Category Archives: Boat Dog

On Our Way!

We left Sunset Bay Marina in Stuart at 1045 this morning, 12/18/14, and entered the ICW on our way to Lake Worth. Tomorrow we’ll have our mast stepped. We had it unstepped (removed) last June so we could get under a bridge in Stuart and go inland in case of a hurricane. It will be nice to be a sailboat again, although we saved a half hour traveling time today going under some of the low bridges. We went under nine bridges today. With our mast on, the top of which is 63 feet above the water line, we have to ask for most of them to be raised and this often involves a wait if they are on a schedule. A few are 65 foot fixed bridges. Our wind generator is the highest part of the boat now and it is 22 feet above the water. The bridges have markers in the water showing their current height depending on the tide. At the first one we came to the marker read 19 feet so we asked to have the bridge raised. The tender said his bridge was at 25 feet and we could easily go under it. We did and had about 5 feet between the wind generator and the bottom of the bridge. We found that other bridge markers were also inaccurate. Obviously, the bascule bridge heights are a guess.

We are exhausted, mainly because we had to spend many, many hours during the last two weeks trying to get a “vacation waiver” for six months of our prescription medications. Almost all the people we talked with at our insurance companies didn’t have a clue what to do, even though we have done this before with the same insurance. We spent many hours on the phone, at the pharmacies and even went to our doctor’s office to get paper prescriptions when the ones they phoned in to the pharmacies were incorrect. Finally Tuesday evening we got our prescriptions filled and could get to the many other items on our “to do” list yesterday. It still took us several hours to get everything ready this morning. The weather is beautiful and the river is calm, but we’ve been rocked by a few fast boats passing us. They are usually small speed boats and maybe don’t realize when we rock, things fly off counters and shelves. No, that’s not true. They don’t care or at times even enjoy seeing us rock. I finally gave up grabbing things and put everything away like we do when we are sailing on the ocean. This boater behavior is very common on the ICW and inlets in South Florida.Sailor seems to have easily returned to his job as “first mate boat dog.” Our previous Goldendoodle Daisy, who was with us for five years on Seas the Day, never wanted to be inside when we were moving. She always settled in the cockpit under our feet at the helm and didn’t move until she realized we were stopping. Sailor, on the other hand, is starting his second cruising season on the boat and he divides his time inside and outside. He spends part of his time on his bed under the salon table where I’m usually sitting. After awhile he goes outside to be under Mark’s feet. When that gets boring he walks around as far as his tether will let him go which is just a few feet. His nose is a little dirty in the pictures because he discovered the dirt in our newly purchased patio tomato plant. Can’t blame him since he doesn’t have a yard to dig in.

Another huge difference is that Sailor “goes” on the boat and Daisy never would. He uses the trampolines which makes clean-up very easy. (We always collect the poop in bags and throw it away with the rest of our garbage on land but the urine goes nicely into the water.) Sailor still gets lots of shore walks and several daily runs on beaches, but if the weather is bad or we can’t get ashore, we appreciate that he is boat trained. Below is Sailor’s “head.”

We arrived in North Lake Worth at 1500. While going under the Parker Bridge we received a phone call from Old Port Cove Marina. We’ve been trying to get reservations there for days, but they were full. They offered us a tie up on their fuel dock for tonight, which we quickly accepted. We love this marina and it will be our last until Bimini. At $1.70 a ft in South Florida in the winter, that is very reasonable, especially at a high end marina. As an example, Tiger Woods docks his yacht here. The price is actually $2.00 a ft but they give a 15% discount if you have Boat US, which most boaters purchase for towing, kind of like AAA for cars. We even got a bottle of wine when we checked in, welcoming us to Old Port Cove, together with a card for free coffee, tea and soft drinks while we are here. An added benefit is that friends Fred and Karen (Southerly II) are here for the month and are located a dock away from us. We enjoyed a delicious dinner with them at Sandpiper’s Cove, the upscale marina restaurant, tonight. We figured we deserved a reward for all of our hard work the last few weeks. It is such a relief to have that behind us so we can be on our way to our 4th Bahamas cruise.

