Godrick

I thought I will take sometime to introduce Godrick

He is a Jack Russell crossed with a Yorkshire Terrior, and the most stubborn dog going and not a natural on the boat

I will be arranging a trip to the Vet for some gender alterations at some point due to "manic behaviour". Hopefully he will become calmer.

To actually go on holiday he had a special collar, that emited phermones that a mother dog releases when feeding (if I remember correctly). This puts Godrick in a "happy place" Valuim for dogs.

When we take him out on the boat, he refuses to settle completely and spends most of the time running from side to side, panting and moaning. With the collar on for 7 days he will start to settle. The strange thing is he will only lie on rope. I have bought the lovely beds that he will happliy use at home, but on the boat, not a chance. If he is on deck only rope will do.

He is also completely hopless at using the plank to get on and off the boat. He just falls off everytime. This has now resorted in a complete refusal to using the boarding plank. It has resorted in the most hilarious situations you can visualise. Even with a line of doggie chocs 6 inches apart leading up the bank, upto the plank and into the boat will not intice. Just a look that says "do you think I am that stupid?"

Because he is also a small dog, life jackets, even the tiny ones do not fit, so he wears a harness attached to a neon 6 foot lead that is attached to the boat. If he falls off it is short enough that he goes no where near the prop.

In light of the above, he does tend to jump ship every time we get near a bank which does cause problems if we are not mooring, but just passing other boats.

The biggest mishap happen last year. This time we were actually mooring up and my husband was off the boat with the centre line, when a dutch barge came hammering by. Out boat was sucked away from the bank. Godrick decided that he wanted land, and land now so jumped. My husband could see what was going to happen and shouted. I only caught the last part which I thought was "get the dog", he maintains he said "unhitch the dog"

So I grabbed the neon lead to lift him on board, not realising at that point our boat was about 4 foot away from the bank, well last time I look we were only 8 inches away. The resulting action was a wide eyed puppy approx 3 months old, being dragged, with his bum skimming the water into the side of boat, legs splayed. It was a real Tom and Jerry moment.

It is no wonder this dog does not like water!!!! it seems that only bad things happen when he is on the boat.