Cally Goes Pee on the Boat AND Steve, the Pee Daddy

SO ... with all of the planning Rip has done regard to anchorages, lock walls & marinas ... we really haven't had to worry with Cally learning to go potty on the boat. He researches each spot for where we can land Cally. Lock walls were easy; always grass to for her to wander around or a town to walk through. Marinas can be challenging because of her ramps and whether or not they fit on the finger piers, dock, etc. Parks Canada parks were easy with a dinghy dock to land and park area to explore; though rocky and limited.
We have had to use a short ramp on top of a step stool once to get her to the dock. Some walls are high and her ramp goes off the top of the master berth cabin instead of the side of the boat. But, Rip gets it figured out each time. Up until Bone Island (Georgian Bay), we had beach or Park dock to take Cally to shore. Bone Island was the first time we had to use a rock shore for her potty needs. She did adapt quickly going on moss in the rock crevices.
There will be times coming up that it will be easier and we can run longer days ... if she will go potty on the boat. We can run longer each day if she can go pee on the boat. When on some of the inland rivers where there is only sticky mud that sucks your feet and legs … that will NOT be good for Cally’s bad ankles. There are other places we know she will need to go on the boat – like when we cross the Gulf of Mexico and we are in open waters overnight for 26+ hours. Now, she can hold it that long and vets swear it is not a problem for them to do that. Vets say dogs can go upwards of 72 hours before you need to worry about them. I would rather NOT have to put her through that if we can avoid it by training now.
During docktails this last Tuesday in Little Current on
Gypsie's Palace, a visiting dog went to the bow and pee'ed on their dogs grass mat. That got me to thinking ... wonder if we brought Cally over would she go on their big grass mat??
After everyone else left, we took Cally over and SHE WENT PEE ON THEIR MAT on their boat!!
This morning we brought their mat over to our boat and

SHE WENT PEE ON OUR BOAT on THEIR MAT!!
We rubbed our mat all over their mat to transfer scent and now have just our mat in the same place theirs was on our boat. Later tonight or tomorrow am, we need her to go on her mat on our boat.
Fingers crossed, but I think she will do it!! Hope she doesn’t mind how much smaller her mat is than the one from Gypsie’s Palace.
The next trick will be going #2 on the mat. Didn't have any luck with that today.
Many thanks to Steve, Debbie, Jazzy and Mozzie!!
UPDATE: 2 nights later as folks migrated to Gypsie’s Palace again … Bette & Vic Peirce from Felix were bemoaning all they had done to get their dog to go on their boat on their mat with no success. I suggested they bring over their dog to try out the mat on the bow that now had lots of dog scents. They did … and in no time flat their dog went pee on the bow, too!!
Steve, Captain of Gypsie’s Palace is now known PEE DADDY and ready to start a dog potty training business aboard!!
Cally has not gone on her mat, yet. We’ve tried twice … she just sits on it and stares out. That’s her signal she wants to do something else/go somewhere else.