Sailor the Escape Artist

From the first day Sailor moved aboard Seas the Day with us last September, we worried about him falling through the lifelines. Many people with small dogs put woven rope all around their boat on the lifelines to keep their dogs from falling through. When he was small, Sailor was never alone on the deck. As he grew we figured he was too big to fit through between the lifelines. At Sunset Bay, our hurricane season port in Stuart, FL, we occasionally left him alone on the deck for anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours. (We couldn’t leave him inside because he gets frustrated and rips up paper and other items but he was fine on the deck.) He totally ignored people who walked by unless they came over to pet him. He mostly slept while we were gone. Our deck was usually about five feet above the dock and he had to get off on a ramp we put up and took down whenever he got off the boat.

When we started moving through the water a few weeks ago, sailing south, we never let him on the deck without his life jacket on and tethered to the helm seat if he was outside while we were moving. All went well until we got to Nassau and were at the Nassau Harbor Club. The dock was almost level with our deck, making it very easy for Sailor to get on and off but when we undid the lifeline gate he wouldn’t jump down by himself so Mark had to lift him on and off when we took him for a walk. We didn’t leave him alone on the boat.

That night we heard a loud boom around 9:00. Apparently the Atlantis Resort occasionally has a fireworks show for the people staying there, but they shoot them off from a barge directly across the harbor from us, quite a distance from the Atlantis. (We discovered why the next day. All the boats in our marina, and probably all the houses and business around us and across the harbor near the barge were covered with debris from the fireworks. We assume nothing landed on the boats and hotel at the Atlantis Resort.)

Sailor has always been very alert to noises. He often growls softly to alert us if he hears someone walking by the boat in the middle of the night. He can be in a deep sleep anytime and wakes up if he hears something strange. He is always looking around and listening, no matter where he is. However, he has never been afraid of noises. When the very loud fireworks started he first ran out on the deck and then came right back, seeming to be very nervous. We went out on the deck to see what was going on and he followed us, but ran back inside. We watched the fireworks show for a minute or two and I went back in the cabin to see what he was doing. Sailor wasn’t inside!

At that moment we saw the marina security guards coming down the long dock towards us. We were in the very last slip. They said they saw our dog racing down the dock and he had fallen into the water. We ran down the dock and saw exactly what had happened. The dock stops abruptly and turns at a right angle with a short span of water ahead between the dock and the shore. I’m sure he was running so fast he couldn’t stop and went flying into the water. He may not have noticed the dock ended.

It was low tide and there were about six feet between the dock and the water. Sailor was dog paddling around the wall, but there was no way for him to get out without help. Mark climbed down a ladder and called Sailor over to him. Marinas always have ladders down to the water in numerous places on their docks in case someone falls in or has to get down to the water. Sailor swam over to Mark but it was impossible for Mark to climb the ladder with a 45 pound dog. Three men were there to help, along with me. Mark let go of the ladder, took Sailor in his arms and swam to the next dock where a small fishing boat had a low platform at the back. The water was shallow so Mark could bounce his feet off the bottom. He lifted Sailor onto the boat and another cruiser staying at the marina lifted Sailor onto the dock.

Sailor was totally traumatized. By now the fireworks were done but he would not come back to the boat with us. We figured out later that he must have thought the loud noises and light flashes were on our boat. Sailor is extremely attached to us and he would never choose to leave us. Not wanting to drag him down the dock, Mark carried Sailor all the way back to the boat. We rinsed the salt water off him, dried him with towels and wrapped him in a blanket. I sat on the floor with him, held him tightly on my lap, and tried to comfort him. He shivered for about an hour, long after his body warmed up, staring out the door. The water actually wasn’t very cold and we worried that he could be in shock. Finally he stopped shivering, but could not relax. Mark slept in the salon with him and by morning he ate his breakfast and was almost back to his happy self.

We were leaving that morning for the Exumas and water was part of our dockage fee, Mark was washing the salt off the boat. Unlike marinas in the States where water is free, you pay for it almost everywhere in the Bahamas. I got off the boat to walk across the street to buy some groceries, locking the lifeline gate behind me. Shortly after I left, a cruiser came walking down the dock and said to Mark, “I have something for you.” Mark looked and saw Sailor trotting down the dock next to him. We suspect he knew he could get off the boat by squeezing between the lifelines and went looking for me. Until the previous night, Sailor had never gotten off the boat without our assistance. Fortunately there is no way to get out of the marina unless you can open a door that goes out to the street and he hasn’t learned to do that…….yet.

Of course, this was very scary for us. We were lulled into thinking Sailor would not get off the boat without us. After living on it for six months he had never even tried to jump off. We can only assume he saw the opportunity because it was level with the dock, even though he had to squeeze through the lifelines. Fearing the very loud fireworks sound, he was no doubt terrified enough to do anything to escape. At the time we thought he was inside and other than hearing the sounds, we didn’t know he was afraid of them. The second episode was probably Sailor learning a new “trick” and he wanted to come with me.

