"just me" wrote in message
...
I took my little dog with me for her first "offshore" experience. Sailed
outside from Charleston to St. Augustine. Tink is 3 years old and weighs
about 5#. She would not go to the bathroom! 31 hours! She did not seem
to be in distress. I had brought a litter box lined with scented puppy
pads. She would sit in (unwillingly) but no go. We tried everything we
could think of. No luck. When we docked she went to the grass and did
everything..twice. What do you folks who travel with dogs do? Help!



There was an article written by a vet in one of the sailing magazines a few
years ago on this problem. It seems that dogs have, relatively speaking,
enormous bladders and a lot of neurological control over them- this is
because they need to carry a lot of urine and have the ability to pass very
small amounts, so that they can mark territory in the wild.

The vet's comment was that large dogs can easily go 36-48 hours without
distress and smaller dogs 24-36hrs. Bowels apparently are also much more
robust than humans.

When we went cruising with our Cavalier King Charles Spaniel- about 8kgs-
she was never troubled by 24 hour gaps in going ashore. She learned to go in
the right spot on the deck when out for longer but never went more than once
a day.

When she became an old dog (10 years) she lost some of this control.

Peter HK