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12/30/2023 09:59PM |
Her name’s Kitty. She’s a lab/golden mix. I’m looking forward to our future adventures.
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01/13/2024 08:18AM |
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01/02/2024 09:49PM |
LindenTree: "Nice setup Jaywalker, what are you paddling?"SRQ 16 in le Tigre red. The flat Canadian style yoke with a pad is great for dogs to rest their chins.
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12/29/2023 08:00AM |
Pactice with your pup, I usually make my dogs lay down in the canoe. They rest their heads on the thwarts or gunnels and look out.
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12/29/2023 10:39AM |
Issue is we need to find a place to practice before we go on a trip.
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12/29/2023 10:36AM |
Great looking puppy! I’ll admit it took years to get my lab to be mellow in a canoe. Lots of patience needed, these dogs are fools for swimming.
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12/30/2023 12:54PM |
Give her a place to be in the canoe, a pad helps, and constantly work on the "sit" and "stay" commands. A paddle blade lightly across the backside helps.
Wear her out playing/running the portages so she sleeps on the pad.
Set the canoe in the yard, get in it with her and let her get comfortable in it before hitting the water for the first time.
Great looking pup, I just love yellow pups. What's her name?
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12/31/2023 09:54AM |
A second aspect of not tipping is assessing and working to control your dog's prey drive. When you paddle past another canoe with a dog, or land a fish in your canoe, or see wildlife, you need to understand how your dog wants to react and work to make them calm and steady. Every dog's personality will be different on this. My younger, smaller girl has a much stronger prey drive than her older brother did. We work to control it almost every day in the city parks where I can find plenty of squirrels to help us. She has learned she is not allowed to chase them (no matter how badly she wants to) unless I tell her it's ok. Mostly I make her walk right past. Teaching her to be still/calm when wildlife is around will help you both in camp and in the canoe.
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01/14/2024 03:31PM |
Lots of great advice above so I don't have anything new to add. I met one of Jaywalker's dogs and it was an absolute sweetheart and he did a great job of training. Definitely follow his lead.
Echo my lab mix is 12 years old now and did his first trip at 6 months. I'm really going to miss having him along when he can't trip with me anymore. I'll repeat how important that voice control is for the dog getting in and out of the canoe only on command and the prey drive. Echo completely ignores other dogs barking at him when we/they pass by and he ignores wild animals. One time 3 moose ran by causing the ground to shake and he just sat down and looked back at me as if to say "wow, that was cool". He's never barked or made a peep on a trip either. I also lucked out in the fact that he doesn't like the water. He's not afraid of it, he'll walk around in it, he just doesn't go swimming which is really nice because I don't have to worry about a wet dog in the tent or him jumping out of the canoe.
Training and practice are so important, but so is a little bit of luck. We have a 4 year old Newfoundland that I've tried to train for bwca tripping, but I don't think I'll ever be able to take him. He'd make too much noise if we saw other dogs, (he doesn't bark at them, but makes an obnoxious whining noise because he wants to go say hi) and he'd never sit still enough in the canoe. I'd for sure end up swimming. Still hoping he'll come around and calm down some with age. But for now, he won't be going on any trips.
Here's Echo in action being a good canoe dog.
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12/28/2023 12:48PM |
I got a new buddy to travel with. Hoping we hit the BWCA next year. She’ll be about a year old by then.
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01/02/2024 05:49PM |
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01/01/2024 09:12PM |