Pick a safe place to give it a go, so that the worst that happens is everybody gets wet and go for it.

I've taken my Cairn, Maddie, canoeing and she did great. She sat calmly looking over the side or laid down sleeping in the bottom of the boat. Didn't try to jump out or anything, which is good, because the lake had alligators in it. The foolish friends I had with me decided it would be a kewl idea to trail an alligator around the lake. Common sense dictated this was not a good idea, but they didn't listen to me.

Their thought was (I'm hoping jokingly) to toss Maddie in to save themselves. Not a prayer in the world. Finally the alligator started to feel threatened... Imagine that... and turned and started towards us. The one girl started to panic. I was so afraid she was gonna stand up and dump us all into the lake. Talking calmly and quietly... "Don't panic. Just turn the boat around slowly and head in the opposite direction". Once we did, the alligator backed off. So lesson learned, alligators are best viewed from a comfortable distance.

Par...