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Newbie concerns


Rockchix35

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I am lucky to live near a beautiful part of the grand union that I have enjoyed visiting for walks and the occasional boat trip for many years. Sometimes imagining what life would be like to live on my own boat. I am now in a position to achieve this and have begun to research and find out as much as I can about the lifestyle and what it entails. When I have found my boat, my intention is to moor for the winter months and work in order to fund my cruising for the remainder of the year. I am a nurse working fulltime in the NHS and quite frankly exhausted ;-) I love my job and it is very rewarding in many ways however I am getting older and need a better work/life balance. The more I learn about living in a NB including the trials and tribulations cause me to yearn for that life more. However I have a few concerns mainly about the boat community that I haven’t observed until recently.


 I had an incident with a dog on the tow path near my local marina. I was walking my dog who is a rescue and I hadn’t had her long but I did know she has a low tolerance for other dogs invading her space as she had been attacked herself when younger. So she is always on the lead/harness and her training whilst other dogs pass her was going really well. However on this day as she was going to the loo another dog who was  off lead came  bounding up to her for a friendly sniff and she freaked and managed to bite him before I got her under control. We are now doing muzzle training and avoiding places where there may be other dogs off leads for now. This is my concern as the owner of the other dog informed me that her dog is a boat dog , is friendly and non aggressive because of the lifestyle and is often off lead. Is this common place throughout the canal network? Are dogs often off lead is my concern and how can I ensure this doesn’t happen again.


My other concern was about tolerance for the holiday boaters. Just yesterday I took and friend of mine and his young son for a walk along the canal. As usual everyone you meet along the canal is friendly and we got chatting to a family on a hire boat for a holiday. My friends son was fascinated helping with the lock and asking questions when a couple stormed up to this family and started shouting at them as they had passed them too close and rocked their boat. At one point the male of the couple physically assaulted one of the teenage boys of the family. It was not a nice situation to witness. My point is I can understand how frustrating inexperienced boaters can sometimes be but how common is this level of intolerance?


 

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Dogs.

I suggest that you seek out training and socialisation first.  Sadly, your second option is muzzle. Dogs all have differing temperaments and one did nip my daughter some years ago.  My dog is well socialised and does not carry any past which would suggest poor handling and training.  Well done for rescuing, wish more looked at this first.

Violence on the canal.

In my experience this is very, very rare compared to say town centres and the like but can occur for a multitude of reasons, and not just from hire boaters.  I have not had any altercations but then again nor do I seek such out.  I am not concerned in the least re violence.

These are my personal views, I am sure others will  add their thruppence.

 

ps, welcome to the forum!

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Roxchix, welcome to the forum.

With regard to dogs we have a JRT who we think has been deaf since birth, she is also a rescue dog. Because of her condition we can never let her off the lead when in public as we have no recall. For some reason she has an inbuilt dislike of most other dogs, plus we have tried to socialise her with not a great deal of success. If I see a loose dog I immediately ask the owner to recall it. Often I get "It's all right my dog is ever so friendly." My retort is "Yours might be, mines not, please recall your dog." Occasionally I get told I ought to train my dog properly. I always answer "Are you any good at training a deaf dog because I'm not." 

I have yet to find a dog owner that is able to train a deaf dog. There are yellow leads for nervous dogs https://www.amazon.co.uk/yellow-nervous-dog/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Ayellow nervous dog

Some people you can't tell however - last year I was single handing negotiating a lock. The dog was harnessed on the counter of the boat. A man came and asked if he could help, I politely refused, as I went forward to open the lock gate I said to the man "Don't touch the dog." I had gone about half a dozen paces heard a lot of growling and a yelp from the man. He shouted "Your dogs just bit me." I said "I told you not to touch the dog didn't I." Fortunately he agreed and said it was his fault. I am sorry but I an not going to muzzle my dog because of other peoples stupidity.

Edited by Ray T
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I don't think you should regard these incidents as having anything to do with the boating life specifically. Sometimes if walking a dog in a public place, you might have some sort of issue with a member of the public or with another dog - as far as I can see, there's nothing about the towpath, or about 'boat dogs', that makes this any more or less likely. And sometimes you might witness some sort of altercation - again, I don't think this is any more likely to happen on the towpath between boaters than it is on the pavement between pedestrians, on the road between motorists, or whatever. On the whole I think it's fair to say you're less likely to encounter problems on the waterways than in other places, if only because they're less crowded and hectic in general.

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17 minutes ago, Ray T said:

Roxchix, welcome to the forum.

