# River rapid dog



## River123 (Jul 12, 2015)

My 11 week old vizsla is going to be taking a river rapid trip and camping trip with us. He will be 4 months old then. I took him on a canoe trip and he did pretty good. He didn't want to dry in the canoe but on the way back he loved the canoe. He was cold though. I was thinking about for our trip to bring a bed with us, so he can lay down and sleep maybe. It will probably be a 5 hour canoe trip. Is there anything specific that I should do/bring on the trip?


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## mswhipple (Mar 7, 2011)

For about $20, maybe you could get him a dog life jacket. Just "Google" dog life jacket. This would serve the dual purpose of protecting him from drowning, and also helping him to stay warmer. 

_(Okay, maybe in the range of $20 - $50 ... I just checked.)_


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## R E McCraith (Nov 24, 2011)

Riv - V4 you go - make sure your V is happy in the water !!!!!!! MSW is right get a good vest - let me add - get 1 with handles - so you can lift the pup back into the canoe !!!!!!!!


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## Canadian Expy (Feb 27, 2013)

As a canoe tripper who wants to introduce our pup to white water tripping eventually, we have been doing gradual introductions. He is getting better and better in a canoe, but the sound of rapids causes him to become somewhat exciteable and anxious since he is not used to that sound, and movement of the canoe. Each trip we go on we try to hit some very small rapids to get him use to the sound, and movement of the canoe as it goes over them (the last thing I want him to do is to jump ship when I'm trying to control the bow o). Our boy is 2.5 years, and we have been working on it for the past 2 summers, and continue to this year. 

Perhaps your pup is less cautious than mine and may be fine, but I would be cautious to jump in too quickly, as the last thing you want is the pup to be fearful of something you want to do for years to come. It's easy to control a 4 months old pup in a canoe, far less so with our 65 lbs male who can easily capsize you  (our problem)

I would absolutely get a lifejacket with a handle for easy retrieval should you need it. For now since your pup is growing I would get a cheaper one, but once full grown I would invest in a quality, comfortable jacket. 

I would also get some sort of mat for the canoe that allows the dog to have traction, as this is a comfort in itself when you have a canoe that is isn't on nice flat open water. When they lose traction, they can panic. 

Good luck and let us know how it goes


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