Dog ramp ideas

C

curioustraveler

New member
Good morning C-Brats,

My wife and I frequently stay at marinas with various dock heights. Add tides to this and sometimes getting our 60lb dog on and off the boat can be challenging. Has anyone found, or made, a dog ramp? I basically need two ramps, one to get up over the gunnel from the cockpit, and then down to the dock. Also needs to be compact enough to fold up (maybe store in the splash well.)

I'm thinking it could be as simple as two pieces of pieces of wood/starboard, maybe 18" wide to serve as ramps, joined with hinges to a smaller piece of wood that fits over the gunnel.

Has anyone done anything like this or found a commercial one available?

dog_ramp.sized.jpg
 
I have never seen a ramp like you describe. We travel with dogs all of the time. Some have been as big as 100#. Generally they are fairly good at getting aboard--or sometimes too good at getting off to go walk about.

The commercial ramps, like "pet step". which we have used. A quick internet search reveals many folding ramps. We have the "Pet step" and no further use for it. Anyone who wants it, can pick it up at my home. The two part folding ramp works fine. (Hinged in the middle).

We normally get the dog to put front paws on the gunnel and then a boost if necessary, and the dog jumps into the cockpit. Having a mat or some thing for the dog to get traction on the gunnel is important.

My dad made a ramp out of 1/8" door skins, which I further modified. It was just over a foot wide, had cleats on it every foot. and we put carpet between the cleats. It was 8' long. The sides were 1 x 2, and epoxied to 6" sides--(Making it an I beam). We not only used this as a pet ramp for a 75 # lab, but also used it as a pasaralle which we walked on and rolled our motor bikes off the deck (Large pilot house motor sailor). This weighed only about 30#--and could be made in any size or configuration. That lasted for 4 years with often several times a day use. I can describe it construction with drawings etc if an e-mail is sent to me.

We also taught dogs to climb ladders with a little boost, as well as getting out of the water into an inflatable, with just a hand behind their neck, and then a little boost with the hind quarters.
 
Our dog is a bit clumsier than most I guess. She's already torn an ACL once and we're trying to avoid another as we watch her clumsily try to jump over the gunnel, slip on the fiberglass, and drop down to the dock - usually with one leg somehow caught in a dock line or wrapped around the Bimini pole.

I see a lot of options for one sided ramps and steps but we often times need her to get up out of the cockpit and then down to the dock.
 
We heave our 30-pound dogs around the boat and dock using Ruff Wear life vests. They have sturdy handles built in. I realize that won’t work for all dogs and people, but they work really well for us.
 
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