[C320-list] Dog on board

[allan.field at comcast.net]

Scott - I would get a new wife.  Or your wife is the one who rows the mutt ashore each day.  The only good thing I can see about having a dog on board is that you don't have to send it to college.

Seriously, my friend cruises on a Trawler with 2 labs and they have made great boat dogs.  Both dogs (one since passed away) have been trained to do their business on the foredeck.  Ron uses his anchor washdown hose to get everything overboard when the dogs are finished their business.  They are getting ready to go off for about 3 years and as great as the dogs have been, they will not replace the second one when she goes.  They are just too much trouble and this on a boat that floats level.

On a final note, if the dog does go overboard, you need to make sure you have a system for getting it back on board (assuming you want it back on board!).  Most people I know put the dog in a harness that has a loop on the top that can be hooked with a boat hook.  A grown Lab however probably is going to require a hoist or halyard.  It would seem to me that if a full grown Lab went overboard, someone is going to need to follow the dog in to get it reattached to the boat.  I saw something in a journal several weeks ago that you hang off the transom and the dog is supposed to walk back on board, although at a steep angle.

Allan S. Field
Sea Shadow - #808
Columbia, MD
 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: "T. Scott Thompson" <sthompson at toad.net>
> My wife has been making noise about getting a Labrador puppy this spring 
> and I'm trying to figure out the logistics of cruising the Chesapeake 
> Bay with a dog on board a 320.  We have a cruise planned for early July 
> when the dog would be 4 months old, but obviously I'm interested in the 
> longer term more than the immediate difficulties posed by a puppy.  Any 
> war stories or advice would be appreciated.
> 
> We like to hang on the hook in isolated places rather than stay in 
> marinas when we cruise.  Is this feasible with a dog these days?  I 
> cruised the Chesapeake with my parents and a medium size dog back in the 
> late 70s but I suspect that many of the places that we went ashore then 
> are developed and/or posted no-trespassing today.  Also, that was in a 
> boat with centerboard and shallow draft which let us go where others 
> didn't.  The 320 has much less range to go up creeks on the Bay, even 
> with wing keel.
> 
> Scott Thompson
> Surprise, 653
> 
> 
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