getting 80 pound dog aboard

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dave k

Member
Joined
Jul 23, 2019
Messages
6
Location
United States
Vessel Name
Southern Joy
Vessel Make
Grand Banks Europa
Looking for ways to get my 80 lb 12 year old chocolate lab on board. SHe will not walk a ramp and she is to heavy for me to lift on and off the grand banks. was thinking of some sort of rope and pulley thing attached to some sort of dog sling to swing her on board but have no idea how. Love to hear some successful ideas. THanks
 
Welcome aboard. We have a 85 pound Lab now and before Radar, we had Buddy who was a 122 pound Lab. With Buddy I bought a set of steps and tried to get him on through the side door, no way he would do it even with his favorite treats. Finally made a ramp to go from the dock to the swim platform. First try he walked aboard like it was nothing. With Radar I built a ramp to go up to our sundeck. It was aluminum and a bit slippery so I had it sprayed with Linex bedliner and he will go up and down it easily with a treat. I got tired of lifting the ramp up and down so now we just put the boarding ladder on the side of the boat. I lift his front feet up onto the top step and grab him around the belly and tell him to go and as he jumps I give his back end a boost and he goes right on. We have a PFD for him that wraps around his belly and velcros together. It has 2 handles to lift him. We have a crane on our swim platform for lifting the outboard on and off the dinghy. I was planning to maybe use it to lift him aboard with the PFD, we bought an Outboard Bound Kyjen PFD. Good luck getting your dog onboard, it isn’t fun leaving them behind.
 
Its a problem for us as well. Our lab is 100 plus # and 10 years old and not as agile as before. With our boat being high on the transom, when getting out of the skiff, I coach him to walk over to where the single transom step is and he puts his front paws on it, then I have to lift him up and over the rail to deck. Its a pain, but its still doable, though for how much longer I don't know, a kennel is starting to sound good.
 

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We have a seven year old, 105 lb chocolate lab. Ran into the same problem. A serious pain to lift her four feet above the cockpit to put her on the aft deck and she refused to be lifted to bring her back down. Ended up spending $2000 for custom built stairs. Now, she goes up and down with no problem. Might be a solution for you, some sort of custom stairs on the back.

John
 
What does your deck layout look like? We have direct step-up access to our wide-ish side decks, so the dog (55lb Standard Poodle, previously my parents' 65lb Golden Retriever) just jumps between the boat and the dock. The jump up onto the boat took a little getting used to, but both figured it out pretty quickly and easily.
 

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rslifkin said:
What does your deck layout look like? We have direct step-up access to our wide-ish side decks, so the dog (55lb Standard Poodle, previously my parents' 65lb Golden Retriever) just jumps between the boat and the dock. The jump up onto the boat took a little getting used to, but both figured it out pretty quickly and easily.
Click to expand...

At our house we have a 3 step high boarding platform built into the dock. Radar goes in and out constantly. We have mooring whips that hold the boat about 4’ or so off the dock. Radar is fearless and jumps the 4 to 5’ without hesitation. I worry about the time he misses but so far he has not missed. At other docks when he gets off he steps on to the top step of the boarding ladder and then jumps the rest of the way. Also a bit scary but he doesn’t seem to give it a thought. Getting back on at other docks I give him a boost and he goes up easily.
 
angus99 said:
It wasn’t easy, but we trained our 115-lb male Ridgeback to use a ramp after I tore a rotator cuff lifting him onto our sundeck. Lifting a large struggling dog is dangerous!
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thanks for great feedback seems I am not the first to have this problem. My Cockpit is not accessible via the swim platform except by steps which my Lab will not go up or down. I will work on the rope and pulley idea some more and best current option seems to be training a 12 year old arthretic dog to walk the ramp I have.
 
angus99 said:
It wasn’t easy, but we trained our 115-lb male Ridgeback to use a ramp after I tore a rotator cuff lifting him onto our sundeck. Lifting a large struggling dog is dangerous!
Click to expand...

thanks for great feedback seems I am not the first to have this problem. My Cockpit is not accessible via the swim platform except by steps which my Lab will not go up or down. I will work on the rope and pulley idea some more and best current option seems to be training a 12 year old dog to walk the ramp I have.
 
We have a crane on our transom that we could pick up Radar with, maybe. I will post a photo of it. However I have not tried it so I am not really sure it will work. Radar is pretty trusting of me doing thing so he might do it. He does like his PFD because we give him treats when we put it on him. I then pick him up and carry him around. He tolerates it because of the treats. He is bery food driven.
 

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I built an aluminum ramp like the link above for my last lab when she got old. She made it to 14. I mount it sideways on the swim platform with some detachable legs. Current young lab jumps from the dock to the swim platform and usually bypasses the ramp and jumps the 4' to the deck. I also have a ramp that attaches to the swim platform going into the water so she can get out when we're anchored. Also great for divers.
I've trained several balky dogs to climb a ramp or stairs. The first time, maybe couple times, you have to force the timid ones. I use a loop of line behind their butt along with their leash. Like training a horse to lead. Sometimes you can just get behind them and push.
 
