Dog Paddling article

I just read the P-net article on Dog Paddling by Shawn James and although ok, I find it incomplete.
Since the article is a reprint, the link-after-link to contact the writer is so complicated, I gave up.
Basically, although he ‘suggests’ a PFD for your dog, none of his pics SHOW his dog in one. My Min-Pin always wears his PFD. He hates it but knows that when I pull it out, he is going paddling and gets excited.
Maria and Robert also insist on their dogs wearing a PFD when they go paddling.
The Article suggests a dog-bed for the bottom of your paddlecraft. BUT, anything made of cloth will absorb water and get wet and cold and no dog likes to lay in a cold & wet bed. I put blue-foam pads in my kayak and canoe as it gives the dog a secure footing which they love and any water settles beneath the pad to keep his feet warm and dry.
Training a dog ranges from easy to difficult. With Ladybug, she hated the kayak so I simply bribed her with slices of home-dehydrated apple until she would enter and sit on command.
With my Pug it was more difficult as he fell into a swimming pool and almost drowned so is terrified of water. I had to get him used to his PFD, then get him used to standing on a pool floatie and so on until he learned that he wouldn’t actually BE IN the water. So now he loves to go kayaking and stands on the deck as a hood ornament. When the water gets rough, he returns to sit in my lap until we reach clear water again.
At one paddle-fest, he learned that he could walk through shallow water to a sand-bar where he would stand in his PFD and bark at passing boats until they gave him a ride.
I think the article needs work.

How was your dog/paddle experiences?

Well Rik, I’m on my second paddling dog…first was a black lab and this one is a mostly coonhound mutt. I use two kneeling pads to make sure there is solid footing. I had both on a short leash the first few days until they understood “settle down”. I also carry mini-milkbones in my pocket so they get rewarded for good behavior or if I accidentally splash them or whack them while hit and switch paddling.

The lab would just sit in front of me like a soldier for hours on end, even getting covered in snow or soaked in rain. She would roll over on her back when she felt playful and sometimes barked…so others would just see 4 feet bouncing up over my rails. She actually jumped into an empty solo boat several times when I was launching…I put the boat in, turned around to grab my pack and she jumped in before I turned around. Seems impossible. She would lay down with her head on the gunnel and not even perk her ears up when we passed within a few feet of other boats on the river. The coonhound is also a fine canoe dog…even though she shivers and her teeth chatter in colder weather and she refuses to wear a coat because they are confining…and she does not like the sound of powerboats. The lab would let me lean the boat and freestyle it while the coonhound likes to help keep the boat upright…although one time crossing an eddy line under a railroad bridge going upstream in a Royalex Wenonah Rendezvous (known to be squirrelly as heck) the boat suddenly leaned way over and took a bunch of water…and the lab shifted her weight and saved us from a pretty intense situation.