We thought we were doing everything possible to keep Sailor safe, but it wasn’t enough. We are extremely fortunate that there was no way to get to the street on the day he tried to follow me because no doubt he would have run right in front of a car.

After being traumatized by the fireworks sound, Sailor is now afraid of our Shark cordless vacuum. Today while I was vacuuming up sand he brought in from the beach, he jumped up on the couch and left by the window. Yes, that is a trick our little escape artist has learned. He’s pretty big to be going out the small window, but he manages to climb up on a shelf and out. He comes in the same way!

We feel so very fortunate that everything worked out in Sailor’s favor. The security guards saw him go in the water. If not for that, we would have been looking all along the dock and maybe wouldn’t have even seen him if he had swum under a dock. In fact, we might not even have known he had fallen in and we would have looked on the marina grounds.

Sailor is adjusting extremely well to sailing. Each day he learns something new. He very quickly learned to love riding in a dinghy. Whenever he hears the dinghy starting to go down into the water, he is at the top of the sugar scoop steps ready to jump in. The first time he was on a beach, in Bimini, he ate sand. He actually put his mouth down into the sand and filled his mouth with it. It made him sick for a few day but he hasn’t injested it again. He learns fast. We know many dogs are afraid of fireworks, but we’ve never owned a dog who was terrified like Sailor obviously is.

Some people wonder why cruisers bring a dog on a boat. Sailor is part of our family and we wouldn’t enjoy this experience as much without him. When our wonderful Goldendoodle Daisy died last summer, after living aboard with us for five years, we mourned her, but within a few weeks since we had never not had a dog in our lives, we decided to find another Goldendoodle. In the end, dogs want to be with their people and with some adjustments, they can be just as happy living on a boat as they are in a house.

Below are a few pictures of our little escape artist coming in the window and relaxing after running up and down a deserted beach in Staniel Cay, the Bahamas.

Cruising Plans Written in Sand

I spent the last three weeks in Maryland and California and flew back to Florida four days ago assuming we would be able to leave for the Bahamas in a day or two. I had done all of my preparations before I left to be with Peter for his surgery and recovery. Mark worked hard while I was gone and finished almost all of his projects. However, two major problems are now holding up our departure. First, on the way to the airport on January 15, we were rear-ended in rush hour traffic on I95, one exit before the West Palm Beach Airport. It took several weeks to get the car owner’s insurance company to start the repairs on our car. We should get it back early this week. Second, we are waiting for repairs to be made to our radar and anemometer, both of which were damaged when the mast was taken down. We have been waiting since the mast was put back on in November to get the repairs done, and now we are getting angry. Hopefully we’ll get these parts repaired in a few days and be on our way by the end of the week.

The time I got to spend with my son Peter was wonderful. The surgery successfully removed a tumor at the bottom of his spine and then we flew to California for two weeks. Peter was my tour guide every day as we visited beach towns, tourist destinations like Hearst Castle and Sequoia National Park, a Monarch Butterfly Park, wine tastings, Farmers’ Markets, and many walks on the dunes and various beaches. Rather than put entries about the visit on this blog, I posted pictures on my Facebook page, the link for which is on the top right hand side of this website and also here. Flying into West Palm Beach last week, I caught this view outside the window as I was watching the sunrise above the clouds. It reminded me that in a short time we would be passing large container ships like this on the ocean as we cross from Miami to Bimini.

Today, Mark dived under the boat to clean the props. The St. Lucie River is so filthy from runoff in Lake Okeechobee that he couldn’t see more than five or six inches in front of him. He’ll finish cleaning the bottom when we get into cleaner water. Mark uses a Brownie’s Yacht Diver Electric System to allow him to breathe air while cleaning the boat bottom or for any other reason we might need to dive under the boat.

One of our recent unplanned purchases (there have been many) was a new XM Radio for the boat. We have always had an XM radio with a small speaker unit on the boat but it stopped working this fall so we bought a new one. We have speakers in the salon and outside in the cockpit, but had never tried to connect the XM radio to it. We did that today and now can use the indoor and/or outdoor speakers in the cockpit to play XM stations. Right now we are listening to a pleasant “spa” station which shouldn’t annoy our dock neighbors.

