Dogs Below Deck

[Ocean Girl]

Boats with quarter berths usually can help the big dog maneuver up the companionway by breaking up the journey into two steps. Jumping up into the berth, then getting a foot up into the companionway ladder/opening.( not always, but a good start)

[Teeto]

I think a boat dog needs to be liftable (in a life jacket with handle) by one hand. So 40lbs or thereabouts max. A catamaran is heaps easier.


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[JK n Smitty]

Originally Posted by Teeto

I think a boat dog needs to be liftable (in a life jacket with handle) by one hand. So 40lbs or thereabouts max. A catamaran is heaps easier.


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You could also get a monohull with a walk through transom. That makes it a boat-load easier to get dogs or anything else on board without too much lifting.

[19 and counting]

Originally Posted by JK n Smitty

You could also get a monohull with a walk through transom. That makes it a boat-load easier to get dogs or anything else on board without too much lifting.

Lifting a 65 pound pitbull down a 5 ft. ladder off the stern was no joke, esp the time my husband fell and we had to load the dog to get to the dingy to get to shore and the truck to go to hospital. That's about when we decided we were too old or bored with the added chore of the dog onboard. When she religiously peed on the bow the pee would run down the scuppers and then drain right over our open head window, or worse, we would forget and leave the port over the bed open. (we installed window awnings but they did no good) This was full time liveaboarding, not just weekend fun for us. Our best cruising dog was a 40 pound mutt named Taco and the kids loved him so much, he slept in the foot of my little girl's sleeping bag every night. Then the dog was worth it, now with just the two of us, not so much. Where we live you can't go to a restaurant with a dog, you can't do anything without a leash on. Better off in the backyard I say. People often try to make a boat a house but boats are not houses and need to be respected for the life they do bring to your table. All the doilies and framed photos and plants stay ashore.
We took our first cruise to Cabo on a Tartan 30 in 1980 with our 5 year old son, no harbor there then. Dog entered picture in about 89 and was perfect but would not EVER go onboard, hence the little late night runs to the nearest land. The poor dog suffered on overnighters without land. Next we had a chihuahua, a mutt 40 pounds, and a pitbull. I am so over dogs on the boat! When you visit a foreign country you have friends on other boats watch your dog so you can do some onland travel...is that fair to anyone? It's hard enough to keep the boat clean without the dog hair and dirty feet (used to dunk paws before going aboard, pissed off the dogs a lot) This marine swap meet I am selling 3 dog life vests with no intention of ever having a dog onboard again. I love dogs but simple pictures are best.

[hellosailor]

Liftable with one hand is arm candy, not a boat dog.

The French or Italians conducted some tests, one Newfoundland can tow a life boat with some 20 people onboard. And Newfs have been working as water rescue dogs for a couple of hundred years, typically carried on boats to carry a line to the shore so victims of a shipwreck didn't have to swim to get ashore afterwards. Also used to haul nets, and carts. And fetch stray swimmers.

I can tell you from experience, one Newfoundland dog, requiring two hands and a strong back to be moved at all, can forcibly pull two grown men out of the ocean and above the high tide line, despite all the digging in and pulling back that you might try to do.

No forty pound hood ornament can do that.

[19 and counting]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

Liftable with one hand is arm candy, not a boat dog.

The French or Italians conducted some tests, one Newfoundland can tow a life boat with some 20 people onboard. And Newfs have been working as water rescue dogs for a couple of hundred years, typically carried on boats to carry a line to the shore so victims of a shipwreck didn't have to swim to get ashore afterwards. Also used to haul nets, and carts. And fetch stray swimmers.

I can tell you from experience, one Newfoundland dog, requiring two hands and a strong back to be moved at all, can forcibly pull two grown men out of the ocean and above the high tide line, despite all the digging in and pulling back that you might try to do.

No forty pound hood ornament can do that.

Can you imagine how much dog food you would need to feed two Newfoundlands stored onboard? In the rare event you need to drag two grown men to shore...

[hellosailor]

"Can you imagine how much dog food you would need "
Not much, actually. They are fairly sedentary dogs by nature ("Boss, you just threw away a perfectly good ball") and a twenty pound sack of dog chow can easily last two weeks. But they also will eat anything the rest of the crew will, so you're basically just carrying one more crew.