Cruising with Dogs

[DogsAtC]

Originally Posted by Cats Eye

I sail with 3 dogs on my 38' Cat. I have two 40lbs dogs and a small 10lb dog. I have had a dog on board with us since the beginning, 10 years now. We have had 3 dogs almost 3 years. We have traveled into different countries and have had no problems bring the dogs in. It is easier if you train your dogs to do their "business" on deck. There are some countries in the Caribbean I did not want my dogs roaming around at all on shore. With them trained to "go" on the boat took a lot of pressure off of trying to fine a spot for them. We also sometimes sail a few day at a time and a dinghy ride to shore was not going to happen. We keep our dogs inside our cabin when we are in tight anchorages, this way we know they are not barking at dinghies all day while we are not home and driving neighbors crazy.
I did love the security they gave me when we where in countries know for theft.
Downside - there is a lot of hair. But I do not mind picking up the tumble weeds of doggie hair if it means keeping them on the boat.

PS - love your pics

[DogsAtC]

Originally Posted by DogsAtC

Hi Everyone
We have just joined the forum but have been following it for sometime with great interest. Gained heaps of valuable tips and advice. We will be coming from Aus to the US and are hoping to buy our dream cat in coming months and set sail with our 2 dogs German Shepherds. Lots of challenges, heaps of learning and plenty of fun times ahead. Would love to hear from fellow cruisers the pitfalls and tips of sailing with dogs and any issues non dog cruisers have experienced. Also would be interested to hear suggestions on what would be a good cat and size for us traveling with big dogs. There is only the 2 of us but expecting regular guests. We are hoping to eventually sail back to Aus so need something suitable for pacific cruising. Look forward to getting to know you

Thanks for the welcomes and feedback. I have since discovered a pet forum on this site with great info from hair to wees and poos and life jackets. All good stuff. Interested to hear thoughts on type and size of cat we should get. We thought probably a 46 - 50 ft. Would probably be a good size given when our dogs spread out they take up a mighty amount of room. Cheers.

[Cats Eye]

The DR was the biggest concern. There are a lot of stray dogs and a TON of fleas and ticks. The Far Bahamas was another place that I found lots of stray dogs and the fleas and ticks. I was concerned for my dogs and for me. The last thing I needed was a pack of hungry stray dogs cover with ticks and fleas messing with my lil dog pack. This is just what I found. There where/are plenty of cruisers that bring there dogs to shore in the DR. I did not find it worth it. And in the Bahamas it did begin to change as we sailed up the chain. By the time we made it to Georgetown it was VERY americanized and dogs seemed welcome everywhere.
Just my opinion!!

[DogsAtC]

Originally Posted by Cats Eye

The DR was the biggest concern. There are a lot of stray dogs and a TON of fleas and ticks. The Far Bahamas was another place that I found lots of stray dogs and the fleas and ticks. I was concerned for my dogs and for me. The last thing I needed was a pack of hungry stray dogs cover with ticks and fleas messing with my lil dog pack. This is just what I found. There where/are plenty of cruisers that bring there dogs to shore in the DR. I did not find it worth it. And in the Bahamas it did begin to change as we sailed up the chain. By the time we made it to Georgetown it was VERY americanized and dogs seemed welcome everywhere.
Just my opinion!!

Hey thanks for the heads up. We will remember that one. How do you go travelling with 3 dogs, getting them into different ports/countries? I have read that in some cases you can only take one dog. didn't know if that meant one dog per boat or per person. Cheers

[Cats Eye]

I can only tell you what we did, I have read some of the advice on here and can say what i did. I got all my dogs microchipped, and they all got international health cert. The DR could have cared less about the dogs because we did not take them off the boat. We found it to be the same in most counties. Because we did not NEEd to take the dogs off the boat they seemed more ok with it.