Boat Dog Breeds

[watermusic 1]

We have a poodle cross shitzu from a pound and he is awesome great temperament and well behaved, I wouldn't get any sort of hound need such as beagles as the can't help but follow their noses and you'll end up chasing them around every port! Great if you want the exercise though

[Georgiegirl]

Friends of ours have sailed for years with a welsh border collie, 15 pounds is as much as you can lift with one hand from the dinghy to the deck. Their current dog Tess, has sailed with them all round Britain twice, the Baltic and back again. She is much loved by all who see's her and she's quick drying as well with no wet dog smell.

[DoubleWhisky]

For quite a long time we sailed with our two Chihuahuas. Now we do have three of them. They are great small boat dogs, but about it later, in another post. Some time ago we decided to have a big dog also, as we were moving to the new home outside the city. After a lot of research (we needed a fine guard dog, fine family dog and fine boat dog in one!) we decided to go for Black Russian Terrier. Never regretted this decision!

The breed is sometime known as “Stalin’s dog”, because the breed was created on personal order of Stalin to obtain the world’s best service dog for the Red Army. Best or not for the army, BRT are really fantastic. Extremely intelligent, learning fast, bold, strong, unbelievably joyful and friendly. They have great attitude and are extremely patient towards children. On the other hand they are quite reserved to strangers. You need to introduce the new people to BRT. They are service dogs (still the main breed of dogs for Spetznaz forces) and do need thorough training. And Russians often call them Black Lightning or simply Black Death for a reason. But do not be scared! They are very, very well trainable, much better than any of main breeds used in program.

The Russians used at least 14 different breeds to create BRT, but the four formed a backbone of the breeding program: Giant Schnautzer, Airedale Terrier, Rottweiler and Moscow Water Dog.
Moscow Water Dog was itself new breed – cross of Newfoundland, Caucasian Shepherd, and East European Shepherd. After Newfoundland BRT inherited pawn webbing. They are great swimmers and love to play in the water.

When our Maurycy was five months old we took him sailing for the first time. For the first three days he was watching us closely, observing how we do move around the boat, which ways we use, which we avoid. For the next two or three days he just followed our steps. It took a week for him to start moving around independently, but he do it only when we are anchored or moored. While underway he just accompany us in the cockpit (taking the leeward side of cockpit floor, between table and bench). He never ventured to the deck when underway, even to follow us and we never encouraged him to do so.
Maurycy, as any BRT need regular exercise, but not long walking. Two half hour walks a day are perfectly good for him, but he need also some time for playing with us and the ball is the favourite toy.
The funniest thing is that one of our female Chihuahuas is still the dog pack leader, and Maurycy is completely submissive to her (and to other two, in the matter of fact)




Some photos of Maurycy first time on boat You can also find here:

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...lbums3522.html

Just remember he was only a puppy at the time...

Best regards to all dog lovers on CF

[mgstich]

This is Captain. She is a 35 pound English Shepherd and she loves the water.

Eventually we will all live on our catamaran where squirrels can no longer torment her.