Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Fishing With Dogs | A Cautionary Tale

My father loved to go fishing with our childhood dog. She went out with on our boats and woofed away as the wind blew through her furs. Fishing with dogs I'm sure is a pretty common practice. They are our companions and they like to go places with us. If you have ever plan on going fishing with your dog, I have a bit of advice for you with this story.


We have a family lakehouse on Lake Travis. Of course, our current condition is extremely dry and the lake is sadly drying up. Our dock has not been floating in water since sometime last year probably. Which is interesting because this particular community is prone to flooding usually.

Anyways, back to the subject of fishing with dogs. When we go fishing with Shiner, I have to be very careful with my bait and hook. She thinks the worms or whatever other kind of stinky bait we are using must be a delicious treat. Of course it's not, and there's a big hook under there. If she were to bite it that wouldn't be good! And then of course when we do catch a fish, she's interested in biting those too. Some of the catfish and perch that we catch have sharp protrusions on them that hurt.


Now for my cautionary tale on fishing with dogs... approximately 10 years ago, we were out at the lake fishing late at night. I was pregnant at the time so I was in the house playing cards with friends. My boyfriend and his friend came to the house in a sort of panic. Our friend had a cute pit bull puppy they had brought with them and he was standing there with a piece of fishing line hanging from his mouth.

I was in my Veterinary Technician college program at the time. My friend said he had swallowed the hook and asked me to take it out. I told him there was no way. He needed to go to an emergency clinic. I warned him not to pull on the string.

Poor pit bull puppy was driven to the nearest, which wasn't near at all, emergency clinic. He had his hook removed via an endoscopy procedure. But it cost a pretty penny, unfortunately.

Lily's big catch a few years ago. Shiner is helping of course. 

While your dog may not act the same way with the bait on the end of a fishing rod, some definitely will including mine. Our childhood dog was a Shetland Sheepdog and she showed no interest in the stuff. But with Shiner, I never leave my rod and bait unattended and am constantly watching anyone else who might be fishing that isn't thinking about the dog.

So just a bit of advice from an unfortunate experience. I know more people are going to be spending time around rivers and lakes as it warms up. Some of you just might be fishing with your dog too and this isn't something that all dog parents think about. Especially if it's your first time taking your dog fishing with you.

26 comments:

  1. I think the most important part of your post is "I am constantly watching anyone else who might be fishing that isn't thinking about the dog." It's not enough to watch what you're doing. You have to watch what others are doing around your dog as well. One can't assume that everyone else is as vigilant or careful as you are. Great story.

    --Wags (and purrs) from Life with Dogs and Cats

    ReplyDelete
  2. When I had more time I used to go fishing with my chessies and they loved to ride in the boat. Need to be careful of them riding in the front of the boat and we had a mishap and Brooke fell over board. She went under the boat but she was fine. Norman would love to pull the fish out of the live well and put them on the floor of the boat. When ice fishing he would go and steal other peoples fish that were sitting on the ice.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh no! I don't like Shiner riding on the boat with us. I am afraid she'll fall or jump out because she seems so anxious. I rode in the tube behind the boat with her (she was in the boat, not the tube) and I just don't think she liked that very much!

      Delete
  3. Interesting advice! We've only had small dogs and our bigger dogs visiting never were interested but we aren't big into fishing so maybe that's why. Good thing for people to watch out for.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you for your great tips!!!
    We have a nice big boat this year, and we plan on taking the huskies out fishing with us. It is good to understand what to expect.
    ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!

    ReplyDelete
  5. That's really good advice. When I was growing up, we had a dog who didn't bother with the bait or anything when we were fishing, but once he was running around and got tangled up in the fishing line. He got so frantic, it was hard to him untangled, but he was okay when we got him out. :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh my gosh we would never have thought of that happening they learned a very hard lesson. But mom does remember her folks always fishing in their boat with the dog. Love Dolly

    ReplyDelete
  7. Good advice to always keep an eye on the pets when out and about... I'm glad the pup was ok!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Good advice! I never would have thought that a dog would eat bait - but then they can eat lots of gross stuff.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Oh yikes! The fish hook story made my toes hurt!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Fishing and the hooks are dangerous for kids and pets, and even adults sometimes. One has to really be careful.

    ReplyDelete
  11. My parents live on a lake, and they have a dock that they fish off of all summer. Their two dogs sit on the dock and watch the fishing. My dog also sits on the dock to watch when he visits. They all seem pretty good about leaving the bait and fish alone, but of course they are interested, and I would not be surprised if Ace ever tried to grab the bait if he had the opportunity.

    So, I don't think you can ever be careful enough. Gosh, I can't even imagine if my dog swallowed the hook. How awful!

    ReplyDelete
  12. I never thought that a dog would want to eat fish!! That is a cautionary tail! I always worry that Austin will get something caught in his throat, but he is actually quite a cautious kitty!

    ReplyDelete
  13. I hate water but love fish but not human fish.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Wow, good things to think about. Can't say we go boating, although hubby talks about retiring one day and fishing a lot...and he might want to take the dog. However, Gracie has not even shown interest in water, much less fish!! The cats, on the other hand...would definitely go after a flippy fish!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Thanks for sharing this! Ironically, we are planning our first fishing trip with the dogs in about three weeks and I hadn't thought about this. I am going to have to be very careful with Prince because he will eat anything!

    ReplyDelete
  16. That's great advice, you can't be too careful. I was thinking how painful it would be to bite on a hook, but swallowing it could be disastrous!

    ReplyDelete
  17. shiner...oh course we loved de title oh yur post two day; but this iz indeed veree good ad vise....N sorree yur lake iz knot back ta wear it shuld be.....hope full lee this yeer ewe can get bak ta yur lake house N due sum ....."fishin with caution"

    pea ess...mite that bee a spotted sea trout lily catched !!! ♥♥♥

    ReplyDelete
  18. Thanks kitties! I hope the lake fills up soon too. Unfortunately, our lake has no trouts =/ It's just a really small catfish.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Very good advice! Sometimes I used to see guys trying to fish at the bay where it's the off-leash dog park. Used to make me crazy - not a very safe place when there are TONS of dogs running loose there. (Also... the water is so polluted in the one spot as it's also used by water-ski boats, so I just shudder to think of eating any fish that comes out of that water. Yuck.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Haha sounds like not very smart idea... but you know maybe they are just catching and not eating. I hate to eat fish, so I've never eaten any of mine. Not that I've caught that many big ones before lol.

      Delete
  20. Good advice...you never know what your dog or someone else's will do. Caution is the best defender.

    ReplyDelete
  21. This is great advice, Ann. My hubby used to have a fishing boat and we'd take the two dogs we had at the time with us. We were always very careful to keep them away from all of that stuff...my theory is always to assume that dogs will get into anything and everything.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Really good advice. I never thought of that happening.

    ReplyDelete

Anonymous comments are disabled due to large amounts of spam. Thank you for understanding!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...