# Who goes bike riding with their dogs?



## Mrs.K (Jul 14, 2009)

It's so much fun to bike ride with Indra. So much energy, she's a puller. 

Who else is bikeriding with their dog?


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## PaddyD (Jul 22, 2010)

I have considered it but if Abby saw a squirrel ......


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## kiya (May 3, 2010)

I started riding the bike with my dogs back in 2006. Believe it or not all 3 are pretty good together. Since the ticks are so bad, I have been staying out of the trails and walking the roads instead. As soon as we get a frost we'll be back on the trails with the bike, give my poor knee a break.


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## NewbieShepherdGirl (Jan 7, 2011)

Sasha loves it when we go bike riding! It's the only time she gets to jog since her mamma can't jog or run. Now that it's finally getting cool I anticipate a daily bike ride will be happening.

PaddyD: You may be surprised. Sasha is always really interested in other critters when we walk, but so far (knock on wood) she doesn't seem phased by them when we're riding. I use a prong when we bike ride to give me a little bit better control of getting her attention if need be, but so far I've never had to. When we first started she did try to cut in front of the bike once or twice, but I now use a shorter leash and all is fine


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## mysweetkaos (Sep 20, 2011)

I don't....but just mentioned to my husband I would love to. Our GSD is old and arthritic, so he much prefers to leisurely walk through the neighborhood. We have a 6 month (70lb) GSD/English Mastiff that we adopted through a rescue (huge foster failure :wub that I would love to train w/a bike. Any suggestions on how to start?


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## NewbieShepherdGirl (Jan 7, 2011)

mysweetkaos said:


> I don't....but just mentioned to my husband I would love to. Our GSD is old and arthritic, so he much prefers to leisurely walk through the neighborhood. We have a 6 month (70lb) GSD/English Mastiff that we adopted through a rescue (huge foster failure :wub that I would love to train w/a bike. Any suggestions on how to start?


With Sasha I started with just walking her while holding onto the bike for a little bit (as she was a little apprehensive about the bike). Then I rode it around my place only at first, so that it was some place she was used to, and she just took to it and now we can ride anywhere. Well...anywhere there aren't big hills...one of us, the non-furry part of this duo, is a little out of shape :blush:


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## mysweetkaos (Sep 20, 2011)

What age did you start?


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## NewbieShepherdGirl (Jan 7, 2011)

Well I didn't get Sasha as a pup, so she was two when we started, but she had had no real training, other than the crate training her foster parents worked on with her, so it was kind of like having a larger, maybe slightly less crazy, puppy.


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## mysweetkaos (Sep 20, 2011)

Thank you for the info. I look forward to trying him out. I would like to get him familiar with the bike now while he is still on the smaller side:crazy: But to avoid injury we will have to take it real easy until he is older.....although I am a bit out of practice so it is probably better to start real slow!!


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## Caledon (Nov 10, 2008)

I do and I love it, and so does she. Use a springer bike attachment and yes it does work if the dog darts after a rabbit. I'm getting better at scouting the area and give a leave it command.

We do 3 - 5 km, mostly on pavement. I keep the speed anywhere between 10 km and 15 km/hour always ensuring she is at a trott and comfortable. If my husband joins me and he is too far out in front she will speed up and will actually pull the bike. This could be handy, but I discourage it and tell her "slow". 

I've done rail trails with her and that was 5 km. Now the cooler weather is here I think she could do more and will be doing this in a few weekends from now. There is a 20km endurance test for dogs (forget name). I've read the rules and they travel at 10 km/hour, but you have to hold the leash. After 6 Km you take a 15 min rest, another 5 or 6 km, another 15 min rest. I'll work up to this.

The big fear that I have will doing this with the springer is that if we are attacked by an offleash dog, she is attached to the bike and she will defend herself. This is why I like going with my husband so he can ride just slightly ahead and block any dog who may lunge or try to approach. I also have her hooked up to the springer with a clip that I could quickly unhook. I even bought a woman's geeky low entry bike so I could dismount faster if I needed to do this.

