I'd like to take my 18 month old Border Collie on a trip I'm taking at the end of August. I took him in January and he loved that. Wide open frozen lake where he could run all day long.

The dog loves boating, I take him in my walleye boat and he loves that. But he hates water. We went hiking in St. Paul and came to a boardwalk that was underwater by an inch for 2 feet and he refused to cross.

There are 5 guys on the trip and we're doing 8-10 portages a day. I'm sure I could get him to jump in and out of the canoe if we could get it close but I'm afraid of having to carry him in and out of the canoe 20 times a day.

How do people load/unload their dogs? Do you lift them in and out? Am I overthinking this?

Thanks

I took my 2 year old border collie who didn't swim at the time in 2013. She loved it and would just jump in and out of the canoe at the landings. She always wears a life jacket in the boat and I leave it on for portages.

At 3 years old she finally starting swimming. For nice quality dog coats check out this company. I really like the 2 coats I bought with them. D fa Dogs

Here's Luna in Quetico.

Thanks Tom,
I'd read your "1st trip" post and found some useful information there. Hadn't thought about a life jacket before that, but will definitely get one. He's fallen off of docks a couple times and always has this horribly panicked look on his face.

Luna's a good looking dog. I got mine as a rescue and love the border collie. Will probably look for a merle next time.

Yeah I'll always be a BC owner. Love those dogs, Luna is our 2nd.

The life vest is just for peace of mind if I happen to dump the boat out from shore. Also, on our first trip I was fishing and accidentally tapped her on the head with my rod and startled her. She immediately bailed out of the boat. Luckily we were near shore and she swam for it.

Good luck and post pics if you can.

It took some work, but my dog will wait for my command to either get in or out of the canoe. Funny thing is, he is a lab and is always in the water, but seems to want to get in and out "dry footing" it, but its not always possible. I sometimes thing he can not see how deep the water is. If your dog is really troubled by getting his feet wet, it could slow you down on portages a bit.

It took some work and practice as Jaywalker stated.... but Echo waits for my command to get in and out of the canoe. He also does not see how deep the water is and tries to dry foot his exit/entry. Echo is not afraid of the water as he walks around in the lake a lot, but he is an odd lab that doesn't voluntarily go swimming.

If your dog is that afraid of getting it's feet wet and won't get in/out of the canoe on it's own it could make for some time consuming and frustrating portages.

If you buy a lifejacket, most of them have a handle on the back. If you can't get your dog to jump in and out of the canoe on command, you can always use the handle to lift them out.

Echo sounds like my black lab. Loves to stand in the water, but not so much on swimming unless it's to retrieve a bobber while we're trying to fish..

My dog just jumps in and out when I give him the go ahead. Getting in the canoe he can usually stay dry as I position the canoe along shore to give him access to his spot. When we pull up to unload he stays in the canoe while me and my partner exit the canoe then I position the canoe next to shore so that he can jump out. Occasionally he has to get a bit wet but he doesn't really mind and he's got a short coat so it dries super quick.

You may find that there will be portage landings that you'll have to lift the dog in or out and others you can let the dog jump. My biggest concern would be that the dog may jump but end up still landing in the water to some extent. If the dog really hates water and that happens it may build the connection between canoe and water and then develop an aversion to the canoe as well. You want to avoid that while in the BWCA.

I'd advise a reasonable amount of practice and training ahead of a BWCA trip. A little bit of conditioning the dog to the water may help. You may never get the dog to love water but if you can get the dog ok with at least getting its legs wet that will make your life a lot easier.