In this video, Liveaboard Cruising with a Dog in the Caribbean The Pros and Cons, get up close and personal with our third full time crewmwmber; Zeus! We go ...

Closed Captions (CC):
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last time

on sailing bella chandra we shared with

you

what it cost to live aboard and cruise

full time

in the caribbean per month

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if you're new to the channel i'm dan and

i'm noelle and we're sailing bella

chandra

if you haven't already subscribed to our

channel just go below this channel look

for the big red subscribe button

press that button this week's video is

about zeus actually

we're going to talk about bringing dogs

with you as you cruise in the caribbean

and whether it's a good idea or a bad

idea our experiences how much we love

zeus

and how difficult it is or isn't

to have a dog while you travel on a boat

zeus has kind of become our little

boating community's mascot every boat

that we go to visit he comes along with

us

and he is just loved by all the cruisers

in our little small community that we

have created for ourselves

he is always so excited to go and visit

other boats and to sniff around

and explore if you just say

a friend's name or a boat name and just

ask him if he wants to go and visit he's

just like

tail up ears up he's like yeah let's get

in the dinghy and go

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probably zeus's number one favorite

thing to do is go to shore uh there's

certain words we can't use

but the dinghy to him is like this

magical transportation device that gets

him from

the boat to where he can smell and pee

on stuff so he gets pretty excited

if we go near the dinghy or if we

mention the dinghy

or if we even like just go out and sit

in the dinghy

he assumes that this is his time and

he's right there and ready to go every

time

and he loves going to shore as we bring

the dinghy closer to shore he starts

to cry and whine and scream because he

gets that excited about it

and that's his little treat i guess i do

love

zeus i'm crazy about him he puts a smile

on my face every morning i wake up

he's there to greet me he's giving me

kisses he loves to cuddle

he's great good morning seals

where are we west palm beach baby

it was really important for dan that we

got a dog that did not shed because

the hair could get into the bilge and he

was really concerned about that

so when i had asked if we could get a

dog he said only if they're

hypoallergenic and they don't shed

he gets pretty excited when we catch a

fish and bring it on board he doesn't

know what they are but he thinks they're

pretty cool he likes the smell and he

checks out the blood and i think he

kind of you know like a typical dog just

wants to get in there

if you like dogs and you're planning to

go cruising and you're going to get a

dog my number one advice would be to get

the dog as a puppy

and raise the dog on the boat that's

what we did with zeus

and he has very little trouble going to

do his business on deck it doesn't make

a big mess probably

because he's a small dog the rain

typically washes the deck

all the time the sun dries out his

little poos

it doesn't really like make much of a

mess at all so we don't mind if he goes

on deck

i've heard of a lot of people that don't

sail more than just a few hours because

they're worried about their dog getting

to the bathroom so that opens us up to

doing longer passages

sailing with the dogs has its advantages

and disadvantages for sure

i'm really glad that we had gotten zeus

as a puppy and raised him on board

right from the gecko so that he was

comfortable with his surroundings and he

knew that this was home like he called

the boat home he's actually really quite

happy

on the boat now i kind of regret

starting our cruising adventure with

zeus being so

young only because i was constantly

worried about him and his needs

and i i felt bad because he was always

so hyper

and always so roaring to go and get out

there and do things

i don't know i always feared for his

safety zeus seems to get pretty nervous

when he hears noises on board especially

the winches or

when the jib is out and it makes the

witches creak or any of the

locks makes noise he kind of freaks out

at that moment and then

comes looking for comfort or solace

while we're sailing he sometimes

kind of cuddles in around my legs while

i'm at the wheel

these days what we do is we put him in

his little doggy backpack and hang him

here

off of the bimini or we might wear the

doggy backpack while we're sailing with

zeus and it

gives him a lot of comfort so that's

really good i'm doing a nice calm

downwind sail

he seems to be in better spirits he'll

run around on deck he might go

up to the bow and back and with the

sails out full like that it's not so

much of a danger for him

but we did a lot of stressful passages

upwind coming down from canada where

we were into some serious conditions and

zeus for some reason

when he hears a noise or gets scared

might bolt towards the bow

and you know there's waves crashing over

the bow

and you know we might be tacking in the

sails sweeping the deck and things like

that and so we're always nervous that

zeus is going to get himself into

trouble

and this was before we put up our

lifeline netting there was a couple

times he did get away

and got up towards the battle and got

splashed by a wave

it would come back completely soaking

wet with salt water i highly recommend

that if you're going to have a dog on

board you want to get

this lifeline netting a lot of dogs can

be trusted not to fall overboard they

seem to have pretty good balance but it

gives you the peace of mind as a cruiser

that you're not going to just lose your

dog overboard and there's been a couple

times where we couldn't find zeus

and assumed that maybe we lost him and

it's a pretty scary moment you don't

want to have that

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and i think it's really important to

