Paws Aboard Doggy Boat Ladder and Ramp

This is our second one. We have used this for the last 15 yrs. Our first one is still good but we included it with the sale of our old pontoon boat. It’s easy to put together and use in the water. We have always had 3 dogs. They were and are big dogs. It is so easy for them to get in and out of the lakes. It stores out of the way on the pontoon boat when we are done using it.

First I would like to say that this dog ramp is a good idea but,,,,,,,,, you would be very lucky that it works right out of the box with your boat ladder. If it does you scored!! Mine did not work for my ladder. I had to fabricate a lower bracket for the ramp bar that rests against the boat ladder because my boat ladder was slightly wider than the lower bar.If you do purchase one of these ramps, your first assembly should be off the water because it is adjustable and it will be a lot easier on land. The next thing I did was purchase a chunk of outdoor carpet, cut it to 2" strips and used some double sided tape and taped the carpet strips to the ramp rungs. It is a little slippery when the ramp is wet.The last thing with this ramp is the weight of your dog that will be going up and down it. I have a 65 lb Golden Retriever and a 40 mix breed. If you are successful in getting this ramp to work for your boat I think it is a good product for dogs less that 60-65 lbs. Any dogs heavier it is a little wiggly.Hope this helps.

You do want to set it up before you are out on the boat. It doesn't take long but would be a pain on the water.The dog learned how to use it right away and had no trouble getting up the ladder. The only down side is that you can't use the ladder yourself so you have to take it off for people to get in the boat. I have a large pontoon boat so we beached it on the front end so we could get up and down that way and the dog used the ladder.

This pet ladder has problems. I purchased it back in April mainly based on the video and the price. We have a 60 lb lab and have used the ladder about 5 times. The ladder is not easy to open especially when on a boat. It is hard to attach to your boat ladder -- it takes two people my husband in the water holding it and me trying to wrap the velcro ties around the ladder without getting my hands pinched between our boat ladder and the ramp to propery install. Once in the water and attached my dog can get back into the boat with ease. It is just as awkward to fold up and get back in you boat -- definitely not a 1-2-3 operation. The side clips that keep the two parts of the ladder/ramp extended are hard to get into thir specific holes a very frustrating process. However since our dog was able, once we got it installed (a process of at least 10 minutes) to get back on board easily we thought perhaps we would get faster with usage. When we went to use the ramp yesterday we noticed that it was sitting unusally low in the water and discovered that a float had fallen off plus a bracket was missing from the armature that holds the ramp away from the boat. This product has been a great disappointment.

We have used this 'Paws Aboard Doggy Ladder' a couple of times. It seems to be one of the better ladders available. Set up is not quite as easy as shown in the promotional video, but overall not too bad. You do have to detach the doggy ladder to get people on-board, using the regular swim ladder, but you can just detach one side of the ladder Doggy ladder and swing it out of the way. The ladder does fold up nicely so it can be easily stored on the boat when not needed.You will need to guide the dog up the ladder, as it is slippery, being plastic and wet. A small dog may be able to negotiate the steps without assistance, but we have found a larger dog does not maintain their balance as well.We have used another type of ladder, but this one seems to be much better. The simple fact is that boarding a dog on & off a boat is not the easiest thing in the world, but this ladder makes it quite do-able.

This is a great tool for boats and dock ladders. Yes, you will need to buy something that helps with the slick plastic, and we had to buy a bar for the bottom so that it would catch on our dock ladder. The tricky part with this product, is that every dock and boat ladder is different. If you are willing to be creative with this, you can most likely make it work. If not, good luck finding something that does work.

The ladder description reads "fits almost all boat ladders with three or more steps". This is pretty misleading as it is unlikely to fit any pontoon boat ladder well, despite the number of steps it has.That being said, it can still operate as a function dog ramp and I was able to get my 60lb airedale terrier up and down it. Modern pontoon boat ladders are designed like dock ladders and have arm handles that extend up onto the boat transom. This will almost assuredly prevent the ramp from sitting flush against the boat transom and on my boat creates about a 10 inch gap between the ramp and the boat. Also, my ladder is too narrow for the ramp's non-adjustable "support brace" and only part of it will sit on the ladder's second or third step, leaving the ramp sitting crooked on the back of the boat.I am going to keep the ramp because it works and with time I think my dogs will get comfortable using it. I am giving it two stars however because for this amount of money it should fit better and offer a more universal installation.

The media could not be loaded. This is our second ladder, first lasted 9 years! Dogs do great with it. They are able to access swim platform from water , then able to enter boat, easily. No lifting of dogs on this boat! Everyone stops to ask us about it. Very happy to give them the info to purchase themselves.We Love it!