When a pet or other animal jumps or falls in the water, they can swim for a while (some more than others) but, without a way out, they can drown from exhaustion brought on by panic or fatigue.
Though some drownings occur by day, they occur most often at night leaving the waterfront or pool owner with that cruel surprise of a dead pet. In the case of vinyl-lined pools, one of the more expensive things to replace or repair is the vinyl liner. And this is especially frustrating when the damage was caused by a frantic animal trying to escape from drowning!
What can prevent this occurance? Leaving a Skamper-Ramp installed to make sure no critter is trapped and punctures your liner.
We provide an animal water escape device, drowning prevention product which is a blowmolded Super Skamper-Ramp® .
This patented, proven and award-winning (and deceptively simple looking!) is attractive, affordable, lightweight, versatile, robust and, most importantly, works--even when no one is there to help!
Did you know that… In the US 71% of households own a pet – and it breaks out to almost 75 million dogs, 88+ million cats and 24+ million small pets in those households.
Did you also know that the odds of a pet drowning (per the American Pet Association) are 1 in every 1,028 in the US alone? And that of the 71% of households with a pet, 53% of also have a pool and/or spa (per the APPMA 2007/2008 survey)?
Skamper-Ramp is an escape ramp: a means of preventing animals and pets from drowning in a water entrapment. It is a “keep it simple” solution to a very major problem – preventable animal drowning – so it is a very simple-looking product.
But behind that simplicity is a lot of science and testing. The science is that ALL living beings – domestic or wild; bugs, animals, or humans; colorblind or not – see the color white. As long as the Skamper-Ramp is installed so that a few inches of the “nose” (curved) end are under water and the ramp breaks the water’s surface, the animal will see it.
The other end of the ramp is like a box top, and it is that “open-box-top” end that must be very snug to a vertical wall -- whether it's a pool, floating or fixed dock, walled pond, spa, stern of a boat, or water troughs in pastures and remote ranchland -- in order to provide the rigidity and stability for an animal to “skamper” out on the ramp.
Either ramp works well for permanent, vinyl liner pools - in-ground or above-ground - by making sure that an animal’s claws don't touch puncture the pool. If you have a deck surface that overhangs the pool wall, you will need to re-lace the ramp’s rope to the set of holes below the Skamper-Ramp logo so that the ramp can be snugged under the overhang and closest to the side wall.
It will not cut through or tear the vinyl. For peace of mind, you could put a double layer of vinyl on the side wall of the pool where the ramp will hang if you can get some from your vinyl pool contractor, or tape the edges of the ramp with vinyl repair tape, but neither should be necessary.
If you have a soft-sided above-ground pool, you can make adaptations to your deck (primarily affixing a 1x10 board under the deck with a brace behind it holding it perpendicular to the deck and parallel to the pool wall) so that the Skamper-Ramp will have a rigid flat surface to brace against so that animals may escape using it.
Skamper-Ramps® are made of the same material as EZ Dock, polyethylene for the 2008 SKR3, Super Skamper-Ramp, and made from box-corrugated, All float and they are chemical- and UV-resistant, rugged, and recyclable.
As stated above, the ramp is made blowmolded polyethylene--some of the strongest, most durable materials available that can float. In addition, the materials used are UV- and chemical- resistant. Because of this, we know it will hold up for a very long time!
It is true that we have had large dogs like a 120 lb Rhodesian Ridgeback and a 95 lb golden Retriever go out on the small ramp - it becomes more vertical, and may even crease near the rope corners, but it will still work for an emergency escape - exactly what it was designed for. You can bend it but you can't actually break the rugged polypropylene plastic board or its flexible plastic wing strips.
Any size animal can use the SKR3…it was primarily designed to allow frequent use by any pet, or for larger dogs to get their hind legs on sooner and hold up to their weight and constant use. This size is required if used in conjunction with a boat or dock—the extra length is necessary to enable it to break the water’s surface.
The Super Skamper-Ramp version, SKR3, has been redesigned as a hollow “solid” piece for greater strength and length, and ease of assembling. It helps when there is a greater distance to the water or the animal is larger, although the ramp is light and supports weight because it floats and the water is under it. The increased length of the Super Skamper-Ramp version allows larger animals, more shoulder to hip length, and is much more robust than the original Skamper-Ramp.
But remember it is the box end that is sturdiest and most rigid and that needs to be very snug to the wall. Sometimes rethreading the ropes into the two holes under our logo, increases rigidity.
There is no one right way to install a Skamper-Ramp - two criteria are critical:
1) a few inches of the round “nose” end need to be submerged so that the white breaks the water surface so the animal will see the white while swimming, even in stress; and
2) it needs to be snug to a “rigid” flat, vertical wall so that when a critter or pet gets on the end the Skamper-Ramp has something to brace against. It is the open-box-end and stabilizing wing-strips that provide rigidity and robustness, especially when braced against a vertical element, that make Skamper-Ramp work so effectively.
The most important point about the installation is to have the Skamper-Ramp as snug to the dock or pool wall as possible, while still having a few inches of the “nose” end of the ramp submerged. To accomplish that there are two sets of holes for threading the connection rope through (one above the Skamper-Ramp name and one below) in order to accommodate deep copings or flush edges.
Our customers are creative in their applications. Many people are buying Skamper-Ramps for their floating docks, fixed docks and boats (from the stern transom or with the swim platforms); to use for thin ice rescue; for indoor ramps for very small or light weight animals; and in water troughs in pastures and remote ranchland (gives critters that get in for a drink a way out, rather than drowning and polluting the water so animals won’t drink it).
Hotels, motels, municipal water system reservoirs can all take advantage of Skamper-Ramp's drowning prevention. Let us know yours.
Boats are not as universal in construction as docks and pools so boats may require some ingenuity and engineering for best use and installation and awareness that chop may “kick it up”. Outboard motor boats, are the easiest – as in the picture here,
simply brace the ramp on the stern alongside a motor and tie both ropes to one stern cleat, or brace it on the short swim platform and tie to a cleat or eyehook on the stern, or even tie it on the top swim ladder step.
For larger boats with larger platforms that are higher out of the water... you could still use the top step of the ladder or, better yet, put two eye hooks on the underside of the platform (if it is one that doesn't have drain slots) ~9 inches apart. Then unlace and re-tie the rope through the ramp in loops knotting a snap hook into each loop side (perpendicular to how it is delivered to you) - then when you want to use it, snap the ramp in place. It will drag behind and under the platform but, when any animal steps on the ramp, the platform will keep it from going vertical and also from kicking up due to chop or waves.
The back (“open box”) end of the ramp requires approximately 5” of a vertical surface to brace against, or must have the underside of a rigid horizontal surface to brace against. As with pool installation, the ramp also must have at least 3” submerged beneath the water. We will honestly tell you that if your boat stands higher in the water, has a sloped transom/stern or no place to “create” a brace it may not be appropriate for your boat. On the other hand, we have had a number of customers tell us that they “will figure it out and make it work”….essentially, where there is a will, there’s a way!
