: I take my 95 lb lab with me all the time. In the past I would only
: take him when I could go with someone else in a canoe.
: Last winter I built a kayak with a rear compartment for him to ride
: in. It is 16 ft long and 28 inches wide. He has fallen out a few
: times when I had to make a sudden turn on a river but has never
: dumped me.

Very nice set-up for you and the dog, Fred. I may have to make a kayak like that for my dog.

I coaxed my cat onto the deck my kayak once, but when I pulled away from the shore she gave me a LOOK
that made me paddle quickly back to let her off. NEVER AGAIN! She let it be known!

So I got an Australian Shepherd, Rosie, and trained her to jump into my Wee Robbie canoe while I had it on the
floor of my shop. She'll do anything for treats. We even paddled together around my pond several times last fall.

Rosie is 18 months old and while she loves to wade, she hates getting wet. She is a herding dog not a water dog.

So I figured I go slow with the canoe. She doesn't like being in the car either! Maybe when she gets older.

We were on the beach a couple weeks ago, going for a walk. A 4 X 8 sheet of 2" blueboard insulation was floating three feet from shore. Imagine my surprise when Rosie launched herself onto the foam board! She was wading along and just jumped on it and the jump propelled the board away from shore and it just kept going further out.

What was she thinking? Look, I've got a boat of my own! I called and called, but of course, she doesn't like water so swimming was
not going to happen.

The tide was going out, and a storm was coming in, so I had to call 911 to rescue my dog!

The fire department came, inflated a zodiac and pushed Rosie to shore. Thanks guys!

I put a video of her on Youtube @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYnMSb4b2uk&feature=channel

Rosie also made the front page of our local newspaper.

I hope I can get her back into my boat come spring.

Rob