GETTING YOUR DOG TO POOP & PEE ON YOUR BOAT

[guntersville]

HOW DO YOU GET CONTROL OF YOUR DOG TO PEE & POOP ON A SPECIAL PLACE & WHERE WOULD THAT PLACE BE ON YOUR BOAT. LAST TIME OUT, ONE DOG PEED ON MY SWEATSHIRT & THE OTHER DID IT IN A CORNER OF MY
COCKPIT.

[fxykty]

It’s the same as the initial potty training with a puppy - restrict their movements to a crate, use a false-grass mat (or anything else that represents the place you want them to go), allow the dog to only go in that spot, and praise and reward them extravagantly when they go in the correct place. It only takes a day or two to train the dog to use that mat even when other alternatives exist.

On our catamaran, we were easily able to train the puppies to pee and poop on the front trampolines. We foster rescue puppies from 8-20 weeks old for 6-8 weeks at a time, and have had no problems teaching them to head forward, even while sailing.

That said, if they’re sea sick all bets are off. Restrict them to your cockpit or shower or some other place where puke, pee, or poo, or all three, won’t be too messy.

Good luck!

[sailingabe41ds]

My wife is still trying to train me to put the toilet seat up, make sure I pee IN THE TOILET, and put the toilet seat back down. This applies both to the house and sailboat....and I am still learning. At least I do not get seasick.

Abe

[GreenWave]

Originally Posted by sailingabe41ds

My wife is still trying to train me to put the toilet seat up, make sure I pee IN THE TOILET, and put the toilet seat back down. This applies both to the house and sailboat.

Abe

Dogs are smarter than middle aged men.

[boatman61]

I do know one lady who tried training her dog by example.. all she achieved was a dog that was convinced she'd gone nuts.. the look on the dogs face was hysterical.

[Orion Jim]

Puppies can be trained relatively easily. Adult dogs are another matter entirely, hence the old adage “it’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks”. My mature dogs would hold it for 18 hours but I had to get them ashore. They were strictly coastal cruisers.

[Sailmonkey]

Originally Posted by boatman61

I do know one lady who tried training her dog by example.. all she achieved was a dog that was convinced she'd gone nuts.. the look on the dogs face was hysterical.

I also tried to train my schnauzer by example. He thought I had lost my marbles and I had to look at the mess I had left on the foredeck.

[manitu]

Put a piece of green astroturf on the deck, pick up some droppings when you walk the dog on land, and place it on the astroturf. Praise the dog a lot when he goes on the turf.


.manitu

[anacapaisland42]

Lab pooped on deck by head window, some went on deck, most thru window, some landed in toilet, most on wall.

She didn't even flush
Bill

DOG PEED ON MY SWEATSHIRT

[redhead]

We have a dog who was somewhere around 2-3 when we got her, so firmly trained to go on land. I tried to get her to go on a grass mat at the base of the mainmast. She occasionally would deign to pee but never poop. I exacerbated the problem by giving in and dinghy-ing into land when I couldn't stand her whines any more. This kept us in close to shore for the most part. Oh, and we liveaboard at a dock for the winters so it's easy to run up the dock a couple of times a day.

Then came a combination of illness on my part and a snowstorm/gale making it unsafe to walk on the dock. Her whines increased but there wasn't a damn thing I could do about it. Every 15 minutes or so I'd put her on deck, tell her it was OK to go and watch from the cockpit. Eventually, she went out of desperation, to extravagant praise from me.

My point being that I needed the training more than she did. I always buckled and took her to land and she (being the smarter of the two) knew it. This time, a combination of sickness and weather made me stronger and now it's a done deal.

PS- punch a hole through the corner of the grass mat and put a long piece of paracord through it. You can tie the mat to the boat so the wind doesn't take it away, and then you can dangle the mat in the water hanging onto the paracord to wash it off.

[jim King]

Getting them to use the toilet will be the easy part. teaching them to flush will take a bit longer. at least that's what my wife says of me.

[SV_Sweet_Ruca]

We have a dog on the boat and go offshore. She is old and despite all attempts she was not having the grass mat business.

She will hold it as long as possible if in sight of land, but she does give in when at sea, out of sight/smell of land.

As long as it is on fiberglass, we are good with whatever spot is chosen, but her favorite is aft on the “poop deck”.

Sounds like your sweatshirt may be the new “grass pad,” I’d run with it and tell him/great job unless young enough to potty train. Worthwhile sacrifice.

[Scubaseas]

It's highly effective to rub some other dog's pee on the astro-turf mat. I had a hard time with my old dog but using another dog's pee did the trick even when he didn't really have to go.

[Wallaby]

Leave a carpet mat (any kind) laying on the dock where other dogs pee, ideally the opposite gender to you dog. (Beware of gender dysphoric dogs) Once you have 'lift-off' move mat to your boat, where you want dog to go. Training your dog to back up to the rail and lift both hind legs to pee over the side is more difficult.

[Hudson Force]

I used rewards for performance and patience without a practice of taking our dog to shore for his needs. The training was simply to have our dog, Zorro, learn to move to the aft deck when I clapped my hands and called out, "Lido,..Lido" as a command word. At the aft deck we first kept a piece of astro turf that was a pee station conditioned to him on shore. At times, early in his training, Zorro was kept tied by his leash at the aft deck until he left a product. Zorro was a Schipperke or "Belgian Barge Dog". As a working dog breed, I'm sure the barge captains weren't stopping to walk their dogs!