Dogs on boats, and our best Friends in general.

I had an Elkhound when I was growing up. He was more solitary than most dogs, almost like an intelligent cat. We would sometimes see manned hot air balloons floating high up in the air and King would go bat-sh*t crazy barking at them. Never saw another dog even notice them.

 

Bob

We found him 14 years ago on a large camping site nearby, where he was to last tourist in October. Dirty, wounded and very hungry.

A small dog that needed no teaching because he came with a full set of built-in protocols and rules. Eats only food when offered, but refuses anything on a white plate. Guards our belongings with his life, can be trusted with one day chickens but kills snakes, lizards, rats and martens. Also killed several deer and sheep by driving them into the sea and subsequently climbing on their backs. Barks against people with too much luggage, no clothes, funny hats, guitars or anything else unusual that doesn't fit his conservative opinions.
Plans his day by observing the shoes we wear and whether or not we walk purposeful: he can't be fooled, no matter how hard we tried.
Exceptional control over his large ears allows him all kinds of facial expressions like surprise, eagerness, defeat, annoyance and anger.
Always gets what he wants that way.
The only dog I've ever seen really smiling at people he knows.

Loves to go on a day trip with the boat, but swimming from our anchor-place to the shore is getting difficult for an old dog, so last summer we bought him an inflatable.

 

and a paddle ?

 

A very special dog.

When I was a child, a flock of sheep was being driven down the road in front of our place, and a grey-muzzled old sheep dog decided to retire. He left the flock, trotted into our front yard, and lay down in the shade of a mesquite tree. Nothing the Basque sheepherder did could get him to move from the tree, including hitting him and poking him with his staff. Finally the sheepherder cursed him out and left him. And after resting for an hour or two, the dog got up and did a leisurely survey of his new domain.

From then until his death a couple of years later, he ruled our property. No strange dogs, cats, or other animals were allowed on it, including the neighbor's cow. Any people who showed up were escorted closely, until someone in the family took over. And no fighting was allowed. If two of our younger dogs started squabbling, he broke it up. He broke up cat fights, and even rooster fights, simply by running over the combatants. And of course, none of the dogs were allowed to chase the cats.

He eventually went to sleep one night under the mesquite tree (which he seemed to consider home), and didn't wake up.

 

When I was reading meters, there was a Beagle at one home who did that. She would run back and forth in her yard in a frenzy, barking at the balloons until they were out of sight. It drove her owner nuts.

 

One of the local Flyball teams had a Border Collie named Shadow Boxer. He was the star of the team if the sun wasn't shining. When the sun came out, however, they had to replace him with a substitute because all he wanted to do was catch his own shadow.

 

If you watch closely there's a thin rope on the left hand side. My wife is on the other end of the rope, so where does the dog need a paddle for?

 

To be independent and not ruled by a female!

 

Oh no Richard, Bobby loves to be ruled by a female.
I wrote "we" to hide it, but the truth is that I am only tolerated here because I am useful, no more, no less.

Once I fell in the water during a howling storm because the bow was ice covered. Had to fight for my life.
Man's best friend stood next to me but immediately turned around and went home!

 

That was a compliment. He figured you could take care of yourself.

 

I had a German Shepard named Zeus and I tell you that dog a great sense of justice
if he had done something bad he would take one smack with a rolled up news paper politely enough
but dont try and wind up on him a second time
big mistake

I have yet to get another dog
B


ps
how does having a dog on a boat work when its time to him to need out ?
seems like it would get pretty messy if you were a ways from shore

 

Regarding Makita, the Lab/Golden mix I mentioned earlier: when I first introduced her to my sailing canoe, she shook and shivered. She only got in it because I told her to, and she promptly plastered herself against the bottom. I tried getting her used to it over a period of days, by taking her out on little round trips. She didn't improve a bit.

Came the day I was leaving on a week-long camping and sailing trip, I told her, "sorry, dog. You're going to have to suffer." And suffer she did, until the first time I landed us somewhere besides where we had shoved off.

Suddenly it dawned on her: "it's a go thing, like a pickup truck! It takes us places, instead of just running in circles!" After that, she was first one into the canoe every time I shoved off. She'd be standing in the end looking out across the lake, tail wagging and tongue hanging out, while I grunted to get us off the beach and hop in myself....

By the way, she was named after a Makita power miter. I had a brand-new one set up at a house I was framing the day I got her from a home about three houses over, and she disappeared while I was working. I finally found her under the saw bench, buried under a pile of sawdust and snoozing away.

I remember walking her in Hollywood one day while she was still a puppy, and a beautiful French gal dressed to the nines stopped and asked me, "what a wonderful little puppy. What is her name?" I told her, "Makita," and she exclaimed, "it is such a beautiful name! What does it mean?!?" Kind of deflated the romantic atmosphere when I admitted, "umm...it's a Japanese power tool company." "She came back with, "oh. Well, it is a beautiful-sounding name anyway..." But her heart wasn't in it....

 

I had an old aluminum canoe and used to go all the time when I lived back east. Thing was so much fun. Zeus hated it no mater were he was going. He would rather be with me than without me but he hated it. Once he jumped out onto a bog and blew right through it to muck. After that he always asked if he could get out now, but in the mean time he did exactly what your dog did. Glued himself to the bottom and stared at me as if you say
are we there yet

ps
old Zeus was not the sharpest tool in the shed
he also once ran out onto thin ice chasing some ducks
brilliant eh
took him a while but he worked his way out
covered in slime and muck with the ducks all quacking at him like he was the idiot he was
I made him ride in the back of the truck on the way home but I gave him a blanket to stay warm
he knew he was getting a bath before he came in and went right to the shower stall
not to happy, shivering, beyond filthy and bedraggled looking

I think the bog incident reminded him of it

 

Reminds me of yet another Jenny story (maybe I should write a book), when my daughter was walking her in the local park and the dog fell through the ice and had to be rescued!

 

The one who lived more than half of the year on board was used to pee at a certain place at the gunwhale (easy to rinse), and to do the "big" on a rolled up rope. I could not train him to crap on the plain steel or wooden deck, he needed a soft surface. That rope was thrown into the drink then, and towed for a while.
But that was a ship, not a little boat.