With regard to dogs we have a JRT who we think has been deaf since birth, she is also a rescue dog. Because of her condition we can never let her off the lead when in public as we have no recall. For some reason she has an inbuilt dislike of most other dogs. If I see a loose dog I immediately ask the owner to recall it. Often I get "It's all right my dog is ever so friendly." My retort is "Yours might be, mines not, please recall your dog." Occasionally I get told I ought to train my dog properly. I always answer "Are you any good at training a deaf dog because I'm not." 

I have yet to find a dog owner that is able to train a deaf dog. There are yellow leads for nervous dogs https://www.amazon.co.uk/yellow-nervous-dog/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Ayellow nervous dog

Some people you can't tell however - last year I was single handing negotiating a lock. The dog was harnessed on the counter of the boat. A man came and asked if he could help, I politely refused, as I went forward to open the lock gate I said to the man "Don't touch the dog." I had gone about half a dozen paces heard a lot of growling and a yelp from the man. He shouted "Your dogs just bit me." I said "I told you not to touch the dog didn't I." Fortunately he agreed and said it was his fault. I am sorry but I an not going to muzzle my dog because of other peoples stupidity.

Feels good that I'm not alone. My dog is thankfully great with people and would show her belly for a rub to an intruder, however I am always very careful around small children now. After the incident I discovered she had a nasty inner ear infection which probably contributed. I do wonder if that was why she was let go. Thankfully she does not appear to have suffered abuse as she is a very trusting, obdedient and affectionate dog. She justs get anxious if another dog gets too close and attacks. I am struggling to get rid of the ear infection though. She has been to the vet and I was warned that is antibiotic resistant. We've not long finished a course of treatment and I am hoping to manage it with regular cleaning. She is not in pain with them and usually is good when I clean them with solution from the vet. I was wondering if there some hear loss too.

I so undertstand what you say about other dog owners response, I have started saying something similar. Just the other day in a local field we visit, I saw another dog off led approaching so I walked my dog to what should have been a safe distance from the path for them to pass and politley requested that they did not let thier dog appraoch mine. 3 times I asked before I had to shout. They were only a few meters from us and thier dog was still loose approaching mine fast who up until that point had remained calm and distracted by me.  

I hate the muzzle too but people do tend to avoid your dog more so hense less shouting at them to stop thier dog approching.

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Hi and welcome. Can't remember seeing any actual physical violence on the canals, the odd shouting match but nothing major. As for dogs I think there are too many wandering around unleashed. Dog owners need to understand that many people do not want dogs running up to them and licking them or putting muddy paw prints on our clothes. Oh and not to mention the flipping dog that left hairs stuck to my just repainted side hatch a couple of days ago. 

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I have a reactive rescue GSD, who initially hated all other dogs but loves people and children.

2 years of training and socialisation, incliding daily pack walks for the last 6 months, has brought him to the stage where he is OK with other dogs when off the lead, unless they attack him,  in which case he tend to over react and goes for the kill. However the pack walks are helping with this.

On the lead, and since I have been taking him on daily walks along the towpath, he can now walk past about 50% of approaching dogs  (up from 0% at the beginning of the year) without incident, but still barks and/or lunges at the other 50%.

I now use a Trixie loop muzzle when he is likely to be in the presence of other dogs, as it allows him to breathe but not bite (although he can nip with it, good for self defence).

https://www.trixie.de/heimtierbedarf/en/shop/Dog/OnTour/Safety/Muzzle+Loop+Nylon/?card=22894

As others have suggested, it is best to try to get your dog socialised as much as possible. It is hard work and takes a long time, but is worth it in the end. 

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Kathy and I are currently having problems..... with our cat Babbage(about 12 years old ). She has decided that the towpath adjoining the boat is hers wherever we moor and has taken to hissing, growling and then attacking every dig that comes past, even if it doesn't approach the boat.

Trying to grab her before she has leapt off the gunnel has resulted in injuries to us both (I'm allergic to cats so mine were quite spectacular for a day or two)  so we are now using bags, coats in front of her etc if we see a dog coming. I don't think she does this when we aren't here, she seems to stay within the cratch or cabin.

We have been told about calming sprays and also water pistols. ☺

The second incident with the humans is very rare, there are twats everywhere and it looks like the hire crew met one.

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3 hours ago, Rockchix35 said:

She is not in pain with them and usually is good when I clean them with solution from the vet.

On the offchance that the solution the vet gave you is Hibiscrub (it's unlikely but hey..) be aware that you can buy it much cheaper in Boots than you can from a vet. 

It's worth any dog owner keeping a bottle of Hibiscrub just in case of any skin infection that the dog might get. Mites, reaction to Tick bites, flea bites etc. all get cleared up with Hibiscrub. 

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