Dog Gear for Kayaking: Boat Day Kit
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Everything on a boat gets wet and stays wet. Nylon webbing soaks, then sits in a hatch for a week, and by the next trip the whole boat smells like a wet dog you no longer own. This kit swaps the soft gear for coated gear, adds a towel that actually holds water, and uses a treat that survives a sealed dry bag. It does not include a flotation vest, and that is worth saying plainly before anything else.
Read this part before you buy anything
We do not sell a canine life jacket. A dog that swims well still needs one on open water, because currents, cold and a long swim back to a hull are a different problem from a pond. Buy the vest separately, fit it on land, and let the dog wear it in shallow water before it ever sits in a kayak. Everything below assumes that has already happened. The rest of our trip kits sit on the Bundle Guides hub, and if the water you are heading for is a creek rather than a bay, the creek crossing water play kit is the shallower version.
Coated collar, short lead, shammy and sardines
The collar comes off nylon for a reason. Lucky Dog Pet Company describes the Waterproof Dog Collar in blue as a PVC collar made for rain, sleet and snow, in Small, Medium and Large, and describes the material as odor free and made to withstand the elements. Odor is the honest selling point on a boat. A coated collar rinses under a tap and goes back in the hatch without curing into anything.
Short is right for a deck, so the leash matters as much as the collar. Wildebeest describes the Funston as coated webbing built to resist water and wear, scratch resistant, stink and pill free, with a matte finish that wipes clean. Wildebeest also lists a nylon wrapped handle with a D ring and a swivel hook at the clip end that keeps the lead from twisting. It comes in 4 foot and 6 foot lengths. Take the 4 foot. On a kayak, the extra two feet is just more line to find a cleat.
Water comes out of a bag rather than a bowl. Wildebeest describes the Bernal as a collapsible feeding set of two bowls, one for food and one for water, in ripstop nylon, popping open in seconds and folding flat into a compact zippered case. Folded, it takes up less room than a sandwich. Wildebeest gives the two bowls a combined 8 cups, more than a day on the water asks for.
The shammy is the one people underrate until the drive home. Rubyloo describes it as sized for medium and large dogs after a bath, a swim or a muddy trail, sold as a 1 Pack or 2 Pack at 34 by 26 inches each. Rubyloo says it is used damp, wrings out easily, goes in the machine, and dries a dog faster than a cotton towel, and that a smaller dog's owner can cut one down to size. Wring it into the water rather than the car and it is ready to use again in a minute.
Our freeze-dried whole sardines are the recall payment. One ingredient, whole sardines, freeze-dried in small batches in Malvern, Pennsylvania, in three sizes. The bones are small and soft, and the freeze-drying keeps them brittle. That is the property that matters in a hatch, because the bag can be resealed and stowed and still come out as pieces rather than dust.
What other boat dog lists include and we left out
Most lists lead with a ramp or a boarding step. That is real gear for a powerboat with freeboard, and it is useless on a sit on top kayak where the dog steps aboard from a knee deep launch. We left it out rather than sell you the wrong solve. We also skipped a floating toy. A dog that is learning to be still on a hull should not be learning that objects get thrown off it.
The first time the dog is on the water
Do the whole rig in the driveway first. Vest on, collar on, short leash, dog sitting in the boat on the trailer or the grass. Feed sardines for sitting still, and end it before the dog gets bored.
Launch in flat, shallow water. Ten minutes of paddling in a cove tells you more than an hour on open water, and it gives you somewhere to land if the dog decides standing up is a good idea.
Leash the dog on the dock and unclip it on the boat, never the reverse. A leash clipped to a dog that goes over the side of a moving kayak is the worst version of this day.
Towel on the dock, not in the car. Wring it out at the launch and the drive home is a damp dog instead of a soaked seat.
What it replaces
Coated collar and coated leash replace two nylon items that would otherwise live in a bag smelling of pond. The shammy replaces two beach towels, which is a real saving of hatch space on a kayak. And one bag of sardines replaces the pocket of soft treats that turn into a smear the first time the boat takes a wave.
Questions about vests, leads and sardines
Do I need a life jacket for a dog that swims well?
Yes, and we do not sell one, so buy it before the trip rather than after. Swimming ability is not the variable on open water. Distance, current and cold are, and a vest buys you the time to get a tired dog back to the hull.
Four foot or six foot leash on a boat?
Four, on a kayak or a small deck. Six is the better walking length and the worse boat length, because slack line finds cleats, rudder cables and feet. Buy the six footer as the second leash if you want one lead for both.
Will freeze-dried sardines fall apart in a dry bag?
Reseal the bag after opening and store it cool and dry, which on a kayak means the dry bag rather than an open hatch. Break what you need into pieces at home and carry those in a pouch, so the bag itself gets opened once a trip.
Three makers ship their own boxes, so a trip you are planning for next weekend needs ordering now rather than Thursday. Lucky Dog Pet Company items are sold and shipped by Lucky Dog Pet Company through Shopify Collective, not made or shipped by Sniff and Shift. Wildebeest items are sold and shipped by Wildebeest through Shopify Collective, not made or shipped by Sniff and Shift. Rubyloo items are sold and shipped by Rubyloo through Shopify Collective, not made or shipped by Sniff and Shift. Our sardines leave Malvern on their own. If your dog will not work for fish, Explore filters the range by protein, life stage and format, and the outdoor trip kits cover the rest of the water and weather problems, including the beach day kit. Fit the vest tonight, on dry land, before you think about the boat.
