Cycling/scootering with a dog

blackcob

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I'm thinking quite a long way ahead here but as a scooter would be an expensive purchase I want to make sure I've got all my facts in order first (before I ask for one for Christmas ;).)

I've got a mountain bike with a Walkydog attachment and when she's old enough and fit enough it's my intention to ride on local bridleways with this set-up. Can I also use a bridleway with a scooter set-up? I mean, it's just another wheeled vehicle, sounds kind of obvious but I just know some council/National Trust jobsworth will try and object.

As I can technically hop off the thing and walk, could I use it on suitable footpaths too, or is that pushing it a bit? :p How about permissive bridleways, is a landowner likely to pitch a fit if I turn up on a scooter?

Finally, how realistic is it that when fully grown and fully fit a single husky could run, either attached to the bike or a scooter, eight miles in one day?

The bridleway starts pretty much outside my house and goes off-road all the way to the yard where I keep my pony - it's pretty level once you're on the track, just a small uphill section at either end to get on to it - and I've got a half-baked idea in my head that we can bike/scooter down the yard once a week or so, have a water stop and break at the yard while I do the horse and then do the four miles home.

Cyrus, help! By the way, I forgot to comment on your thread the other day but apart from Madam's grumpy expression I was also amused that we have the same red wellies. :D
 
Can't offer any advice about where you're allowed to do it or for how long distances that will be possible, I only wanted to say that I've seen an older lady on TV once, who lived in the more northern parts of Sweden, she had attached her dog to her kicksled/kickspark and had put her bag of groceries on the seat.

Norwegian_kicksled.jpg



They seem to come in a racing type nowadays too
708px-Racing_on_Kickspark.jpg


I just thought it could be something to consider until next winter.

:D
 
You should get one of those training sleds on a bike frame, then she could pull you up to the yard. Can't offer any advice on the legalities of the scooter use, but once she is fully grown and muscled up a 4 mile run would I imagine be nothing for her, not sure how she would cope in warmer weather though, Cyrus could probably advise you on that. GSDs have to trot 20 km beside a bike as part of their working qualifications .
 
We scooter with our 6 year old dalmation x akita she absolutely loves it, Cyrus on here gave me some fantastic advice when we started up. We started out using a normal harness ( bought at pets at home or somewhere like that) but soon upgraded to a proper x back one which she is definately more comfortable in.
We bought the scooter off ebay it isn't a specific dog scootering one and we use an extendable lead attatched to the middle of the handle bars with elastic bungees for a bit of give.
We often go out with me riding the horse and OH on the scooter with the dog pulling and during last summer were doing upto 15 miles.
I did a thread last year here is a link if you fancy a look ..... http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=296726
 
I would have thought a footpath might be pushing it a bit but I think a bridleway would be ok, with due consideration for others of course:) Permissive bridleways, you'd probably be best off asking the landowner if possible I would have thought. They might not mind as long as you promise not to use it if the ground is too soft.

Cyrus would know I bet?
 
We don`t cycle/scooter down public footpaths we go to local woods etc and follow the trails there, obviously if you needed to cycle through part of town then I would put her on the walky dog

When using the walky dog a normal shoulder harness from somewhere like pets at home will be fine, if you start running her in front of bike/scooter then definately use a x-back so she uses herself correctly (think of horse working through their backs correctly)

To run her in front of the bike/scooter then I would definately recommend this kit http://www.snowpawstore.com/sled-dog-equipment/sled-dog-racing-kit/gangline-starter-kit-single.html its all set up ready for you to attatch it to the front of the bike/scooter

Harness wise we run in manmat harnesses but they can be a bit on the pricey side, as your just doing this as recreational exercise i`d recommend
http://www.snowpawstore.com/sled-dog...g-harness.html
Follow the mesuring guide and scroll down to find the size for the Nordkyn X back harness, neck fit is the most important and then length but its better to have the length a little longer than shorter if they havent got one her exact back length
http://www.snowpawstore.com/measure

Some basic commands we use are

Hike - Go/speed up
Gee - Go right
Haw- Go left
Steady - pretty self explanitory
Whoa - we all know what that means lol
On by - Go past a distraction

We only run the dogs between the months of oct-march this time of year we do allow them light runs but we do these very early in the morning around about 5-6 or very late at night always keeping an eye on the temperature/humidity
 
Awesome, thanks guys. :)

I was looking at getting this scooter set: http://www.snowpawstore.com/dog-scooters/dog-scooter-rig-set/scooter-starter-pack-single.html or something similar, I was mightily amused to find that there is a scooter company called Dax, shame theirs are twice the price of the Snowpawstore ones!

For learning to run on the Walkydog/pulling a little urban folding scooter around to learn the commands she's got one of these for now:

fleece-dog-harness-L.jpg


And has already learned that the harness means no corrections for pulling, and is thus highly excited by it coming out of the cupboard. :p We've got hike and whoa down a treat, directions are proving something of a work in progress but as our rides start to get longer I'm sure she'll catch on.

This is the surface I'd be looking at taking her on mostly, there's several miles of track like this through the woodland:

11hyu0g.jpg


And I'm guessing this is only going to be a winter occupation unless I am up very, very early on spring/autumn mornings, lol.
 
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