How to boat break a beagle

[oleman]

Good luck!
Beagles; I like but I have only been successful at teaching them to chase animals and dig holes.

[Dougtiff]

A Vet told me that a Dog will go eventually, and can hold for a number of day's without impacting there health, so on a long voyage, it will finaly happen, i do like the idea of training them to go on some Astro turf, and the idea of getting another Dog to pee on it is a great idea.

[IslandInfedel]

I have a shepherd, I agree with the others, get the turf on the pan type deal that’s made for this, you can tie a line to it and toss it over the side to clean as well.

On thing that helped me, I put the pad on some grass my dog would normally pee on, helped him understand that this wasn’t carpet or something he would get in trouble for going on.

Gong overboard, think of them as slightly more agile and more common sensed 6yr olds.

If the day time seas gets too bumpy, or for all nighttime, outside of being at a quite anchor, the dog goes below decks, my dog also knows that when the boat is underway he isn’t to leave the cockpit.


*I know nothing of beagles

[alansmith]

I had several beagles. All I can is good luck to ya mate. They are mile headed stubborn dogs that all senses are connected to their nose. Loved them but once I went to a German shepherd ...

[Sparx]

We had no success with our border collie training to use the matt. The dog had way more respect for self and her pack to relieve herself on the boat.

She has passed away now, and is sorely missed. We have refrained from getting another dog over this very issue. Having to schedule dog potty stops morning and evening put a definite crimp in our sailing. We occasionally made offshore runs up-to about 24 hours but did not feel this was something we wanted to do to our dog regularly.

We are hesitant in adding a dog to our crew until we are confident it can be trained to relieve on the trampoline. I will be watching this thread to see where it goes. <horrible pun acknowledged>.

[Hardhead]

I think if you got a dog as a young puppy, and specifically encouraged and trained them to go potty on the boat - from the earliest days - the success ratio would be extremely high. I'd place my bet on it at least. With an existing dog, it seems there's probably a high degree of contradiction for them.

[RaymondR]

Originally Posted by alansmith

I had several beagles. All I can is good luck to ya mate. They are mile headed stubborn dogs that all senses are connected to their nose. Loved them but once I went to a German shepherd ...

Yep, they live for their nose. My son had one and we lived in a forested place with lots of small animals in the underbrush. The damned dog was impossible to take for a walk.

What I did like about the dog is that it nagged my wife. If she didn't let the chickens out into the garden in the morning it would howl until she did so. Then at night it would howl until she locked them in the pen.

[Mickeyrouse]

She actually house-trained pretty quickly- 5 months. We’re Beagle people (my third) for better or worse.

[CATJAVA]

My dog is a 20k Rhodesian Ridgeback mix who I got as a puppy in Micronesia. MICRO has lived ONLY on cat JAVA for 6 years since we’re active sailors. I installed a net around the outside hulls cause I was afraid of her going overboard when she was little, but she’s never used it, probably because we sail flat. We tried a mat but she didn’t like it- she is very strong-willed! So, on longer passages, she will pee/poo on one of the bows, NEVER anywhere else. She usually pees after 2-3 days, poos in 3-4 days, at her own discretion. We take a bucket to rinse off the pee and let the poo dry & kick it overboard. She hated her doggie life jacket so we don’t use it. She has learned to crawl up the stern boarding ladder by herself so no worries about her getting back aboard.

She doesn’t like being left behind when we go ashore (pack mentality), so if we don’t tie her up or take her in the kayaks, she will swim after us. She also doesn’t like sailing so we have to tie her up before we start our engines or she’s swimming to the beach! She jumps off when we’re approaching a new anchorage also & swims to the beach, does her thing, and returns to the now anchored boat. This was only a problem when we anchored off the Komodo Islands in Indo. She swam to the beach, did her duties, ran the beach a couple of times and then swam back to the boat when we frantically called her. She hadn’t noticed the two LARGE Komodo Dragons coming out of the bushes to make her a meal! They had a BIG fight over her droppings! We kept her tied up and went to another beach to anchor. No more problems while we were there, but she always went WITH us to the beach! Live and learn! Evan on JAVA in the Philippines.