Biking with my dog is my favourite activity.


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## kiya (May 3, 2010)

PaddyD said:


> I have considered it but if Abby saw a squirrel ......


You get used to looking for & seeing things first. I am always thinking ahead and knowing what to expect from the dogs helps. My 2 girls are squirrel chasers but all 3 get excited if we see a deer. I have them "halt" and stand when I anticipate a chase. I don't use an attachment. I wouldn't want them to be attached to the bike and take off running with the bike following.


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## EchoGSD (Mar 12, 2010)

My husband takes Echo a few times/week. She loves it! I used to ride with my black lab; she did great as well.


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## elisabeth_00117 (May 17, 2009)

Stark and I have been biking since he was about 18 months old. We try to go a few times per week. As soon as I have the time we will try for our AD (probably in the spring along with his BH). 

I was VERY surprised that I enjoyed biking. It is one of, if not THE most enjoyable time I have with Stark. Stress free, fun and just relaxing. Stark LOVES it as well!


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## smileydog (Jun 11, 2010)

I bike with Magnum everyday! Love it, can do at least 5-9km really tires him out for the rest of the day. We do some on leash on the road, and off leash on some nice forest trails. I have taken a couple of wipeouts when he saw chipmunk run right in front of him and as when there was a cat on side of road that I didn't see until too late. Oh well nothin serious just a little scraped knee. 

Julie


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## PaddyD (Jul 22, 2010)

kiya said:


> You get used to looking for & seeing things first. I am always thinking ahead and knowing what to expect from the dogs helps. My 2 girls are squirrel chasers but all 3 get excited if we see a deer. I have them "halt" and stand when I anticipate a chase. I don't use an attachment. I wouldn't want them to be attached to the bike and take off running with the bike following.


My neighborhood is too 'busy' to take her with my road bike.
I could take her in the woods with the mountain bike and
probably will when the weather is cooler. If we don't just run.
At 67, I am not as quick as I used to be so the slower bike pace would
probably suit a dog-trot.
I'm glad Mrs. K started this thread because I wouldn't have considered it
until hearing from others.


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## Pepper311 (Sep 11, 2011)

One reason I could not wait any longer for a young active dog is because I hate to Mountain bike alone. when my dogs were young they would always come on bike rides with me. My old dog I took on leash bike rides at first but then she just ran with my freely. If she took off she alway came back just as fast as she took off. Now our new pup is in training and next summer will be out on the mountian bike trains with me. This winter I am going to take her Cross country Skiing.


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## Mrs.K (Jul 14, 2009)

PaddyD said:


> My neighborhood is too 'busy' to take her with my road bike.
> I could take her in the woods with the mountain bike and
> probably will when the weather is cooler. If we don't just run.
> At 67, I am not as quick as I used to be so the slower bike pace would
> ...


Thats the nice thing of living in a nice and quiet neighborhood. It's really easy to go biking where I live even though we live in the town.


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## wildrivers (Sep 28, 2011)

*electric bike and trailer*

I have a large dog trailer for my GSD. He makes everyone laugh with his head stuck out the top of the trailer, through the moonroof. I have a electric bike to help me pull him up the hills.


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## kiya (May 3, 2010)

wildrivers said:


> I have a large dog trailer for my GSD. He makes everyone laugh with his head stuck out the top of the trailer, through the moonroof. I have a electric bike to help me pull him up the hills.


I he unable to exercise?


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## Gmthrust (Mar 3, 2010)

kiya said:


> _*Believe it or not all 3 are pretty good together.*_


Achieving Triple Dog, Carolyn! Hats off to you!:wub:

We've achieved single dog, and double dog but not yet triple dog (the youngest is still learning the ropes). It is so incredibly fun and makes life a joy to live. It's a hoot for all of us....folks get such a kick out of seeing it, and guess what?

