I have two Portuguese Water Dogs (they love the water - were bred to work on fishing boats), and am interested in taking one or both kayaking with me. I am interested in opinions about the best kind of boat to take mid size dogs (60-65 lbs). SOT? Recreational boat such as a tandem Loon? Would love to get suggegstions and hear experiences.
Sounds like you need a canoe!
You are talking about the equivalent combined weight of a second human.
You might consider an outrigger/platform attachment, such as that tested in the latest SeaKayaker Magazine. It would provide a stable platform for the dogs (and you) and would allow them to enter and exit the water without capsizing you.
Jim
The topic has been disscussed
– Last Updated: Nov-03-05 10:02 AM EST –
in some detail on TopKayaker.net.
http://topkayaker.net/Articles/Instruction/KayakingPets.htm
http://topkayaker.net/cgi-bin/TopYak/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=3;t=000100#000000 (you'll have to copy and paste this entire string to get to the proper forum discussion on dogs & kayaks)
A friend has a large…
…golden retriever, and he sits in the bow seat of her tandem SOT Wilderness Systems boat. She beaches the boat every so often, and he hops out to do his thing. He is very quiet and behaved, and it took him about three attempts to get the hang of jumping in/out of the boat comfortably.
On another note, I recently read about a guy with a dory who took his large dog out…the dog kept moving about and changing the ballast. He joked that next time he would recruit a herd of weiner dogs and mush them either fore or aft as ballast to compensate for the conditions!
Kyle
Valley aleut 2
has a large center hatch which works well for my 97 pound lab. With 2 dogs you could put the other dog in the front seat. My dog loves his boats ( yes the canoes and the double kayak are his) and he his quite the celebrity around here. People in the cruise ships are always taking our picture.
paddling with dogs
Here is an entry in my paddling weblog with some pictures of dogs and kayaks:
http://users.frii.com/uliasz/weblog/C297962235/E1162762177/index.html
and I will have soon another entry from paddling with my Newfy girl Dax in Sea Wind canoe (she is seating behid me). I am not sure if I would like to paddle with two Newfounlands …
Oddly enough…
…you’re probably better off with two dogs who
don’t like to swim.
Our Dals liked to swim.
We took them in our canoe.
We swam a lot.
Back and forth, “Oh, oh, oh, come here and look
at this wave, Scaramouche.” “Oh, cool, did you
see the crawdad over here?” “Say, the water is
much tastier over THIS side of the canoe.” “It’s
nice, but run over here and try it on THIS side.”
Don’t get me wrong, it was a lot of fun, but hard
to maintain trim with 170+ pounds of dogs running
randomly around in the canoe.
Sot’s Work Well
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http://community.webshots.com/photo/64199922/64384008pRUmEn
But my personal preference is for a canoe instead.
http://community.webshots.com/photo/336213971/336232321BuTmjT
http://community.webshots.com/photo/336213971/336218341ngPMGx
Here is a crazy Jack Russell terrier
that would ride a log down the river if it had to…and roll it all the way
http://photobucket.com/albums/b315/Indy425/?action=view¤t=JackRussell.jpg
paddling with Newfoundland
I added pictures of my Newfy girl, Dax, as my training partner in Sea Wind Canoe to my “Dogs and Kayaks” blog entry:
http://users.frii.com/uliasz/weblog/C297962235/E1162762177/index.html
As an owner of a Dal
I had to chuckle reading your post and picturing these 2 energetic canines racing about! Mine is afraid of sponge bath, so he is not a candidate for boating excursions.
Feathercraft Java or Gemini
The Feathercraft SOTs are good for dogs because there is not a cockpit that they have to fit into. Also, they can jump out and you can help pull them back in. Plus, since they are folding kayaks, you can take these boats anywhere. They are light and fast. Here is a page with a photo of us paddling with our dog:
http://foldingkayak.com/kayaks.htm#Gemini
(Scroll down to Gemini)
Or see here:
http://www.bender-high.com/gallery/view_photo.php?set_albumName=kayaking_2005&id=sm_IMG_1257