OK, so you have plans to take your precious pooch sailing with you or your perfect puss or both.
I would draw the line at a pack of huskies, besides the piles of dog or cat hair falling off your furry friend in huge quantities let's get the dreaded POO and PEE words out of the way!
Most Salty Sea Dogs can walk around the deck and do their little sculpture on the bow in the marina. Cats are so much easier, as they can have a cat litter box with a lid, but dogs are another story, especially at sea.
Many owners have a rubber-backed largish sheet of Astro turf on the bow, which seems to work once Rex has found his sea legs after being accompanied on deck.
They may need to get familiar and a little training to get them to use it and sometimes it's better to place it in the cockpit in bad weather.
If he does have to go it's easy enough to chuck it over with 100 meters of kitchen roll and a clothes peg on your nose. (This is the crew's or wife's job, of course, the Captain under any circumstances should not have to get involved in this task, as he is far too busy navigating, plotting courses, and stuff!) Remember, the bigger the dog, the bigger the poo….
Dogs mostly adapt well to sailing on a catamaran with nice flat decks, and cats even better….
Let's use this chapter about dogs for starters, dogs are goofy, they are somewhat clumsy animals, doing zoomies around the slippery deck can be tricky, so a life jacket most of the time made for dogs can be useful buoyancy, just in case, and Dog overboard drills should be practised on a regular basis. A GPS tracker or MOB (DOB) device available on the market, some kind with a flashing light on your pal's collar.
Also a good buoyancy aid/life jacket is a must.
At sea the last thing you want is Poochy or Tibbles overboard in any kind of rough weather. You can't just let him roam around the deck even in calm seas without keeping a close eye on the dog or the cat.
Purchase a good strong special purpose-built net woven between the stanchions and across the bow cross beam. It's useful to have a child's stair gate to keep the dog in the saloon sometimes.
Even better, get as large a dog crate as you can stow somewhere on the boat for the dog's bed and it will see it as his safe space.
It's, of course, great when your dog can just hop into the tender and get transported to the beach for a good run and let nature take its course, but sometimes, weather, distance from shore etc. make that impossible.
Food, now good quality dried food is the best option, it produces more solid poo (Yes, I know, back to that again), easier to store and keep fresh in a sealed container and you can use measured portions, which is good for your dog. I have a beagle and he would eat until he explodes. Keep your dog to regulated portions and he will be much healthier, lean and mean and not be killed with kindness. Your dog will not be burning so many calories while cruising, so keep an eye on his diet.
Some dogs get seasick, believe it or not, so keep poochy well hydrated with fresh water. Plenty of fresh water on board, especially if you don't have a water maker, but remember they can go wrong and the last thing beside D.O.B. (Dog Overboard) is running out of water. (Or cold beer.)
Most dogs are quite happy sailing, they will curl up quietly in their basket and spend hours asleep and adapt quite well to sailing, others you will get to wherever you're going covered in dog sick and Poo!
Hot weather is unbearable for dogs and heatstroke is a reality, in the tropics even worse. On any vessel the heat is relentless and wearing that thick overcoat makes things a lot worse. Air conditioning is a must with their bed close to one of the a/c vents.
You can buy those cool mats for pets also, which may be an idea.
Cold weather is also a problem and a few nice warm blankets for your dog in his bed may be a good idea…
I am not a VET so I would recommend taking advice before you go from a good vet regarding bringing your dog's temperature down, take some antihistamine pens with you in case the dog grabs a wasp. Maybe one of those plastic collars, iodine etc. Oh, and make sure your dog is vaccinated with Rabies Jabs, distemper, hardpad and leishmaniosis, to comply with countries you may be visiting and to protect your dog. Pet Passports and vaccinations are a pain, but if you're passing through different ports and countries make sure everything is up to date, as some countries tend to be a little more draconian, when it comes to the paperwork!
Some countries will impound your dog or cat and quarantine for a long period, which can be not only extremely costly, but quite traumatic for your pet!
This is a legal requirement to have a pet passport in many locations worldwide!
If you have to abandon ship miles from land and have to get into the life raft, remember dogs have sharp claws, so in an emergency make sure those claws are covered in a pair of socks and remember 36 days in the life raft with you, the wife and dog, if things get really tough and you run out of food, you can always eat the wife!
Now Cats, well a ship's cat in the old days was there for a purpose and that was to catch rats and mice, hopefully you won't have that problem, but it does happen, maybe because Tiddles caught it in the field next to the marina and brought it back on board alive as a present as well as that baby rattlesnake the other day that escaped somewhere on the boat.
Cats are great survivors and will clean up any flying fish that land on the deck and even eat your eyes, if you die! (They do not love you.)
A cat's claws are retracted like dagger boards, so will not slip on the deck and probably more suitable to sailing than dogs and can cling to a greasy pole if needed. Less likely to make holes in the life raft.
Dog and cat = twice as much poo and twice as much hair + fur balls!
Make sure the cat and dog get on and if you insist on turning your catamaran into Noah's Ark and you have another cabin free, why not. A cat, dog and a canary will be a disaster, it will be like a clip from Looney Tunes!
Now, one last point, if you're trying to sell your boat the smell of musty wet dog is not conducive to a quick sale. You may not smell it as you are accustomed to that mobile floating dog house. "My dogs do not smell," you say. They doooooo!
I love dogs, your dog may be a well-behaved specimen of canine perfection, but mine will roll in a dead decomposing seal, fish or fox poo and come in and jump on my bunk and snuggle up to me without giving it a second thought…. Besides taking him to the local jet wash and pegging him by the ears to the stanchion rail for a week, it is a difficult oily fish smell to get rid of.
If someone comes to view your boat, get a dog sitter for the day. I have had one dog bite the prospective buyer so badly, he had to go to the hospital without going through the saloon doors with 7 stitches!
Another, the dog kept jumping up and trying to hump the buyer's leg. "Oh, he's never done that before!"
I had one of my customers left their Spaniel on board in Ibiza, Spain and went ashore for dinner after attaching their catamaran to a mooring buoy, came back and their catamaran had disappeared along with the dog. They went to the police claiming it was stolen, but the chain of their mooring buoy had snapped. 7 hours later a Yacht was passing in the night and saw the cat with no lights with a dog in the cockpit. He thought someone was dead onboard, so called authorities, who rescued the dog and a salvage Company towed the boat back with a hefty insurance claim.
The Dog now has an RYA Yachtmaster Ocean certificate!
SHOPPING LIST
- Supply of dog or cat food
- Poo bags
- Flea Spray
- Doggy Treats
- Dog or Cat food bowl
- Enough Cat litter to take two knots of speed off your catamaran
- Crate
- Beds
- Pet life jackets
- Tracker
- Cabin full of kitchen towels
- 5-gallon drum of disinfectant
- Clothes pegs
- 1,000 Litres of fresh water. (Another two knots)
- Harness + clip on safety line
- Dog shampoo (Special Dead Seal and Oily Fish Smell Removal Formula by Wella)
GOOD POINTS TO HAVING A DOG ON BOARD
- Security: Great burglar deterrent (Mine would be useless and show them where the on board safe was & bark the combination to them for a treat).
- Garbage Compactor
- Plate washer