We bike our Chihuahua, too....she is a crazy thing and runs two miles---I make her quit for fear of her running herself to death. Clip her in the basket, and off we go with the big girls. It'd be really super duper cool if we could ever work up to quadruple dog biking.:laugh: lol.


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## Susan (Mar 19, 2010)

*I would love to do this with Isolde....*


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## chelle (Feb 1, 2009)

Bailey and I went on our maiden bike ride our last camp trip and it went terrific! We started veerrry slow, with him on my left. Call me an awful owner, but when he attempted to cross right, I let the tire touch him == he did not like that, but it made an impression. We kept doing rounds around the campground and he got better and better about keeping left and a good distance. I slowly upped the speed. I was always watching out for anything that might distract him, though. 

I did have to make a couple emergency brakes. Once a child came out of nowhere on one of those little motorized trike things. The other time a dog ran out his leash and lunged at us. That caught Bailey by surprise and he stopped in his tracks, which forced me to brake hard.

It was great fun and awesome exercise for us both!!!!


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## Freestep (May 1, 2011)

I used to bike ride all over the place with my first dog, she loved it. I didn't own a car and my dog went everywhere with me, so she would run miles. We were both in pretty darn good shape then!

One time, when we first started riding together, she saw a squirrel across the street and thought she'd go after it--she crossed in front of the bike, we both went down and I landed on top of her. That was the last time she ever did that.


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## lhczth (Apr 5, 2000)

Just did the AD with my two young guys today. They get biked a couple of times per week.


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## dogfaeries (Feb 22, 2010)

I'd love to try this with my girls (one at a time). I worry about biking on the pavement though. Is that pretty hard on them? I'm not sure where I could take them that would be grass or dirt.


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## counter (Feb 20, 2009)

I recently got into bikejoring with Paw Paw and Beowulf. Nara tried, but couldn't keep up with her brothers, so she didn't make the team. Nara likes to run beside me, which is great, but for bikejoring they need to be strong pullers and fast runners to stay out in front of you and the bike. If your dog/s can pull like that, I would highly recommend checking into scootering/bikejoring and getting the right gear that goes along with it. I purchased the towline, X-back harnesses, etc. today and took Paw Paw and Beowulf out for their first run in the correct gear. Up until this point, I've been rigging it with what I've had, but wanted to get them in the correct gear since it's better and safer for them in the long run. They basically run in the exact same gear as a sled dog pulling a sled (think Iditarod!), but they pull you on a bike or scooter (google "Diggler" to see the type of dog-powered sporting scooters best used for this).

If anyone has any questions or wants more info on this, please let me know, as I would love to help. I joined the Cascade Sled Dog Club to surround myself with experienced, knowledgeable people who recreationally and competitively race in sled, bike, scooter, and cart races in Alaska, Washington and Oregon.

Tonight was awesome to see them in their brand new gear running their tails off. I will get pics of this and post when I can. With the gray clouds, drizzle, and the sun setting, it was too dark and wet to take pics. Sorry!


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## Gilly1331 (Apr 16, 2011)

Sorry to bring up an old thread but I figured I'd try here before creating a new thread. I just started biking this week with my two girls while Zeus is recovering. Each girl does great by themselves. My 3 yr old GSD/mastiff Lexi is great listens perfectly and we have only done about 1 mile so far on pavement. I started Kimber our 10mo old GSD on just easy 10mins up and down the road. She also listens very well now that she understands what she is supposed to do. I don't want to push her bc she is growing. I also took both girls together just briefly but holding 2 leashes gets a bit difficult. I thought of using a coupler but am unsure. I am eventually going to switch them from their collars to harnesses once they are 100% on commands for the bike. I also thought about the dog/bike attachment but am very nervous about control of the dog/s. once Zeus is better hopefully spring/summer I'd like to add him into the mix and work 3 at the same time. Any help suggestions would be great about how to handle 2-3 at the same time while biking.


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