[fxykty]

Originally Posted by CATJAVA

My dog is a 20k Rhodesian Ridgeback mix who I got as a puppy in Micronesia. MICRO has lived ONLY on cat JAVA for 6 years since we’re active sailors. I installed a net around the outside hulls cause I was afraid of her going overboard when she was little, but she’s never used it, probably because we sail flat. We tried a mat but she didn’t like it- she is very strong-willed! So, on longer passages, she will pee/poo on one of the bows, NEVER anywhere else. She usually pees after 2-3 days, poos in 3-4 days, at her own discretion. We take a bucket to rinse off the pee and let the poo dry & kick it overboard. She hated her doggie life jacket so we don’t use it. She has learned to crawl up the stern boarding ladder by herself so no worries about her getting back aboard.



She doesn’t like being left behind when we go ashore (pack mentality), so if we don’t tie her up or take her in the kayaks, she will swim after us. She also doesn’t like sailing so we have to tie her up before we start our engines or she’s swimming to the beach! She jumps off when we’re approaching a new anchorage also & swims to the beach, does her thing, and returns to the now anchored boat. This was only a problem when we anchored off the Komodo Islands in Indo. She swam to the beach, did her duties, ran the beach a couple of times and then swam back to the boat when we frantically called her. She hadn’t noticed the two LARGE Komodo Dragons coming out of the bushes to make her a meal! They had a BIG fight over her droppings! We kept her tied up and went to another beach to anchor. No more problems while we were there, but she always went WITH us to the beach! Live and learn! Evan on JAVA in the Philippines.

Off topic, but how have you found entering various countries with your dog? What countries have you entered? We’re hesitant to take our cats with us once we start cruising full time due to issues with various countries. With a dog I expect it’s even more difficult due to rabies risk and needing to go ashore whenever possible.

[CATJAVA]

To fxykty who asked me about problems taking my dog to other countries. I knew before I got the dog that Java would never visit Oz or NZ due to the expense of quarantine there. It was never a problem in Vanuatu, Solomons, Philippines, Malaysia or Indonesia. PNG required a refundable bond. Not a problem in Yap since she’s from Micronesia. I notify the country that I have a dog aboard upon entering, but nobody seems to care. I am very careful about bringing her on any small islands in Indo since dogs are considered “unclean” by Muslins, so I always ask permission from the elders and keep her on a leash when in a village. But the kids are fascinated by her since many have never seen a live dog. It’s a trip, not unlike the Pied Piper must have felt, ha ha! Evan on JAVA

[RaymondR]

Australia and NZ are both pretty paranoid about rabies and with historical experiences of introduced species and pathogens effects on their animal populations are fairly determined to exclude them.

Since part of the exclusion process is funding eradication programs in the island chains to their north they would probably not be to happy about your taking your animal ashore on these islands.

[Mickeyrouse]

We’re in Texas. The only foreign countries we sail to are Louisiana and Mississippi.

[cr180]

