke that swims like crazy. When Duke wants to get back in the boat, he just swims up to the platform, and Craig grabs him by the scruff of the neck and pulls him up. Just like his momma. Duke weighs about 60lbs.

 

[The Bill Collector]

Odie, our Welsh Pembroke Corgi is first mate, chief cook and bottle washer (licker).... He is a pleasure to have on board and we do not go anywhere on the water without him. He has a bladder made of steel and can hold for up to 10 hours (far longer then me). He generally falls asleep while under way at my feet at the helm. He interacts with other humans and dogs very well and is always the center of attention wherever we go.... He won a Blue Ribbon for obedience at a dog show and listens to commands well off or on leash.

 

[320Bob]

Odie, our Welsh Pembroke Corgi is first mate, chief cook and bottle washer (licker).... He is a pleasure to have on board and we do not go anywhere on the water without him. He has a bladder made of steel and can hold for up to 10 hours (far longer then me). He generally falls asleep while under way at my feet at the helm. He interacts with other humans and dogs very well and is always the center of attention wherever we go.... He won a Blue Ribbon for obedience at a dog show and listens to commands well off or on leash.

As you may have noticed from the picture, we have "Corgies in Common." Max is very much like Odie but we have yet to take him on a boat. My specific concern is he is a 150 lb dog in a 35 lb body and has no fear. As a result I am a little leary of him wanting to do a header off the swim platform never having demonstrated that he can swim, thus the life jacket. Has your Odie ever jumped off the boat on his own?

 

[The Bill Collector]

As you may have noticed from the picture, we have "Corgies in Common." Max is very much like Odie but we have yet to take him on a boat. My specific concern is he is a 150 lb dog in a 35 lb body and has no fear. As a result I am a little leary of him wanting to do a header off the swim platform never having demonstrated that he can swim, thus the life jacket. Has your Odie ever jumped off the boat on his own?

Odie can swim, but is not a fan of the water. His Mom has him in the life jacket far more often then I do. He has fallen twice jumping from the swim step to the dock, he kept his head above water and we grabbed him quickly (without vest on). I have now constructed a small boarding ramp for dogs and humans and it goes out as soon as we are tied to the dock.

We still have my first boat, a fiberform Waikiki 17' w/ 115 Johnson on it. Anyway we take it once or twice a year to Eastern Washington and boat the Columbia River. Nice temps, sandy beaches and water temp good. I started Odie on shore with vest on, treats in my hand and had him swimming out to me waist deep, he'd get a cookie and head back in... repeated several times, he finally figured out that with vest on it was pretty easy hang out with Dad and get cookies. we went back into shore and took vest off. I went back out waist deep and on command Odie came out (no vest on) and got his cookie, headed back to shore, again repeated until he (and his Mom) were comfortable with water under him. We don't worry near as much and he has never on purpose jumped into the water without command (and cookies).

 

[Four Suns]

I have found that the one piece of equipment for a dog on board is a harness. If you ever have had a dog fall off the dock or off the boat, you quickly discover they don't have handles. I could tell you some stories about this (they are in my book) but if our dogs are near the dock or water, they have to have a harness on. Lifejackets have handles so they work fine... but the harness is always on regardless. Trying to lift 80+ pounds of wet dog up without a handle is very difficult...

 

[chuck1]

.... I could tell you some stories about this (they are in my book) .....

There you go with that book again. I'm still waiting for my copy:lol::smt043:lol:

 

[tdappleman]

Mine loves the boat - doesn't like the water much so don't have to worry about him jumping over the side. He settles down on the boat pretty well - biggest problem is he likes to lay down under my feet at the helm. I second keeping the nails trimmed!

 

[Jack F]

I leave the dog at home, that's how.

 

[The Bill Collector]

Mine loves the boat - doesn't like the water much so don't have to worry about him jumping over the side. He settles down on the boat pretty well - biggest problem is he likes to lay down under my feet at the helm. I second keeping the nails trimmed!

Must be a Dog thing.... That's my dogs favorite place, but only when I'm standing there running the boat.

 

[fwebster]

Our Bostons go with us every time the boat leaves the slip. I agree with Gary. A harness is mandatory since dogs are not built with handles. At least once a year, my youngest falls in water while "fishing" and a harness makes it easy and painless to retreive a wet dog.

 

[avguy]

We've got a lab & a collie. They can't get enough of the lake.
Life jackets for both...helps them not tire so quickly and as others said the jackets have a nice grab handle on them which does come in handy. We've also got a paws-a-board doggie ladder......they can come & go as they please. When it's really hot out make sure they have some place on the boat they can get some shade. We always have cold bottled water with us & the dogs like that too. Don't forget to take them to shore every so often so they can do their business.

 

[charlieft]

We take my grandaughter's Bichon 'Molly' everywhere with us. We always make her wear the life jacket.
She did get sea sick last 4th of july on the way back from Hyannis ... that was not fun ... the wife had to hold the bucket while trying not to loose it herself. She loves being in the cabin and visiting the beaches ;-)

 

[Four Suns]

sea sick last 4th of july on the way back from Hyannis ... that was not fun ... the wife had to hold the bucket while trying not to loose it herself. She loves being in the cabin and visiting the beaches ;-)

My dogs throw up in my deck shoes. You have to hurry and get it away from them though because when one throws up, it's like a treat and they both start licking it up.

 

[jpk33]

+1 for the puppy life jackets. Most people don't realize that a dog (who likes swimming) will swim until they so tired that they may drown! Added plus to the jackets is it creates handles on the dogs for easy retrival. We witnessed a guy with twin IB's attempt to lift his 95lb shepard that was exhausted onto the swim platform in neck deep water - the dog (now panicking) did repeated "burn-outs" on his chest (it looked like hamburger) with its nails. Luckily they both survived but I bet he was no happy to put a shirt on for the next few days! BTW - our 65lb rotwieler/pit does not LIKE the boat so he watches the house! (his loss).

 

[chuck1]

We only let the little ones on the boat. The big ones have to stay at home.

 

[Lazy Daze]

We only let the little ones on the boat. The big ones have to stay at home.

I thought this thread was about dogs... not rats!:smt001

Just kidding, Chuck - those big eyes and ears are awful cute!



On edit: My wife said that was mean. She said I should apologize. I'm sorry, Chuck. I really do think they're cute.

 

[beerman]

Our chocolate lab is with us every weekend. We originally bought a life jacket for him but he never uses it, it is on the boat next to ours. Fortunately for us our lab is very relaxed when he is on the boat. The only time he gets excited is when we anchor in the shallow area and pull out one of his frisbees, then he knows its time to play. We also bought the Snap In carpet for the swim platform. That way when he is done playing he will swim back to the boat, I will lift him on and he lays down on the carpet in the sun until he is dry. It keeps the wet dog smell out of the rest of the boat.