MV Wanderlust said:
We have a seven year old, 105 lb chocolate lab. Ran into the same problem. A serious pain to lift her four feet above the cockpit to put her on the aft deck and she refused to be lifted to bring her back down. Ended up spending $2000 for custom built stairs. Now, she goes up and down with no problem. Might be a solution for you, some sort of custom stairs on the back.

John
Click to expand...


Please post a pic of your custom dog stairs. And the fabricator. We have an 85 lb aging lab we don't want to leave at home. The previous boat had a transom door which made it east. A ramp from the dock to the swim step, or a hop from the dinghy. Easy peasy. Not so with the current boat
 
I love dogs. I'd never boat with one.


It seems to me that just as we select a boat to match our own physical limitations as we age, it would make sense to pick a boat that would match our dogs physical limitations as they age.


I would be very concerned about depending on a block and tackle with harness to get a large dog on and off the boat. I can see too many ways the dog could become injured as it is something that would have to be done at least a couple times a day.
 
Lepke said:
I built an aluminum ramp like the link above for my last lab when she got old. She made it to 14. I mount it sideways on the swim platform with some detachable legs. Current young lab jumps from the dock to the swim platform and usually bypasses the ramp and jumps the 4' to the deck. I also have a ramp that attaches to the swim platform going into the water so she can get out when we're anchored. Also great for divers.
I've trained several balky dogs to climb a ramp or stairs. The first time, maybe couple times, you have to force the timid ones. I use a loop of line behind their butt along with their leash. Like training a horse to lead. Sometimes you can just get behind them and push.
Click to expand...
thanks will be persistent at training her to do the ramp
 
Portage_Bay said:
Please post a pic of your custom dog stairs. And the fabricator. We have an 85 lb aging lab we don't want to leave at home. The previous boat had a transom door which made it east. A ramp from the dock to the swim step, or a hop from the dinghy. Easy peasy. Not so with the current boat
Click to expand...

love to see pic of your custom built stairs thanks
 
We got a bunch of doggie pads and did some training at home before we spent 45 days on the boat in case Radar had to go when we could not get him to shore. Got some astroturf and had him pee on it at home. Cut some pieces and took them onboard with us. Was going to put the pee pads under the turf. But we never needed to use it. Maybe something like that will make it less often getting your dog off and on the boat.
 
:)
Comodave said:
Nice looking
ramp.
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I bought the exact same ramp for Lager the yellow lab. Scares him poopless. There isn't enough bacon in Iowa to get him to put his back paws on it.
 
We had a black Lab, Buddy, that didn’t like slick tile floors. He would stand on carpet and reach into the kitchen for treats, but if you put the treat 1” past his reach with his back feet on the carpet, he would not even try to reach the treat. Don’t know why he was like that but he never changed.
 
Comodave said:
We had a black Lab, Buddy, that didn’t like slick tile floors. He would stand on carpet and reach into the kitchen for treats, but if you put the treat 1” past his reach with his back feet on the carpet, he would not even try to reach the treat. Don’t know why he was like that but he never changed.
Click to expand...

On that note, as my parents' golden got older, she got much more nervous about slippery surfaces and jumping on / off the boat. So we got her sneakers. Once she got used to them, she was back to jumping just fine as she had more grip. Well, as fine as she ever did, as she wasn't a great jumper to start with.

Our current poodle doesn't care about slippery surfaces, but he ignores the problem to an almost dangerous extent (sliding into walls at full speed in the house doesn't seem to bother him at all). So we got him sneakers before he ever stepped foot on the boat. Took him a couple hours to really get used to them, but now he likes them. And if we pull them out in the house, he gets immediately excited. For the jumping part, he might as well be made of springs, so as long as he can make the landing without sliding into the water, he's good to go.
 
Our dog, Radar, loves going out on the bow of the boat. But it only has about 1” of a toe rail and I am worried that he may slide overboard. Actually when we get close to a dock he jumps for the dock because he wants to be first everywhere. I guess you learn something everyday because I didn’t know they made sneakers for dogs. May have to look into them...
 
Next time, get small dog. :flowers:
 
Last year our 100 # lab was on the beach with me on Matia Is. I wanted to go up the hill to take pix, but dog didn't want to follow me up. So I just went on up the hill, thinking dog would stay there till I got back. But nooooo!


Dog could see the boat and my wife sitting outside. So dog decides to swim back to the boat! I hear my wife yelling, I see whats happening, run back to the skiff and head back as fast as I can with the 4hp outboard. Dog has beat me to the boat but of course cant pull himself up on to the swim step, wife cant pull a hundred pound wet dog out of the water either.
So after much pushing and pulling, using lines and life jackets and whatever else is at hand, we finally got the boob onto the step to shake off the water, and coaxed him back on the boat. Quite a process!
 
That would be a scary situation. Glad you got the dog aboard.
 
We had a similar incident the very first overnight outing with our boat.

At 8:00 AM I had hand loaded the dogs into the dink to make a potty run to shore. Half way there the 90 pound dog decides to bail out and swim back to the boat. By the time I had rowed back and side tied away from the swim platform, he was attempting unsuccessfully to get up on his own.

My wife held him up until I could lift him aboard - we both got drenched. The knucklehead only did it once.
 
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