“When we move ashore, please can we have a dog? Please, Mum, please?”

And so it was. About three and a half seconds after moving off the boat and into the house, eight-week old Dean Barker (named after one of NZ’s most loved Americas Cup sailors) came to live with us. He’s a Standard Schnauzer, cute and grey, strong-willed and very vocal (he barks constantly!) He has been a great guard dog and companion. The children were aged six, eight and ten when he came to live with us as a puppy.

Our research indicated that Standard Schnauzers are not good swimmers and don’t much like the water. Not our Barki. He turned out to be a great swimmer and a talented life guard. He loved to jump off the boat with the children, he would round them up in the water and play for hours. He became very proficient at climbing the boarding ladder on the boat, much to the entertainment of other people in the anchorage.

We sailed hundreds of miles up and down the New Zealand coast with the dog and the kids. Barker would sit on the windward side of the boat with his nose pointing into the breeze and looking forward to the dinghy rides ashore. The Willison Circus could clear an anchorage! Other boaties hoping for a peaceful evening would be hauling up their anchors and leaving the anchorage at full speed when the peace and quiet was shattered with whooping, hollering, barking and splashing.

Fast forward nearly twelve years. The children have all left home and are living and working independently. Angus and I have packed up the house and we’re now living back on board the boat, in preparation to depart on a circumnavigation. Able Sea-dog, Barki is not up to the task. We’ve had to face the problem of what to do with an ageing, increasingly neurotic and anxious little grey dog.

Our original plan was to take him with us. But over the recent months it’s clear that it wouldn’t be fair on the dog or us. At almost twelve years old, he started to have trouble getting on and off the boat. Sailing has become an activity that causes so much stress and anxiety that he hyperventilates, trembles and wedges himself between the wheel and the cockpit seats.

So we were faced with a dilemma. We were wracked with guilt at the thought of re-homing him, but also at the thought of continuing to have him living on the boat with us with the plan of heading off-shore.

I had been subscribed to the Facebook Standard Schnauzer page, so I thought I would put up a post to gauge if there would be any Standard Schnauzer lovers prepared to take on our very fit and healthy, but ageing boy. I felt that he needed to be in a household where someone was home all the time, and maybe with another dog for company. 

Much to my surprise, I was inundated with enquiries from all over the country, from people prepared to open their homes and hearts to our Barker. Then we were faced with another dilemma. How do we choose the right people for him? Proximity was a priority, so we shortened the list to three possible candidates.

We arranged to meet Trevor and Maria, a retired couple living on the outskirts of Auckland, who had Barker’s litter-mate, Ziggy. Sadly, Ziggy died at age eleven with a brain tumour, leaving a big Schnauzery hole in their lives. Anyone who has had a Standard Schnauzer in their lives will know their quirks and tendencies (both good and not so good). So, Barker’s personality and quirks were not surprising to Trevor and Maria. We slowly introduced Barker to Coco (the other dog in their household) and on that first visit Barker made himself at home. He chose them.

Having a dog on a boat can be great! But here are some things to consider:

• Big dogs take up a lot room. This can be challenging in a small space like a boat. They are also covered in hair…your boat also gets covered in hair!
• Going ashore if you are cruising (especially here in Aotearoa) can be a real problem. Dogs are not welcome on many of the beaches or on any of the Hauraki Gulf islands. This is due to the ground-dwelling birds such as kiwi. Dogs need exercise, so it’s difficult when you can’t take them ashore.
• Cleaning up dog poop is very unpleasant on the boat. Barker used the mast like a peeing post…it can lift the paint!
• How will your dog cope with living in a confined space? Especially if they’re used to living in a house?
• What is the plan if the animal falls overboard? A real problem if you’re sailing. Do you put a life jacket on your dog?
• Entry into other countries and subsequent entry back into New Zealand sounds like an expensive nightmare. 
• Other countries also have dog diseases that we don’t have here. Again, it could be an expensive exercise if your dog got sick in a country such as Indonesia…do they even have vet clinics?

Barker is now living his best doggie life, with several acres to run in, a swimming pool, a duck pond (which they’ve had to fence to stop him from wallowing in the stinky water), a female doggie companion….and two doting, attentive humans. We both feel that this was a great outcome for everyone, especially Barker!

The photos below are Barker watching dolphins, and that day that he joined our eldest daughter’s sailing team, “Edge Women’s Match.”