train

your dogs to be alone and not take them

everywhere with you and just leave them

on board and just run away

and just leave them there i i can't do

that with sues he's been spoiled right

from the get-go and i'm always worried

about the heat i'm always worried about

if it's too cold i'm always worried

about everything and the first few times

we have left him alone on board

his anxiety would just go sky high and

he would just

so then dan and i stopped leaving him on

the boat alone which was a huge mistake

because now we can never leave him alone

i find that a lot of my time and energy

is

going towards him and i'm constantly

focusing on what he

needs and how to make him comfortable

and ensure that he's having a great time

i wish that i was able to leave zeus

alone on the boat and go off and do my

thing

but like i said dan and i never did get

into that

we just been dragging him everywhere we

go and

unfortunately i'm the one that he's

attached to

so i'm not really enjoying myself when i

go out with sues

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so bringing zeus down from canada wasn't

too difficult

when we entered the united states like

canada the united states

it's never a problem bringing pets

across the border the only difficulty i

think

in the united states was bringing zeus

out you know to restaurants or

into public places where you can't

typically take a dog so we kind of

expected that

one thing we didn't expect was that we

wouldn't be allowed to bring him to the

beach in canada

we're allowed to bring our dogs to the

beach we do it all the time but i guess

the united states is kind of an issue

see getting to the bahamas wasn't too

bad a lot of countries

in the caribbean are pretty lenient when

it comes to pets

the bahamas wasn't bad we did have to do

a registration form in advance and send

it in there was a fee

we found a guy in florida that could

fast track for us because we didn't have

our

registration done early enough so that

worked out for us

and uh from there on it's been pretty

easy every island that we've brought him

to

we got him in either with just having

our

registration form done in advance or

having them just scan its health

certificate

i know in the bahamas we went ahead and

got a new health certificate made

in anticipation of going to turks and

caicos we had heard that in the british

islands that it's much more difficult to

bring your pet in there

but we ended up going to the dominican

republic instead and we didn't try to

bring him into a british island at all

we have yet to figure that one out but

at the dominican republic it was pretty

easy

in other countries you go to in the

caribbean

like here in grenada for instance it was

very easy we brought him in

they saw the dog they scanned the health

form it was like five minutes no fee

and we were in

so far here in grenada we haven't had

any issues taking zeus anywhere

there's only been one restaurant during

our

entire five months here that had

policies against having dogs usually

we're okay taking the dog to the pubs

and having a drink and such and

the dog being with us accompanying us

while we're at the pub

and the staff doesn't seem to mind and

naturally when you have a pet on board

once in a while you might need the vet

especially if you're traveling between

countries and they need

updated health forms rabies vaccinations

or whatever depending on that particular

country's requirements

we haven't had too much trouble finding

vets here in the caribbean so far we've

talked to several

we actually only took him to one so far

and that was in

the bahamas and we took him there so

that he could have an updated health

certificate and to get neutered so that

we could bring him to the british

islands which we haven't actually done

yet

we did find that the vets here in the

caribbean are much cheaper than the vets

back in canada

however some of the tests that we can

get back in canada

like the rabies titer test is much more

easily done in north america than

here due to mailing and the fact that

they don't have those laboratories here

in the caribbean

we run into quite a few cruisers who

have dogs on board

and zeus kind of makes doggy friends

with a lot of them but surprisingly

there's quite a number

of cruisers with dogs it's pretty common

so i mean

you know if you're wondering how often

people make that choice

and how they're doing with their dogs on

board it doesn't seem to be a big

problem

i heard a lot of stories about

restrictions and problems taking your

dog to the caribbean but honestly we

haven't had those

problems so far i think all in all i

would recommend

getting a dog and bring them to the

caribbean however

there's pros and there's cons and you

want to consider everything

really well before you make that

decision so that's the end of this

week's video about

traveling with your dog on a yacht and

all of the logistics and everything we

deal with having a dog on board

i hope you enjoyed it and we'll see you

next time thanks for watching if you

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