I feel your pain with the potty training thing! We had two Shelties before we retired and went cruising. They had been on the boat everytime we took the boat away from the dock. We were mostly on the boat for 2-3 days at a time and never thought anything about dinghying the dogs ashore as it gave us a chance to get off the boat as well. Fast forward to ‘cruising time castoff’ and we realized there would be a few days coming down through the Carolinas and Georgia that we may not be anchored in a location conducive to dinghying them ashore. Put the dinghy down, hunt for a place to land them, put the dinghy back on the davits and start over in the morning.....lot of time involved and not always a place to land. We tried in vain for many weeks (before castoff day) to ‘encourage’ them to potty on deck, with no luck. We tried AstroTurf pads, carpet, potty pads, and lastly even real sod. We built a box and lined it with plastic to the exact size of 4 pieces of sod. Took both Shelties, one at a time, to the bow where the sod was and went through the potty commands. They each looked at me and promptly sniffed the grass and laid down on it as if to say ‘Thanks Mom, just like at home’! That clearly wasn’t what I expected. Sooooo, I followed a boat neighbor when she took her dog for a walk one morning, ziplock bags and paper towels in hand, came back with some ‘samples’ and seasoned the front yard of the boat and was feeling pretty good. Surely they would go now!! Cause we all know they want to go where another dog has already gone. Not happening! The grass grew, I kept it clipped, and they enjoyed laying on it. We were weak and would cave after about 15 hours or so and dinghy them ashore, if we were at anchor. This is still before ‘castoff’ time. I had them to the vet one day and while there asked him about the situation. He promptly told me we were weak and they (the pups) were strong. Since the pups were healthy, with no bladder or kidney problems, they could outlast us, and we needed to toughen up and be strong! He said they could only hold it so long and they would finally cave in and pick their place. We finally threw the sod in the dumpster and let it rip. Castoff day came and we and the pups headed south, continuing to encourage and let them know it was good to potty on deck. Treats were offered every time they let us know it was time to potty. It finally happened after about 30 hours!!! Each pup picked their spot on deck and we could tell the first time they went that they thought they had done something wrong, but quickly got over that when they realized how excited we were and treats were offered. What a weight was lifted off us! They still loved their dinghy rides, but now they weren’t just about potty time!

And the moral of the story is “we are weak and they are strong”!

Never had a problem after that! So much so that when we would come back home after a cruising season and be in our slip at the dock, it was not uncommon for them to potty on deck instead of telling us they’d like to go for a walk up the dock. And there was never a problem at home with confusion about where to ‘go’, thankfully.😜

Good luck! And sorry for being so long winded.

[Aubrey]

Originally Posted by Mickeyrouse

I’ve been sailing for 45 years and cruising with my wife off and on for 25. Assuming preventive measures (vaccines) are possible next spring, we’re planning to go out for three months or so .
You’re never too old for a new experience: we plan to take our dog. We’ve been getting her acclimatized- she knows our boat by scent now- and seems to be relaxed when we take her sailing, but we’re at a loss on the next steps of making a real sea dog out of her. Obviously the next step is overnighting, but the goal is to get accustomed to doing her business on an astroturf mat on the deck. She can hold it overnight, but I don’t want to make her painfully uncomfortable by extending a first mini-cruise until she just can’t wait thus forcing her. So how does one break through on this?

My wife and I have been cruising the Med quite extensively with our 6 year-old beagle, Leia.
The advice given to you by other cruisers tracks with our experience. However, beagles are quite idiosyncratic so they might choose their own spot depending on the need. For example, Leia will pee on the mat, which we initially "perfumed" with other dogs pee, but she prefers the eyes of the boat (mentioned in another post), by the anchor roller, to poo. She'll usually go there when the boat is sailing steadily but we always try to keep an eye on her just in case. By the way, younger beagles seem to have very long "autonomy" regarding their business. Leia's record is 49 hours (pee and poo) from Barcelona to Calvi, Corsica. That said, she leaped onto the dock before we finished tying up and did it right there.
As for safety, we mainly use her life-vest when commuting between the boat and shore on the inflatable dinghy as she insists on standing or sitting on the bow on her own (beagles also like to show off). When sailing, she'll spend most of the time in the cockpit taking long naps and might make a round of the boat occasionally to stretch out. Again, we try to keep an eye on her, although frequently she'll squeeze under the upturned dinghy when it's stowed on the foredeck --shady and snug. At night or when the sea state is anywhere near choppy, we tether her into the cockpit and she's fine with that. On night passages, the she prefers to snuggle up to whomever is off watch bellow decks. We'r fine with that too.
One final thing that has proven to work for us: Beagles are not natural water dogs like labs, for example. We coaxed her since young into the water by showing her that she could swim safely on a beach even if she looses paw contact w¡th the bottom. Once she realized that turning around unfailingly brought her back to the shallows, she became fond of taking a swim every time we at a beach, a creek or any place she can potter around. These locations are rich in exotic odours so she loves them.