I was afraid that Sailor might not remember me when I got back. At first he seemed confused but happily took the new toy I brought him. Hopefully we will get to leave Sunset Bay Marina this week to begin our next cruise to the Bahamas and Sailor can become a real boat dog.

Merry Christmas From Florida

Merry Christmas to all of our friends, relatives and fellow cruisers. I must say that we do miss having a White Christmas. Our hometown of Duluth, Minnesota, has had 37 inches of snow so far in December, with snow falling on 19 of the first 23 days of the month. This is close to a record for the month and more snow is expected on Christmas Eve. When you grow up with snow on Christmas, I think the holiday never seems quite right without it. In the photo above, Sailor is sitting on the patio at Sunset Bay Marina with palm trees behind the Christmas tree which is surrounded by tropical plants. He would love playing in snow, I’m sure, but it might be a problem finding him in a snow bank since he looks like a polar bear.

Although it would be nice to be in Bimini for Christmas with our friends Cathie and Tom on Interlude, who crossed over from Miami today, there are good things about still being in Florida. Most important is that we are still in the States and I can take a nonstop flight from West Palm Beach to be in Bethesda when Peter has his surgery. That trumps crystal blue water and deserted white sand beaches in The Bahamas. The water and beaches will still be there when we arrive in February.

Since we are plugged into shore power at a dock, we have a three foot Christmas tree on the chart table and various other decorations in the salon. Colored lights are strung outside on the lifelines, the salon roof, and the bimini. In the photos, the outside lights look white, but they are the traditional Christmas colors. Many boats in the marina are decorated with bulbs, but wisely not a single boat in the mooring field is using power for decorations. Sailor is all decked out for the season, too. Yes he has grown and is 42 pounds at six months old.

After I uploaded the photo below of our Christmas tree, I noticed something in the picture. There is a penny on the table in front of the tree. I know most people will think I’m crazy, but after my dad died in 2003, I started finding dimes in strange places. A friend told me she found dimes after her dad died so I figured my dad was doing the same for me. They often showed up when I was having a difficult time with something in my life. Once I found one on the floorboard of my van after driving several hours from St. Paul to Duluth to visit my mom. Shortly after my mom died in 2011, I found a dime and a penny side by side. Then, I started finding pennies in odd places. I should mention that my mom was very frugal and my dad was a bit more generous with money. I did not place the penny on the table, so was it from my mom? I choose to think so.

Finally, our good friends Joanne and Jim Hubal filmed a very touching YouTube video with their cat Lovey and dog Holly, called Lovey the Cat’s Christmas Miracle: a special friend comes home for the holidays.

Mutt March

Since we are within a month of (hopefully) beginning our 2013-14 cruise to the Bahamas, our blog entries will start focusing on preparations and destinations. Therefore I have added a new page under the “Sailor” section of the menu called “Sailor’s Adventures” where the boat dog information will be located. The first entry there is about what we did today, with a short description below.

Every year, shortly after Halloween, the “no kill” Humane Society of The Treasure Coast, located in nearby Palm City, holds a fundraiser in Stuart. Called the “Mutt March,” people pay to enter their dogs in the festivities and buy tickets for a raffle. The dogs come dressed in costumes, participating in a parade and a variety of fun events. More details can be found in the “Sailor” section of this site, located here. The photo below is one of the winners of the costume contest. Walking behind them, I actually thought a real little boy dressed like a cowboy was riding this dog. Very clever costume and very gullible me!

Sailor’s First Doodle Romp

Occasionally the Moss Creek Goldendoodles who live in the same area get together for a “romp.” Today we went to the Delray Beach Dog Park, about an hour south of Stuart, to meet with nine other Moss Creek Goldendoodles, aka McDoodles, and a few non-doodle brothers and sisters. These were the romping doodles: Smoochie, Harlii, Barkley, Cadee, Cassie, Ozzy, Henry, LoLa, Sailor, and Sunnie.

This was Sailor’s first romp and he had a great time, although he started out white and ended up black and white, covered with dog saliva, mulch, and dirt. It is a huge dog park and of course we were in the large dog area, with Sailor being the only puppy. Sailor is fearless and spent a good part of his time rolling in the mulch with other young playful dogs, some doodles and some not. Most of the doodles tended to stay near their people, but a few were enjoying the freedom of running off-leash. After several hours, we drove a few miles to the Village Tavern Restaurant in Boynton Beach for lunch. Below are some pictures from our first romp. At the bottom of this post is a slide show with more photos.

