A couple of helpful hints – the first time you decide to wait overnight – do not give in, it will be hard…. at least have Honey pee. All three dogs didn’t wait longer than the next morning – so hopefully you’ll have success. The next bit of advice – when you are out cruising, and Honey is good about going, she will probably still prefer land….. when at anchor (we don’t ever have them go in the marina – as you can probably guess), in the mornings – it’s a good habit to have her go aboard before heading to shore for playtime. This helped keep her comfortable with it….. and passages less stressful.

I wish we did. We can’t afford a house and a boat at the same time.

We’ve only been able to try Honey out on a sailboat by chartering two pet-friendly boats. But even I am not brazen enough to ask a stranger if I could let my dog poop on their boat to practice. 🙂

You’re talking about the Monks of New Skete. And yes, I did something similar with Honey.

We she goes outside to pee, I tell her to “hurry up.” When she needs to poop, I tell her “find a spot.” But it seems that pooping is more difficult to do on cue.

I’m hoping that the years I spent reinforcing the cues do help us on the boat. Keep reading to see if I’m right. 🙂

You’re right, I was smiling.

Honey has been so adaptable. I hope she can make this adjustment. But if she can’t, it just means we’ll be exploring closer to land. And I suspect there’s plenty to entertain us throughout the coastal U.S., Canada, and Caribbean.

Shadow epitomizes the true home body, doesn’t she?

Thanks for the encouragement, Kim. At least it’s possible to train a change, even if difficult.

Of course, we don’t have to take long passages in order to have a grand adventure. So if Honey’s bladder requires, we’ll just stay fairly close to land.

We have picked up poop and moved it onto her mat to leave a scent. But I never though of taking some with me onto the boat. Clever thought.

We’re emailing a prospective boat owner today. Maybe I could even send him a morsel on dry ice and ask him to drop it on his deck in advance? 🙂

Sorry you’re changing your email. It’s almost as awful as changing your name when you’ve had one a long time.

You should have future comments come through automatically under your new email address.

That must make it awfully hard to travel. Maybe you need to tell your stinkers that they’d get to go on more fun vacations if they’d become less fussy. 🙂

I’m really hoping Honey doesn’t follow Bailie’s example. She’s not THAT particular so there’s that.

And I have heard of dogs that held it for 3 days on a boat. I would never subject Honey to that.