Liveaboard Dogs

[seafox]

Meaty Bites Diet


I was buying a large bag of Meaty
Bites for Max at Pac n Save and standing in line at the check out.

The woman behind me asked if I had a dog.

On impulse, I told her that no, I was starting The Meaty
Bites Diet again, although I probably shouldn't because I'd
ended up in the hospital last time, but that I'd lost 20
kilos before I woke up in intensive care ward with tubes
coming out of most of my orifices and IVs in both arms.

I told her that it was essentially a perfect diet and that
the way that it works is to load your pants pockets with
Meaty Bites and simply eat one or two every time you feel
hungry and that the food is nutritionally complete so I was
going to try it again.

I have to mention here that practically everyone in the line
was by now enthralled with my story, particularly a guy who
was behind her.

Horrified, she asked if I'd ended up in the hospital in that
condition because I had been poisoned. I told her no; it
was because I'd been sitting in the street licking my balls
and a car hit me.

I thought one guy was going to have a heart attack he was
laughing so hard as he staggered out the door.

Stupid woman... why else would I buy dog food??

[seafox]

Anyone have experience with German Shepherds that were good water/boat dogs?

My shepherd Max loves the boat and the water. Fresh and salt. Can't wait to get wet!

[hellosailor]

Meaty Bites. ROFL, love it.

Actually I was buying large boxes of clumping kitty litter for a while and I have no use for it or cats. But it makes a great absorbent liner for some invalid commodes--it means you can close the lid and re-use the commode at night with no odors. (Works in buckets on boats, too.)

So you never really know....

[Badgerman]

Originally Posted by BC Mike

There are dogs and there are Border Collies.
Tui and Lenny are my Xs Border Collies. Recently they have been ( from Canada ) to Holland, Germany, England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.
No quarantine.
Lenny loves the water Tui does not.
Michael

Have to agree......have had alot of dogs.......we were just given two smooth coat border collie pups......way smart......athletic.......almost TOO smart.

[S/V Elusive]

Just saw a bumper sticker: "My Border Collie is smarter than you honor student"

[bg9208]

Originally Posted by Jon D

We are moving aboard in the spring with our Giant Schnauzer. Std poodle would also not be my first choice for a boat dog, BTW neither would a Giant Schnauzer. I would look to smaller dogs. If you want a 'bigger' dog look at Portuguese Water Dogs. Ideal boat dog.

The real consideration is where are you and where are you cruising to. We are limiting our cruising for a year or so [till the dog passes] to the US and Bahamas as it's pretty easy to move dog in and out. As you go farther afield it does get harder with shots, quarantines etc. Check out Jimmy Cornell's book it has all the check in and out stuff.

We are planning to undertake an extended cruise in the not too distant future and e shall be leaving our Giant Schnauzer with a friend and taking both our Miniature Schnauzer and Cairn Terrier. What I do need to know is how do passage makers deal with their pet's toiletry requirements? Guidance on this messy matter would be appreciated.

Brian Owen

[hellosailor]

Brian, with dogs that small you can retrain them to a "wee wee pad" (stack of pads takes lots of space) or litter box (gonna track out on their paws) but the usual advice is to train them to go on a piece of astroturf or other "special" place, and then wash that overboard. Some of their own waste, or a bottle of scent from the dog store, can be used to let them know "this is the place".

Some dogs are used to their ways and will just hold it for the longest time though--retraining can be much harder than housebreaking was. How long is "extended" and does that mean crossing borders and other pet hassles?

[bg9208]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

Brian, with dogs that small you can retrain them to a "wee wee pad" (stack of pads takes lots of space) or litter box (gonna track out on their paws) but the usual advice is to train them to go on a piece of astroturf or other "special" place, and then wash that overboard. Some of their own waste, or a bottle of scent from the dog store, can be used to let them know "this is the place".

Some dogs are used to their ways and will just hold it for the longest time though--retraining can be much harder than housebreaking was. How long is "extended" and does that mean crossing borders and other pet hassles?

Thanks for the advice, we have quite a while to try re-training them on land before we set sail. Certainly in the short to medium term we will only be sailing from the UK to Greece in the Med and spending a few years there so don't expect national borders to be a problem

[Mr. Fixit]

Thru out my life I have owned many dogs, mostly hunting breeds, Beagles, Black&Tans, Walkers etc. Presently I have 2 Border collies. I can not believe how intelligent they are. Having said that they require a lot of activity. (mine do , I do not consider my self a expert on Border Collies) they are "working dogs" an eveing walk will not do it.Mine require approx 1 hour of" hard work" a day. Frisbee, ball etc. constant running or swimming etc.After a short rest they are ready to go again. I installed a swim platform, and hatch boards in the stern for easy access..As i stated earlier I am not an expert on Border Collies,however my experience leads me to believe they would not be "happy" if they are not worked. Definetly not a "lap"dog. I would not reccomend them as a house dog unless you are willing and able to give them what they need.

[Mike Banks]

I had three pets who were exceptionally loving and devoted critters. One was a German Shepherd male, the other two were female speyed cats. One was a Moggy, the other a Burmese. Both cats were an absolute delight and scrupulously clean--easy to medicate and highly appreciative.

What set the little Burmese apart was her sense of humour. I never believed some of the stories about Burmese cats until I inherited this one. She was intelligent, loved food and greeting rituals (as do most cats), she needed to be acknowledged whenever passing and LOVED to be immersed in warm water as long as you were too. Salt ot fresh--made no difference.