LUNCH AT VILLAGE GREEN IN BOYNTON BEACH

The white doodle at the far left is Harlii, Sailor’s uncle. The white doodle at the center front is Smoochie, Sailor’s aunt. All of the other doodles are from Moss Creek and a few have the same father as Sailor, Bentley.

DELRAY BEACH DOG PARK

Uncle Harlii with nephew Sailor

Someone smaller than me!

Taking a break after rolling in the dirt

This is why he got so dirty……but boy was it fun!

Why is Sailor the only dirty one?

Eventually, Sailor found a bench to sit on so he could rest and watch the other dogs “romping.”

Slideshow pictures below. If they don’t change automatically, use arrows on the side to move manually.

The Long Countdown Begins

Normally at this time of the year we would be almost done checking off lists of things we need to do before we leave for the Bahamas in November. The boat repairs would be almost done and we would be provisioned for six months. However this year due to waiting for Sailor to turn 6 months old in December we have an extra six weeks to get ready.

Mark is in full repair/install mode and he is definitely making lists and checking them off. He has finished the washdown pump installation, which seemed to take longer than anything he has done on the boat, including installing the AIS, the watermaker, the Satellite TV dome, the washer/dryer, the solar panels, batteries, the wind generator, LED lights, and numerous other complicated projects. Why? Well, this installation involved running wire and hoses from one end of the boat to the other, side to side and front to back though walls not intended to have things running through them. All this so we can wash off the deck when we are not at a dock where we can connect our hoses to shore water. The hose is near the anchor, where we can use salt or fresh water to wash off the mud that always comes up with the anchor. In addition, we can connect a regular 50+ ft hose to it to wash the entire boat. In the picture below Mark is down in a locker making a hole to bring the hose out to the deck. Notice he is not smiling.

Here’s the rest of his current list: build a drop leaf cockpit table (which he has just started), put a hinged seat on the salon bench so we can get into the storage under it easier, remove the glass from three corroded bathroom mirrors (each has three sections) and get new glass, install a solar hot water heater, fix the freezer, fix a leak in one water tank, install (many) new 12V outlets, install LED lights in the cockpit, install LED lights in three cabins above beds, install another (6th) battery, and install an SSB antenna. In addition we have to get the mast and sails put back on (called “stepping the mast”) and get cloth sleeves made for the foam cockpit lifeline covers. I suspect more will be added to this “fix” list in the next few weeks.

In the meantime, I need to start thinking about provisioning and making those lists. We will wait to do the actual shopping in early December. Once we start buying six months worth of food, paper products, personal items, etc. it fills a whole cabin and every storage area including the freezer and two refrigerators. We are actually still using supplies we bought a year ago….obviously we overbought. Sadly, I must have been in a hurry last year, or maybe just lazy, but I didn’t keep an itemized data base of what we bought before we left, what we bought in the Bahamas, and what we had left at the end of the trip.

We have to provision for Sailor too. I’m waiting to purchase his lifejacket until just before we leave since he is growing so fast. He is getting the Ruffwear K9 Float Coat Dog Life Jacket. We got a nifty gate that swings open both ways to put in the doorway leading to the cockpit. It’s called the Richell One-Touch Adjustable Pet Gate and is much nicer than baby gates that you have to step over. In the last few days, we have trusted Sailor on the deck without his leash when we are with him. The gate must be kept shut if we can’t keep an eye on him because he isn’t ready to be out there alone and won’t be for awhile. Thank goodness it is finally cool enough to turn off the air conditioning and open the door and windows/hatches. Incidentally, the brown rug by the gate is advertised to “soak up to 7X its weight in water and mud” and dry 5X faster than ordinary door mats. We’ll see how that works with a wet dog coming back from sandy beaches. It’s called a Dog Gone Smart Dirty Dog Doormat. Of course, it is vital to bring six months of dog food with us. We have been using Life’s Abundance Dog Food which we order online. They have a formula for number of cups per day for age/weight and how many cups are in each size bag, so hopefully we’ll figure out the correct number of bags to buy. We’ll also bring any medicine we think he might need. Since he will continue to grow for the second six months of his life, we have to bring larger collars and harnesses which he can grow into. We give him NuVet Plus Vitamins and of course he’ll need six months of heartworm and flea and tick medicine. Last, but probably not least, Sailor has an appointment to be neutered before we go.

