After getting skinned up (again) and almost dropping our 70 pound Golden while hoisting him into the float plane, I have decided it is time to come up with a better loading solution. omegle xender I am thinking about building some sort of light weight ramp that he can walk up from the dock into the plane. Do any of you use something like this for your dogs, or seen any such thing? I would be interested in hearing what others have done. Thank you for any thoughts.

I have not done it, However, I have built ramps in the past. Ramp thickness is not that important, you can use very thing and light 3/16 tin plywood flooring underlayment with a simple 1 1/2 inch runner on each side for stiffness. If you paint or polyurethaning will be slick so stick a traction surface to it or add sand to the poly/paint, add simple 1/2 x1/2 cross bars on top as needed. Practice loading and unloading into bed of pickup, Add eye bolt strap attachment to attach to plane so when the plane moves from dock top stays attached. Once again never done it but that is how I would care for my dog if I had one.
DENNY

I have the same dog, same problem. I researched dog ramps and bought the longest one I could find, it is made of aluminum, 4' in length and extends to around 8', it has a sandy/gritty walking surface, unfortunately it does not work. The problem is it is not long enough, the ramp is too steep and traction is an issue. I think an ideal ramp would probably need to be made of aluminum to keep weight down, maybe as much as 10' in length, so must be retractable and needs some kind of walking surface where the dog can get good traction (something more than a sand coating). We have now quit taking the dog in the plane, he is too much to handle and I am afraid he is gong to get hurt in the loading/unloading process. If you come up with a dog ramp that will work, I will buy one.

Steve

No, but I have been considering it. Below 50 lbs, hand loading works but above that gets iffy.
I think the key is more ladder, with backing, than ramp. Check out designs for dog agility ramps. I think a bunch of cross links would be more effective than sanded paint. Which pushes more to a wooden ladder design than an aluminum ramp.

Some dogs are very shy of ramps, but easily walk up stairs. Maybe a short step or two would help?

My solution: https://youtu.be/hYFM44eWyRc

My pup is strategically sized for this reason.

That said, I’ve seen people in the boat word just use a basic ladder and bolt a thin sheet of plywood over the rungs.

My pup is strategically sized for this reason.

That said, I’ve seen people in the boat word just use a basic ladder and bolt a thin sheet of plywood over the rungs.

Our 65-lb Husky/Shepherd cross is quite agile but reluctant to step or jump from the back seat to the narrow float step. Can't say I blame him - he knows he could get hurt.
A piece of plywood, maybe 18-inches square that could somehow slip over the step would work. From there he can jump down to the flat-top floats easily.

courierguy wrote:My solution: https://youtu.be/hYFM44eWyRc

Now that’s a proper backcountry pup!

And a good excuse for tundras

We had an 80 pound coon hound that got stiff and wouldn't jump as she aged up. We got a ramp for SUVs that collapsed to take up less space. The ramp had a non-skid surface, but our stiff old dog still needed help accelerating up the ramp to make it into the plane. We trained her when she was younger by putting the ramp at a very slight incline and putting treats at the top. We'd make her walk the ramp to get the treats, then we'd raise it up a notch and repeat. After a couple of days, she'd go up the ramp at any angle, but still wanted a treat at the top. This type of ramp is readily available on Amazon. I could have saved money by spending more time to make it myself, but the time was more valuable to me back when I was working full time.

Flyhound wrote:We had an 80 pound coon hound that got stiff and wouldn't jump as she aged up. We got a ramp for SUVs that collapsed to take up less space. The ramp had a non-skid surface, but our stiff old dog still needed help accelerating up the ramp to make it into the plane. We trained her when she was younger by putting the ramp at a very slight incline and putting treats at the top. We'd make her walk the ramp to get the treats, then we'd raise it up a notch and repeat. After a couple of days, she'd go up the ramp at any angle, but still wanted a treat at the top. This type of ramp is readily available on Amazon. I could have saved money by spending more time to make it myself, but the time was more valuable to me back when I was working full time.

That looks like the same ramp I purchased, hoping it would work. Nice ramp, but just not long enough for float plane use.