Born on a boat, built for the dogs

NautiDawgs is a family project — Troy and Angela Bruce, their crew of water-crazy dogs, and a lake full of summers on the Ohio River out of Goshen, Kentucky. Drake, Butterball, and Willett never met a swim they didn't like. Getting in the water was never the problem.

“Dragging a soaking-wet, squirming dog over the side of a boat isn't easy.”

Every boater with a dog knows the drill: the dog swims circles around the boat waiting for a lift, and somebody's back pays for it. Troy tried hoisting, lifting, treat-bribing — nothing felt safe, for the dogs or the people.

“One Christmas break, I'd had enough. I grabbed some wood, a few hinges, and built the first version of what would eventually become the nautiDAWGS dog boat ladder.” That first wooden prototype didn't survive — but the idea did. Four years and countless prototypes later, watching Drake swim laps waiting for his lift, the design finally clicked: a compact, slip-resistant ladder dogs actually understand, built from fiberglass and stainless steel to live on a boat.

We're not a big corporation. We're a family that got tired of wrestling wet dogs — and built the thing we wished existed. Every ladder ships from our family to yours.