Working dogs

[Greenpen]

Were dogs ever used to pull boats of any sort?    

 

Teams of huskies pull sledges well and are extremely enthusiastic participants.   The noise made by about 100 huskies when they realised another sledge was needed to pull the tourists at a centre in Norway was huge; all yelping Me, Me, Me!     They also seem to be able to pull over long distances although somewhat quicker than boat speed.    I realise that narrow boats were never dog hauled (?) but were there situations, in mines perhaps, where they were used?     

[Heartland]

I have yet to come across an example of dogs being used in a transport capacity in the UK  whether any large estate owner had occassion to use dogs is another matter. In mines men, children, ponies and horses were used underground in the Midlands.

 

Dogs for protection, or recreation, is a different matter and certain breeds were bred with that in mind.

 

[Tonka]

Was it Scott of the Antarctic who did not use dogs where as Admunson did

[tree monkey]

2 minutes ago, Tonka said:

Was it Scott of the Antarctic who did not use dogs where as Admunson did

I've just opened a Google black hole due to your comment, I may be gone some time but apparently yes he did use dogs, much more reading ahead...

[Tonka]

7 minutes ago, tree monkey said:

I've just opened a Google black hole due to your comment, I may be gone some time but apparently yes he did use dogs, much more reading ahead...

Oh well  something to do whilst It is raining 

[Pluto]

15 hours ago, Tonka said:

Was it Scott of the Antarctic who did not use dogs where as Admunson did

One of the big pluses for using dogs when exploring is that you can eat them if you run out of supplies. Scott would have found his internal-combustion-engined towage system a little tough....

[Tracy D'arth]

I've never been able to train a dog to open and close lock gates. Winding paddles will be beyond their abilities.

[Tam & Di]

Alan Picken at the top of the 30-12 used to throw a line from the boat to his dog and it would run around a bollard with it.

 

Tam

Edited August 3, 2022 by Tam & Di
I'd managed to truncate the Tardebigge locks

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

4 hours ago, Pluto said:

One of the big pluses for using dogs when exploring is that you can eat them if you run out of supplies. Scott would have found his internal-combustion-engined towage system a little tough....

If I remember right, when trapped in the ice Shackleton had the dogs shot because they were digging up buried supplies. 
He had wanted them alive and useful for as long he could sustain them.

 

[Greenpen]

The use of a dog to help with lines is interesting.   Both Portuguese (larger) and Spanish (smaller) water dogs were used by fishermen to swim with ropes between boats so nets could be pulled around shoals of fish.   A dog handling lines would be helpful to a crew of a canal or river boat.   But the lack of references to dog use suggests that any examples were one-offs involving a dog that got the idea quickly rather than being specifically bred and trained for the job.

 

(I have never forgiven Shackleton for shooting the ship’s cat Mr Chips!)

[Tam & Di]

Alan Picken's was a labrador as I recall - they generally love water too.

 

Tam