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!

Well, we just take a cat along....;-)


"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!

just me wrote:
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!




Train them to use the litterbox BEFORE leaving on a trip. Another way is
to take a piece of indoor/outdoor carpet that you can use on deck and
train them to go on that. Again BEFORE leaving the dock. The carpet can
have a hole punched in it, a line tied to it and dunked in the waterto
clean it. As part of the training, be sure to dunk the carpet in
seawater after a use while training. The carpet/seawater smell will be
different so get the dog used to that.
krj

just me wrote:
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!


Wonder if you took half a 'sod of grass'and put it in a pan might
encourage her.

"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

The solution for your problem is trade dogs with me. My wife's hairball pees
every 5 minutes anywhere he can find.
MMC
"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!

just me wrote:
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!




Feed the thing Ex-Lax. That'll do it.

just me wrote:

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!

KRJ indentified the problem--and the right solution. Your dog is
housebroken, she wouldn't go because she doesn't know it's ok to go on
the boat. She's never used a litter box at home, so she has no way of
knowing what you want her to do with it...ANYwhere "inside" is against
all her training...she thinks she has to hold it till she can get ashore
where she can "go outside." Train her to use the litterbox outside,
then inside at home too...then she'll know she can go in it on the boat.

Btw...there are a couple of good books about cruising with
Pets..."Training Your Dog To Eliminate on Command" is one..."Cruising
With Your Four-Footed Friends" is another.

--
Peggie
----------
Peggie Hall
Specializing in marine sanitation since 1987
Author "Get Rid of Boat Odors - A Guide To Marine Sanitation Systems and
Other Sources of Aggravation and Odor"
http://shop.sailboatowners.com/books...ku=90&cat=1304