Live aboard boat / Dog

[Lady Captin]

I would agree , to approach a boat in need for help , or the owner to discover a large dog on board , could be scary , especially if said dog appeared by his actions to be aggressive .

All my dogs , my two Doberman’s and Mastiff and Now Rottweiler would discourage entry by their outward nature ( the very reason I have them as I get older ) However if pressed they would not be aggressive towards you if you did indeed enter !

It is the responsibility of an owner to train a dog to sense the situation, as my dogs often did . If you where invited in , or on board , you would be perfectly safe in their presence and they would all love affection and attention from you, if on the other hand, especially with my Doberman’s, they sensed fear or tension in my wife and I , they would behave very differently !

Yes there are some very territorial, aggressive dogs that would attack ! But often if your time and your energy is directed towards getting the dog to relax and accept you ,it goes a long way . As was pointed out should this not be the case , we are intelligent enough I would think to find a solution!

We have talked about this a few times ourselves, realizing that with our Rottweiler Phoenix on board if our boat was to loose its anchor , we would probably have little chance of a rescue for fear of her . That is the price we must pay for the added security she brings on those occasion when we feel fearful , or uncomfortable about people around us.

It means a great deal that we have discovered there are few that would try regardless, as would we ! Hope we get to anchor close to you guys some day, lol .

[bccoast]

Do take into consideration on the boat you choose how you will handle your dogs needs incase it does have health issues. We just bought our first boat a couple months ago and are planning a week trip on spring break and a couple months in desolation sound this summer.

A couple days ago, our 75lb pitbull tore her ACL playing at the park. This is putting a major kink in our plans. Recovery will be at least 6 months if not longer with very limited mobility. We do have a fold down transom which will make it easier to get on board but there is no way she can get up and down the companionway stairs on her own, it was very difficult for her even before her injury. Will require me to carry her up and down but my back won't be able to do that multiple times a day. Will have to find somewhere for her to stay for our spring break trip and then see if we can take her this summer. If she can't do the stairs on her own, will have to find foster care.

[team karst]

Several dog breeds are on the no-go list for bahamas

[fxykty]

Originally Posted by Oeanda

Practically speaking, how does one go about rendering assistance to a boat with a stressed out Rottweiler on board? Just talk nicely to it and hope for the best? It seems like a valid concern and I didn’t see anything hateful at all in the post.

I was a crew member and later coxswain in a volunteer coast guard unit on Canada’s west coast (a decade and a half ago now). When we attended to a vessel where there was a dog on board our health and safety policy did not allow us to approach or board the vessel until the dog was confined below or in a crate or similar. Whether the dog is trained or not is not relevant to the rescuers.

Any volunteer rescue organisation puts safety in this order:
1) You and your crew
2) Your equipment and boat necessary to preserve 1’s safety and life
3) People being rescued
4) Rescued equipment and boat
5) Your non-critical equipment
Professionals can swap 2 and 3, and sometimes individual rescuers put 3 above 1, but there’s no mention of pets. Implicitly they rank with 4, but present risk to 1. Yes, even hand bag dogs!

Pointing this out isn’t hating - it’s just a factor that you can choose to consider, or not, when trying to figure out the ramifications of having a dog on board.

[Sailing55]

Originally Posted by fxykty

I was a crew member and later coxswain in a volunteer coast guard unit on Canada’s west coast (a decade and a half ago now). When we attended to a vessel where there was a dog on board our health and safety policy did not allow us to approach or board the vessel until the dog was confined below or in a crate or similar. Whether the dog is trained or not is not relevant to the rescuers.

Any volunteer rescue organisation puts safety in this order:
1) You and your crew
2) Your equipment and boat necessary to preserve 1’s safety and life
3) People being rescued
4) Rescued equipment and boat
5) Your non-critical equipment
Professionals can swap 2 and 3, and sometimes individual rescuers put 3 above 1, but there’s no mention of pets. Implicitly they rank with 4, but present risk to 1. Yes, even hand bag dogs!

Pointing this out isn’t hating - it’s just a factor that you can choose to consider, or not, when trying to figure out the ramifications of having a dog on board.

Just to be clear are you suggesting that Canadian health and safety policy will not allow the rescue of an incapacitated or severely injured solo sailor if they are not able to get their dog below or otherwise restrained? Certainly good to know.

[rhubstuff]

"Just to be clear are you suggesting that Canadian health and safety policy will not allow the rescue of an incapacitated or severely injured solo sailor if they are not able to get their dog below or otherwise restrained? Certainly good to know."

Short answer: It depends. I'm a former USCG SAR officer and USCG Auxiliary member. While this scenario would be an extremely rare case, I would remove or neutralize anything, including an aggressive pet, that interfered with my ability to rescue the person in distress. If an animal seemed friendly and did not interfere with the rescue, and if conditions were ideal, I would rescue the animal if it were possible to do so without further endangering my people or the PID. Every case is situational and these types of decisions are made on scene with due regard to all the factors involved. Policies are to be used as guidance, not followed blindly. But human life is paramount.

[Sailing55]

Originally Posted by rhubstuff

"Just to be clear are you suggesting that Canadian health and safety policy will not allow the rescue of an incapacitated or severely injured solo sailor if they are not able to get their dog below or otherwise restrained? Certainly good to know."

Short answer: It depends. I'm a former USCG SAR officer and USCG Auxiliary member. While this scenario would be an extremely rare case, I would remove or neutralize anything, including an aggressive pet, that interfered with my ability to rescue the person in distress. If an animal seemed friendly and did not interfere with the rescue, and if conditions were ideal, I would rescue the animal if it were possible to do so without further endangering my people or the PID. Every case is situational and these types of decisions are made on scene with due regard to all the factors involved. Policies are to be used as guidance, not followed blindly. But human life is paramount.

That is precisely what I expected (hoped) would be the situation.
Thanks for putting some real world perspective into this thread.