Keeping dogs butt off dinghy floor after a rainfall

[boatman61]

Get her a Doggie raincoat and encourage her/him to lean on the bow tube rather than sit.

[Bill O]

Good idea butt you need one that covers the rear also!

[amandak]

Originally Posted by Inkog

I was going to recommend a small wooden pallet until I got to the no wood part... Go to the hardware store and pickup a reject composite deck board from the clearance pile and make a little pallet for her. Swamp as$ does suck

..or could shave her

ha ha ... oh my. what a haircut!! i may have to suck it up and use wood. i created a platform out of wood and it got so water logged (rains a lot in Vancouver) it ended up not working very well. thanks!

[amandak]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Get her a Doggie raincoat and encourage her/him to lean on the bow tube rather than sit.

good thought, but she's about 130lbs of dog/hair and sitting on the tube would be difficult (I am rowing). also, i think if she got confident enough to sit on the tube she may eventually realize she could jump in the water... that would be a whole 'nother problem. As a Newf she would much rather swim beside me than in the boat with me ! I have had loads of people joke that she should have a harness attached to the dinghy so she can tow me...

[bellasailor]

Cheap but cheerful, could you just get her to sit on one of these, big enough to line up the side of the tubes? https://www.amazon.co.uk/Waterproof-.../dp/B003Z2NHXM

Or sit in something like this (the size needed for her butt when upright, not the size she'd need to lay/sleep in!) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Plastic-Hea...a-865647630197

[David M]

Great title...caught my attention.

[taxwizz]

Why not just shave the dog's butt?

[amandak]

Originally Posted by john61ct

Got enough power to run a hair drier?

ha ha ... nope, that would solve everything for sure!

[taxwizz]

Verrrry carefully, of course
Hahahahhahaaa

Originally Posted by taxwizz

Why not just shave the dog's butt?

[amandak]

Originally Posted by Bill O

Simple solution is to bail out the dink before the dog gets in. Don't describe your dink (hard/inflatable), but we can get our hard dink (similar to a RIB) very dry w/a plastic bailer (scoop) and a sponge to get the last bit of water out.
If you get a lot of rain then sometimes we use a small pump like this one to get the majority of the water out and would also work for inflatables.


Bill O.

Yes, definitely bailing out the dinghy every morning . The floor has a slat then a gap, slat then a gap etc. - the water fills up the gaps and bailing those is pretty impossible. I sop up the water using paper towel, but that's getting pretty expensive. There are 2 possible solutions 1) buy a new dinghy (which I may end up doing!) or 2) find some kind of a surface she can sit on that offers some solid air space between her and the slatted floor (imagine a dinghy floor covered in 'milk cartons'... .

[amandak]

Originally Posted by bellasailor

Cheap but cheerful, could you just get her to sit on one of these, big enough to line up the side of the tubes? https://www.amazon.co.uk/Waterproof-.../dp/B003Z2NHXM

Or sit in something like this (the size needed for her butt when upright, not the size she'd need to lay/sleep in!) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Plastic-Hea...a-865647630197

Those are both amazing ideas!! I think a combination of the 2 might be good. Thank you.

[Macblaze]

I'm still stuck on a Newfoundlander on a 28' boat. Do you fight over the vberth?

[Cheechako]

Dri Dek is a nice product for some things, but very slippery (it slides on the floor) and it only gives you maybe 1/2" off the bottom. I had it on the cockpit floor of a boat many years ago. When the boat heels you fall on your butt.
Why don't you empty your dingy before using it? Is there a low point in the rear of the dingy? get one of those small hand bilge pumps that are tubular, get in the dingy and the water flows to the back to pump it out.

[thruska]

When our large standard poodles rode in dinghy, they wanted to park there butts on the tubes. We felt that looked a bit precarious at times during rougher conditions. In rainy weather they went under the bow skirt.
I suggest an easy fix for you, simply cut down a plastic milk crate or two or more, tie strap them together. You can get more depth like one or two inches instead of 1/2 or 9/16 which doesn’t seem like enough for the ideal situation.
I used milk crates for lp cyls on deck or cockpit ( no rust)( if your tanks are coated ) .
Also in dinghy they are great for storage as see thru boxes that stay dry , for pfds, pumps , lines. Put a throwcushion on open top and you have a comfortable portable seat.
Another possibility is to scrounge up recycled plastic wood from somebody’s deck project.
I did and rebedded dog / human loading platform on transom. Cuts like wood , sands , likes ss or brass screws , and will work with epoxy

[Cheechako]

I see you are in the Pac NW, Another option is to buy 1 x 2 cedar wood and make your own grate . These measure about .75 x 1.5. If you criss cross them they make 1.5" height and are weather proof. On the boat I mentioned above with the slippery Dri Dek, I did this after the Dri Dek trial in the cockpit and it worked well.
Just make a rectangle and trim the outside to fit after.
You could do the same thing with that plastic lattice they sell over 2 x 2's