My husband mentioned this morning that he is planning to close the business for four days over the bank holiday weekend as we haven't been anywhere this year. We quite fancy the idea of having a go on a canal barge but wonder if you need specialist training at all before you can take yourself off? Also, are there stop off points where you can tie the boat up and go for walks and visit towns etc? Alternatively, we would perhaps like to find a holiday cottage, lodge or caravan where dogs are accepted. I wonder, does anyone have any recommendations?

Thank you

When you hire a narrowboat you'll be given enough instruction to be able to manage it before you set off. There are plenty of places to moor up temporarily along most canals (pubs etc!) but the hiring company will supply appropriate information.

I was asked onto a narrowboat for a week around Birmingham and couldn't think of anything worse!  I went out of kindness and after 24 hours I LOVED it!!  Yes to all your questions.  Give it a go - with dog! :)

We have just booked at Barend holiday village, Dumfries staying in a scandanavian type cabins. Now all we need is nice weather!

We do it a lot with our two dogs from Clifton Cruisers in Rugby or Reading Marina. They give you a bit if training, get a good map which shows you where to tie up plus you get pins ect on board. Its a breeze, remember that doggies do often jump off and never back, back, to get them stop switch the engine off and use doggie life vests. Our Border never jumped off no life vest needed, our Cocker was in a life vest and lead 24/7 he felt he was on one long swimming break and was off swimming when I blinked.

Dogs loved it, I could not recommend it highly enough!!

We've just booked a boat on the Monmouthshire and Brecon canal with our 2 flatties for my 40th birthday next May - can't wait! Best thing is, it's a wide beam boat, 8'6" rather than the usual 6'10" so loads more room for the doggies :-). My oldie (12 yr old collie x) will have to stay at Grandma's as he won't be able to get on and off the boat, or up and down the steps, and he would also probably try to jump in, he adores water!

I have had lots of holidays on narrowboats going back nearly 40 years :D OH and I used to use Anglo-Welsh - I don't know if they are still around, but they used to be good. One thing I would say is that if it is just going to be the two of you, choose a stretch of canal that doesn't have many locks :) Locks take a bit of getting used to and for two newbies you don't want to do too many :D Well behaved dogs love narrowboats - Bramble loved it - but do be careful to keep them shut inside the boat while doing locks. Also make sure that they don't get carried away and jump in while the boat is moving :)

Have fun !

Daisy

> We have just booked at Barend holiday village, Dumfries staying in a scandanavian type cabins. Now all we need is nice weather! <IMG class=qButton title="Quote selected text" alt="Quote selected text" src="/images/mi_quote.gif" width=20 height=10>

Looks lovely! OH loves log cabins and has never been to Scotland, so I have saved this in my favourites :-)

Thanks! I have done narrowboat holidays before, we used to do flights of locks in record time, lol!

But going for relaxing easy option this time, hence choice of Mon & Brec ;-) - only 6 locks!

I'll let you know what its like and take lots of piccies!

We do tons of canal holidays, mostly with a big group so no room for muddy spaniels, but when we go by ourselves we usually take a dog or two. All 3 of ours have fallen in, but from the bank when trying to cross locks by levitation rather than using the gate, rather than falling off the boat thank goodness. As someone else said, if they (or you!) fall in, put the engine in neutral or switch it off, don't whatever you do have it in gear, forward or backward, with a dog or person nearby in the water.

We went on our 1st narrowboat holiday this year and loved it. Our bichon loved it also. Yes Anglo welsh are still going and we are going to book with them for next year. Were the company and boats OK?  The good things are the exercise, the scenery and the fact that you aren't turfed out of a b&b at 9.00am. The downside, if really nit picking, Barney barked at everyone passing (inc people going to work at 7.00am) and some awkward pubs that didn't take dogs.  We had a cardboard face of "Captain Jack" the pirate in our boat window so we could identify it.....

Used to have a narrowboat but had to sell a few years ago due to husbands health. Absolutely brilliant for the dogs (and of course the humans). I agree that sometimes too many locks can be a bit of a chore but the peacefulness and watching of wildlife is just great.

Just seen this thread and it reminded me of a canal boat holiday we had when I was about eight or nine with our very old doberman.  I have very many memories but one that particularly sticks in the mind is of my dad carrying Debbie along a plank to get her on board.  One day the plank wasn't fixed properly and as he walked the boat moved gradually away and he gradually sank deeper and deeper in the water - still holding rather a heavy dog!!  The next year we went on a horse-drawn caravan holiday - it was so hot that dad wouldn't let anyone actually ride in the caravan except Debbie because he thought it would be too much for the horse (whose name was Susie and who he tried to buy after the holiday).  We ended up walking miles and I can still see Debbie sitting at the front of the caravan like a queen.  Great holidays though :)

We always wanted to do that type of a holiday but it was too dear and were quite poor when really small children.

We decided to do a narrow boat about 4 years ago from Salway Marine up country, then having the dogs we went with Clifton Cruisers for a week last year after christmas freezing, one night we called the dogs in to get warm!! This May after MIL died 5 days with Reading Marine with dogs and DIL we kept him busy, I cant wait to book another one. Its Whistler thats the swimmer and Jake who is great and well behaved but we carry him on and off, he fell in first trip and does not jump now at all. Whistler tends to jump off under bridges so i have him on the roof on a long lead with his dayglo orange life vest on. As a previous writer said locks they are shut indoors. Long bridges made Jake nervous but it was about 2 miles long made me nervous but Whistler loves it all!!

Your tale of your father carrying the dog reminds me of a holiday in 1982. OH and I made the BIG mistake of taking both sets of parents with us for a week on the Llangollen canal :) There had been a breach in the canal wall and the water level was very low so every time we tied up we had to use the plank :) My in-laws had an elderly CKCS that needed to go out at night and it was very funny seeing my FIL (think Captain Mainwaring) in his striped PJs carrying Toby back and forth over the plank :) Fortunately he never fell in :)

Daisy

Ha ha - it was the Llangollen canal that we were on too!!  Just before we went the aqueduct was declared unsafe and they had to lift all the long boats out of the canal and transport them by lorry to another port - definitely a holiday to remember!  Incidentally Whistler our family was also not at all wealthy and these two holidays were the only 'commercial' holidays we had which is probably why I remember them so well - although I do have many memories of camping all over the country too. :)