Getting Dog from Water into Sailboat

[kcoffey]

I want to take my dog cruising this season. he is six months old now, well on his way to what will be about 70 lbs full grown, loves water and swimming, and is a good car traveler. One problem: how can I get the dog from the water back onto the boat?

My sailboat has pretty significant freeboard, and the transom is slighly past vertical. No problem for humans climbing the fold-down boarding ladder with standoffs, but there is no way that the dog will be able to climb a vetical ladder with small steps. So I hope that one of you has some experience with an attachable, stowable, device that the dog can use to climb out of the water.

[hamiam]

Two ideas come to mind. Its a good idea to have your dog don a pet life vest. These usually have a harness build in and you cud winch him aboard with this. Also, Ive seen various dog boarding ladders. One is made by nauticalcreations.net and another is on the petclassics.com website. Ive seen dog ramps made from hinged pieces of plywood with floats attached to the bottom. If you do a google search I''m sure you will find a dozen more.

[C_Amos]

Peter dog always wears his ''Outward hound'' life jacket while underway. At the least (hot days) he has a harness on.

Our boat has no provision for him to board from the water, and lifting an 80# lab without a handle is a chore (may be imposible in bad seas). Another consideration, if he fell overboard, would he (or any animal) understand why you continue to sail away>? What if he starts swimming for shore? THe life jacket serves many purposes, no matter what answer you come up with as to the boarding issue.

Craig

s/v ''Faith''

www.pearsonariel.org

[Irwin32]

I just saw an ad in a mid-west boating publication called Northern Breezes that may interest you. It is some kind of ladder that dogs can negotiate. It goes over your existing ladder and floats. Perhaps this magazine has a web site and you could track this product down.

[boatbum]

Ah, rubber steak on a stick.

[kms]

Try this site:

www.pawsaboard.com
It''s a folding ladder that floats.

[FalconEddie]

I have seen dogs go up regular house ladders pretty effectively, though they are usually scared to death while doing it. I have been wondering if some wider (say, five inch wide) teak steps on a regular boarding ladder and a coarse carpet pad on the boat at the top would be adequate for a fair sized dog. The ladder should be well secured at the rail and propped off the boat at about a ten degree angle. It will have to extend about two feet below the surface to accommodate him. If it folds, be sure it locks so his feet can''t get pinched. One good pinch might sour him for life.

It seems to me the fear thing on house ladders is the hieght, which would not be a problem with a boat.

Naturally, I agree 100% with the suggestions of a life vest and a harness/handle thing to help out. But I think after a few weeks, your problem will be to get him to stop jumping overboard and scrambling back up the ladder, then shaking off in the cockpit.

They DO play like kids, you know.