Taking Pets on your Narrowboat Holiday
While many animals ( cats, dogs and birds) live quite happily full time on Narrowboats with their residential owner the situation can present a few problems in the context of Narrowboat holidays on a hired craft.
The first question is whether or not the hire boat company will accept pets at all. From their point of view the boats have to be fit to accommodate a whole range of different people including those with allergies of various sorts , who may react badly to say cat or dog hairs left by the former users of the boat.
Secondly is the issue of potential damage to soft furnishings etc by ill disciplined pets. Those that will accept pets usually dogs, will probably charge an additional cleaning charge in the range of £25 to £45 per animal.This link may be of use in finding an accommodation hire company: Hire companies -- Pets and other options
The chances are if you do choose to take a pet the animal will be unfamiliar with its new surroundings in terms of life on the canals and a few precautions might be helpful.
A hazard particular to water loving dogs is that most canals have steep and slippery sides, making it easy to get into the canal, but difficult to get out again. Every year a number of unfortunate dogs get into trouble this way and a certain number drown if nobody notices their distress. Life jackets for dogs can be a useful accessory in this context and come equipped with a useful handle on their back to allow the owner to life them out of the water , if need be. this may be fine for small dogs of a manageable size, but larger dogs could well put their owner in difficulty themselves, whilst trying to get them out. Improvising some sort of ramp (or perhaps a short ladder) with ridges, which the dog can grip onto, might not be a bad idea. Saving both the dog and owner distress should the animal intentionally or otherwise go for a swim.
Generally well behaved dogs are welcome on the canals and towpaths, providing owners are prepared to dispose of the inevitable evidence of their presence in a responsible manner.