Weekend With Sailor

Sailor had his last puppy shots on Wednesday and on Saturday we decided to take him out to dinner with us and then to his first visit to the Stuart Bark Park. Below, Sailor waited for Mark to set up his ramp. He always sits patiently until we say “OK” and then he is allowed to walk down the ramp to the dock below. During previous car rides, Sailor has been a bit unsteady sitting or standing on the back seat. We bought him a “hammock” and this was his first ride in it. There are openings for seat belts, therefore he can still have his seat belt harness locked in. Yes, he is getting bigger and can now see out the car windows. He weighed 23 pounds at his vet visit on Wednesday.

This was his third visit to Toojay’s and once again he behaved perfectly. He slept under the table while we ate and when we were finished he sat and waited while we got ready to leave.

After dinner, we walked next door to West Marine to buy some hose for our new washdown pump. West Marine allows dogs in the store, especially ones as well behaved as Sailor.

Next we went to the dog park. We brought him into the “little dog area” but he seemed to want to be in the “big dog area” on the other side of the fence. Actually, the little dogs felt that way too, either barking at him or refusing to play. They were nice dogs but weren’t interested in rolling around on the ground with a puppy. Perhaps there needs to be a “puppy area.”

More fun was in store for Sailor on Sunday. We had been in contact with another Moss Creek Goldendoodle family who live near us in Palm City. We met Marilynn, Ray, and Smoochie at the Downtown Stuart Craft Show, a short walk from the marina. Smoochie is the sister of Sailor’s father, Bentley, so today he met his aunt. It took a long time to walk through the show because we had to stop every few feet for people to admire and ask questions about Smoochie and Sailor (aka Mini-Me). We met quite a few other dogs, including several Goldendoodles. One, named Max, turned out to be another “relative” from Moss Creek. Stuart is a very dog friendly town.

We met in the park near the marina and Aunt Smoochie had to explain to Sailor, with a few barks, that she wasn’t interested in puppy play. Eventually they calmed down for a picture and we walked to the craft show.

One of the dogs we met at the fair was another Moss Creek Goldendoodle named Max. By next summer, Sailor will be the size of Max who is much bigger than he appears in this picture.

After a fun time, and four new scarves for Sailor purchased from one of the venders, we headed back on the boardwalk. When we got to the boat, an exhausted Sailor slept for the rest of the day. As a boat dog, Sailor will be meeting many new people as well as lots of dogs, and this weekend he showed us that he is up for the challenge.

Introducing First Mate Sailor Doodle

On July 24, 2013, our wonderful dog Daisy Doodle died. You can read about her here. At first we didn’t know if we would get another dog while living aboard the boat. However, after realizing that Daisy was a big part of all of our cruising adventures, we decided to start looking for a puppy. We visited the local animal shelter and most of the dogs were pit bull mixes. Nearby rescues didn’t have any Goldendoodle puppies available. Eventually we found a breeder in Florida, Moss Creek Goldendoodles. We called Kelli, the owner, and she told us there were two puppies available. We found out later that this is highly unusual since most of their puppies are taken before the litters are even born. They do temperament testing on the puppies at six weeks and as soon as she had done this, she chose which puppy would be best for our living conditions. The other available puppy went to a family with children. We wanted to give him a nautical name and chose Sailor.

We got to see him when he was eight weeks old. Moss Creek does not allow visitors until then because they are worried about the puppies getting Parvo. We fell in love but did not take him home right away. We decided to leave him there for another month to live with a trainer and attend “Boot Camp.” When we picked him up on September 7th he was very calm and well behaved. He was housebroken, walked nicely on a loose leash, was on a schedule that matched ours, was crate trained, and knew the basic obedience commands. He sits for everything: before he eats, before he goes outside or comes in, when someone wants to pet him during his walks, before he goes in his crate, etc.

Of course, a very important thing for a boat dog to learn is to “go potty” on the deck. Daisy would never do this. It’s rarely needed as we can almost always take him for walks ashore, but there are times when we must sail overnight or can’t get ashore due to weather or not finding a beach near an anchorage. Sailor was already trained to ring a bell when he needed to go outside. We took him on his leash to the front of the boat where we had placed a piece of artificial grass on one of the trampolines. By the end of the first day, he was “going” there. We also take him for four walks a day, after each meal and before he goes to sleep at night. In between, he uses the boat, since puppies “go” a lot.

Sailor is turning out to be more than we hoped for in a new member of our family. We will always miss Daisy but are so happy to have Sailor onboard with us.

SV Seas the Day

Life Aboard Our Lagoon 420 Catamaran