Having said that--some cats, just like some dogs and some people, are products of a bad upbringing and should bever be allowed aboard.

Dogs are good from the guarding perspective--some boaties in Oz have Keeshonds-- but on my boat there are no pets because most of where I sail these days is a National Park where any domestic animal is unwelcome ashore.

[Kasidah]

We have two small dogs, One is a Scottiepoo and the other is a Yorkiepoo. We have traveled with them from Long island sound to Lake Ontario, way of the Erie Canal and have crossed Lake Ontario a few times which has taken up to 12 hours. They would not go on the turf and would just hold it until we cleared customs. We are leaving this fall to cruise and I have started putting the turf outside to get them trained. So far they have gone on it a couple times in the past two weeks but prefer the snow. I am now having other small dogs over to use it. The funny thing is that the other dogs seem to want to go on it.
Anyhow as far as breeds go i feel that our scottiepoo is an awesome breed. Ours is more of a scottie than a poodle which makes her more mellow and quite. She is a fun loving dog, she loves being on the boat or in a car and has very good motion reflexes whether it be for waves in a boat or corners in a car which makes her a very good boat dog. We have been in some pretty bad storms and she has no problem being put in the aft cabin so that nothing happens to her. She can go long periods of time with out peeing but we are hoping we can get her to use the turf. She also is good on the boat when we are at port, she lays around the deck, dock, and cockpit and also has no problem wearing a life jacket. Our scottiepoo is so awesome that we know 3 other people plus our daughter who have bought one from the same breeder. I just stress to make sure that the dog is more scottie than poodle or you might end up with a slightly more hyper dog than ours, we have seen this happen in some of the other dogs. If you go to our blog and look at the part "Dog Days of summer" there are some really cute photos of them" one of the scotties is my daughters. PS we really don't let them drink. LOL

[hellosailor]

Arline, something that I have noticed but never really noticed (if you know what I mean) is that female dogs especially like to go someplace where their feet will stay dry. I've always thought that is why they like to go in the snow. So whatever you are using as a mat? If you can get something with taller "grass" on it, or one of the plastic ground drainage materials (like a plastic steel wool sheet) that is a bit thicker, so their paws can stay dry? Maybe that will give them a greater attraction to it?

[Kasidah]

Thanks, I will try it and let you know if it helps. I never gave that a thought but now that you mention it when its really wet outside they tend to avoid stepping off our porch at home to pee so i'm always pushing them to go....

[DaveyJones]

A good hunting dog could help keep pyrates away.

[Sea Maid]

My wife and I live aboard an Ericson 39B with our 150lb Newfoundland. I have a piece of 3/4" thick plywood about 18" wide and 5' long. On the sides of this piece of plywood I have 1" x 3" x 5' lone pieces of wood that have piano hinge on them and they are hinged to the plywood. These two pieces of 1 x 3 fold out and our held out with a hook and eye to give the wood ramp strength on the sides. Fold in when done. Now when they are folded in you have the area of the ramp/plywood beteween the two 1 x 3. A foot a so of plywood showing. I put aluminum angle iron in that area, that is the same thickness as the 1 x 3. This gives the ramp more strength in the center and when the sides are folded in (the 1 x 3) the whole project is still only an 1 1/2" thick. So it has fold in and out sides for strength and about eight pieces of almuminum angle iron for strength in the middle of the ramp all the way down the 5 foot length. Now the 1 x 3 is just under 5 feet in length, that is so I could put one piece of 18" aluminum angle iron accros the top of the ramp. I lay the ramp with the 18" aluminum iron on the 2nd step going down in the boat and I put the bottom of the ramp on a single plastic step with fold out sides (costo). Just that piece of 18" angle iron laying on the step is all I need for it to stay in place, it does not move. I place the bottom of the ramp on the plastic step so it is not so steep. The ramp works wonderful. It folds to an 1 1/2" thick and only weighs a few pounds. On the side the dog uses I have non skid strips and 1" x 1/4" thick pieces of wood spaced a foot or so apart so our girl as something to put her paws on for security. When folded up it stands completely out of the way right beside out ladder out of everyones way. Now there is more. When she comes over the bridge deck she needs a place to stand. So I used another piece of plywood and I notched it out ( u shaped notch ) about a foot into the wood in two places. These two notches on this piece of plywood are the same width apart from each other as the sides of my boarding ladder. These notched out areas slide right around the sides of the ladder. The wood is now under my first step on the boarding ladder. So there is plywood under the step, out in front of the step ( a foot or so ) and a couple of inches is also on the sides of the step. Now bolt somemore aluminum angle iron onto the sides of the ladder to hold the plywood in place and give it strength. Remember ours holds a 150lb dog. The piece of plywood that goes under the firt step is for her to stand on after going over the bridge deck. She stands there and then steps onto the ramp, walks down the ramp and enters the boat. Reverse for getting out. I fold the ramp and put it away. I then pull the piece of plywood out from under the first step and put it away. You do not really notice the angle iron that holds the top piece of plywood in place. And the only thing I have ruined on the boat is the boarding ladder has a few holes in it from the angle iron I bolted to the side. Lot if info on paper, but a very simple project. IT ALSO SERVES AS A BOARDING RAMP IF YOU NEED TO TOO. Pier to boat that is.