Mike,

If you are going to keep soloing with that tandem canoe, check out some of my trip reports.

After years of trying different things, I think I have it down pretty well now.

  You want to be paddling backward in the BOW seat and into the current or wind the bow NEEDS to be slightly heavy.

  My old SR16 used tandem died so I used a 17 ft SR tandem on the FUBAR trip. I knew that extra foot of waterline was going to be a problem so I brought a waterproof bag, that I would fill will water and put right up in the bow.

Worked great. The wild card with people who take dogs, especially a big one is whether or not you can keep them in one spot.  ;) ;D ;D