Boating with our canine friends

[SweetKingfisher1]

Hello All, another great weekend on the river Yare from Brundall to Norwich. We had a slow cruise to Norwich for an over night stay in Norwich. I know what you are saying not a friday night in Norwich and the Canary's were at home. Only because we were meeting friends saturday morning who were coming up from London. 

 

Ok back to our canine friends. On our way to Norwich we could see a hire boat ahead of use and they had something in the water. It was not until we were a lot closer did we see they were trying to get a small dog out of the water, but they still had their engine going. We got as close as we could and told him to use their boat hook and to turn their engine off. That poor little dog was trying to so hard to climb up the side of the boat. Someone on the boat got hold of the poor thing at last, but the dog was not waring a lifejacket. I had tears in my eyes for the dog.

 

So come on boat hire companies. Everyone from parents to children have lifejackets, so ensure the people who are hiring and are bringing a dog with them. That the dog also has a lifejacket. PLEASE.

 

Norwich on friday night was for once a quite night, a little noise, but we have had worse.

 

Regards

Marina  

[Hockham Admiral]

I absolutely agree with you, Marina. Several lives have been lost by peeps trying to rescue their dogs.

 

Also a wet heavy dog is very, very difficult to get out by its collar and you stand a good chance of crushing its trachea as you do so.

[Polly]

Very upsetting, glad it turned out well. People don't realise how hard it is to recover from the water to a cruiser. I watched swimmers last week on Black Horse. They were jumping from the top of a big HW cruiser and complaining about how far their legs were sinking into the mud.

One chap was very lucky they had an inflatable canoe, because he failed to get into the dinghy and looked pretty whacked when he did get out.

I was watching to see if we needed to scramble our dinghy and heard a lady aboard complaining that I was looking across at them. Oh well!

[Polly]

Cleo, however, does not approve of her lifejacket and thinks it is an immobilisation device.

[SueH]

Hi.  Rosie has her own life jacket, but recently we have been using a heavy duty car 'harness' that she wears.  This is strong enough to grab hold of her and know that she will not get her neck out of her collar as previous corgis have managed.

 

We also make sure that she is not on deck or anywhere she can get off when we are travelling etc.

 

Although she likes water and can swim, corgis are not really designed for this activity!

[ranworthbreeze]

Any form of jacket for a dog is good as long as it has a handle on the top; this ideal for smaller dogs where you can just lift out of the water and with the larger dogs you can aid them to get to safety even if you can not lift them.

We first saw these many years ago when we were on the Broads out of season, we got talking to a chap with a Freeman at Ranworth Staithe who had been trying to get back to his mooring above Ludham Bridge, but tides and water levels were against him.

His wife joined him with their two Scotties (both with their jackets on).

I never knew if they managed to get back to their moorings.

Regards

Alan

[Hockham Admiral]

We used to keep Jim's LSJ on all the time when near the water.

 

He was quite prone to falling in!   :naughty:

 

[Polly]

We also have a harness and long lead, attached to the boat it seems to work better for Cleo, but I would prefer her to get used to her lifejacket.

As it is, she spends our sailing time in the bilges with the wine, (it's clean and dry in there and has a cat sized porthole) , as she dislikes the overhead movements on deck and thinks the mast creaks are out to get her.

Needless to say, she only comes on the boat when we are not planning much sailing...she loves it then!

[Timbo]

My beagle Dylan is, I suppose, the skipper of Royal Tudor. After all, where we go and what we do and at what times are dependant upon the tide and the whim and current biological functions of the 'skipper'. From the word 'go' Dylan The Boats Beagle (DTBB) has been equipped with a life jacket, a lead and one of those 'screw in' tethers so he doesn't wander off while I'm working on the boat. Now that I also have Toby, Dylan's littermate I suppose I need to invest in another lifejacket and another tether. (Dylan on the left of photo and Toby on the right...known as Dylly and Jugdog)

 

 

 

It's great to meet so many other dog owners while we are afloat, however I do have a pet peeve...I just wish people would control their dogs better when on the bank or in public. The number of people who let their dogs come running up to mine without asking if it's OK or is there a potential problem (we also have a Black Lab and a Collie cross as well as the Beagle Brothers) with nothing but a cheery "It's alright he doesn't bite" are too many to count. Although these days I tend to wait for the 'he doesn't bite' and then watch the panic on their faces when I reply 'really? Mine do!'. 

 

 

It's only the beagles that come boating as I'm sure of their temperament around children and members of the public. Dylan is certainly a hit with others on the river judging by the number of times he has his photograph taken as he sits on the bow in his life jacket. He's become quite the 'poseur' knowing where the moorings or inhabited stretches of the Broads are he will come out on deck to pose before heading below decks when we leave the populated areas.