Sailing

[akbowman]

Hello all

My husband and I are very seriously considering buying a sailboat in a year or so- we absolutely love the idea, but I'm wondering about our BC. She's 4 months right now but would be about 1.5 when we move to a live aboard. Do any of you happen to live on a boat with a bc? I'm mainly wondering about sea sickness and exercise. Was thinking we would do fetch and frisbee in the water when we aren't at port, obviously with Kimber in a life jacket, but am not sure it'd be an ok setting for her. Any thoughts cautions and advice is welcome!!

[Gloria Atwater]

I'm curious to see if you get any replies to this! I've seen a LOT of dogs on boats - usually lab types or small dogs - and I've wondered the same things. When in port, the dogs obviously get ashore to scamper around the docks, but what DO they do when at sea? And what about pottying or in heavy seas, etc? I'm curious!

 

A couple years ago I visited a friend who was living with her husband on a sailboat near Seattle. They didn't have a dog at the time, but I had my boy, Nick, along and he spent a couple days on board. He LOVED that boat! But sadly, we never so much as started the engines.

 

~ Gloria

 

[Eileen Stein]

We've never lived on a sailboat, but we've had sailboats. In general, the dogs enjoyed getting on them at the dock, but did not enjoy sailing on them at all. The combination of heeling and slickness under foot made them very uneasy and unhappy. I don't know if they'd have adapted if we'd pushed the issue, but there was no reason to, so we didn't do it more than a few times with any of them. OTOH, they've nearly all been good swimmers and water retrievers, and that could certainly provide sufficient exercise for a dog.

[alligande]

I can answer some of the questions: only once have I lived on board a boat with dogs and she was 203ft overall but some of the pricipals apply. The dogs American staffs crossed the Atlantic with us and had lived most of their lives on board, and at that point had far more sea miles than me, they used the aft deck (the owners area) as a bathroom facility and did restrict themselves to a very limited area. In the Antiqua they were not allowed a shore, but we used to take them for dinghy rides and they got lost of swimming and play time on deck. We used to walk them when possible. They were remarkably nimble on deck and getting in and out of tenders, if it was very rough they got put down below but other than that they moved around at leisure, healing etc did not seem to bother them.

I also shared a 90ft sailboat with a springer spaniel for a few weeks, he was our captains dog who lived with his parents ... Long story.... But he was with us mostly at anchor and one long weekend away. He was great onboard, the only time he pee'd was on our way back on a long sail and he used the mast that was encased in a lovely piece of woodwork as the nearest available tree. At anchor he was great, we used to take him for a couple of walks, he would swim alongside he dinghy and chase balls.

My other liveaboard dog story was a couple that ran a 70ft+ old wooden motor sailor as a charter boat and they had a dog aboard, their side boarding ladder folded out as a stairs, and the dog would walk down have a swim, a pee and poop and hefty it self back on board, they left the ladder down even in the marina so he could do this.

Over the years I have seen numerous dogs on boats and they seem to adapt, although I have met a lot more cats.