Toileting Solutions For Your Dog Onboard Your Boat

Of a day I would walk the marina jetties searching for inklings of dogs on boats and of an evening I’d consult Google looking for the best toileting solution for Maxy & Mel.

I have found the most popular onboard doggy toilet used by many boaties to be the mat of synthetic grass (aka fake grass or Astro Turf) of which we refer to as The Doggy Pee Mat.

Now I’m not sure if our dogs think, “Oh yes! This looks slightly like the soft stuff covering the backyard that I go to the toilet on back at our big dog castle. The stuff that I can dig into, slide over, roll on and can maintain my balance upon at all times.” What I do know is that it gives us humans peace of mind to think we are providing a familiarity for our dogs on our boats.

Our canine friends are intelligent and above all hopelessly devoted to us. As such they obey our instruction (most of the time) and teaching them to go outside to go to the toilet was one of our very first expectations. Now we have to undo this a little bit.

So, let’s talk about The Doggy Pee Mat itself before getting into the training of your dog using it.

The Doggy Pee Mat

We purchased our mat from Bunnings; a large hardware store here in Australia. The size is about 1m x 1m costing us AUD20. I would highly recommend getting a spare.

What I like about the current mat is that it has a 5mm rubber backing compared to mats we have had in the past that only have a nylon weave. The rubber mat seems to hold most of the urine whereas the weaved backing allowed the urine to leak onto the deck immediately. More importantly, it doesn’t slip around while Maxy & Mel determine their position.

While the mat is in its perfect state, now is a good time to insert a hole in all four corners. We suggest placing a hole in each corner, so you can rotate when one of the corners begins to perish.

On board we have the tool to insert eyelets which reinforces the holes; highly recommended. If you don’t have one of those tools, pop into your marine upholsterer who I’m sure would be happy to help you out (before it is christened of course).

At the very least drill the holes so you get a clean shape which will avoid fraying.

Next we had a few metres of floating rope which we threaded through one of the eyelets making a bowline. The other end of the rope is attached securely to the bowsprit or close to.

The purpose of this rope is to dunk your Doggy Pee Mat in the ocean, so ensure you have enough rope for it to reach the water. The ocean dunk is purely to rinse the mat and dilute the urine smell. Don’t worry, it will still be a strong scent for your furry sailing buddy.

We never dispose of faeces overboard. Some local authorities may have strict rules about dunking anything in the water including urine, so please check things out with the governing bodies in your area.

Maxy & Mel’s mat lives permanently on the bow. When it is not in use we roll it up and stow it securely along the toe rail making sure to give the decks a regular hosing. As I mentioned, the current mat holds about 95% of the urine. I just fold each corner into the middle and overboard she goes.

If you leave your mat out in the sun all day and your hatches open you might find yourself asking one another over Sundowners, “Do you smell that?”

Alternatives To The Doggy Pee Mat

Some friends place the mat into a large plastic tray. This is a great idea and stops the urine from soaking decks. If your dog is small you might get away with cutting the grass to size and placing it in a kitty litter tray, otherwise for bigger dogs have a creative chat with your hardware store about what you could use for a larger tray.

If you really want to give your furry sailing buddy a true resemblance of their backyard, you can place live turf into trays.

Whatever toileting solution you choose, stick with it if it works. Maxy & Mel took to the fake grass mats from the get go and I will share with you in the next post how we managed their transition from land toileting to onboard the boat.