# Can Shepherds do biking



## JordanT (Mar 16, 2012)

Basically, before i got my dog i was in reasonable shape, but my and my fiancee fell apart, and i let myself go. I have a 8 month old shepherd, and want to start biking again. Im wondering will she be able to handle it? The journey ill take is roughly 1-2 miles ( Not that long ) But it would be twice a day 5-6 days a week. ( She would be leashed on the way to the trail, but once we got their i would unleash her and let her run )

The trainer i worked with in the past told me not to over exercise her, and that this would be to much for her. 

Also will she actually follow me and stay out the way? She had trouble with bikes in the past ( Constantly attacking them after one hit her ) But i worked hard with my trainer and now she simply ignores them. Even when a friend i know was cycling in circles around her with his shepherd, my dog just didn't care.

If you guys think its to much to ask of her at this age, i will obviously cycle alone for abit, then when she is older try with her.


Thanks in advance for responses


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## Speedy2662 (May 27, 2012)

Well, if the dog is not used to running that long, then start off with small trips, then raise with time


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## Good_Karma (Jun 28, 2009)

I think she'd handle that distance fine, especially if she's going to be off leash for part of it.


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## kiya (May 3, 2010)

Just like any exercise you & your dog have work up to it. I just started taking my 2-1/2 yr old back out with the bicycle again. I keep the pace down because we are riding on pavement. Most of the time she's at a slow jog or even walk. I think we go about a mile maybe a little more. My 2 older dogs are on summer vacation because it's just too hot for them right now, they both have long coats. She definately doesn't need a vacation.


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## Minnieski (Jan 27, 2009)

You don't want to damage her joints, so I wouldn't bike with her on pavement until she is older. We bike with both of our dogs and use a walky-dog attachment, which works great so long as your dog is trained to heel. Definitely work up to the distance so you don't hurt her. 

However, you have to remember that biking is a LOT faster than walking, so you actually have to ride rather slow for your dog to be at a nice, steady trot. You can't ride at a normal bike cruising speed and expect your dog to keep up.


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## MaggieRoseLee (Aug 17, 2001)

Can you drive to the trail, then unload dog/bike and have your exercise start there? Off leash for a 8 month old should be no problem, but keep an eye on her the first time so you don't over do it.


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## Elaine (Sep 10, 2006)

You should have no problem doing this distance, just keep an eye on your dog to make sure you aren't going too fast. My concern is her past aggression to bikes and that now she will be off leash and you won't be able to control her if there are other bikes and she tries it again. Are you sure she will leave others alone?


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## Nikitta (Nov 10, 2011)

I got Zena in shape for the show ring by jogging her while i was on a bike. She was older though, 2 years old. I'd be leary of doing it with a dog not full grown. Take it slow at first like the other posts have said.


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## GatorDog (Aug 17, 2011)

I think that distance while biking would be fine, but I'd probably keep her leashed the entire time.


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## marbury (Apr 3, 2012)

Minnieski said:


> You don't want to damage her joints, so I wouldn't bike with her on pavement until she is older. We bike with both of our dogs and use a walky-dog attachment, which works great so long as your dog is trained to heel. Definitely work up to the distance so you don't hurt her.


This. I'm surprised more folks haven't mentioned the joints issue. I've always been told by vets and breeders that they shouldn't be run long distances on hard surfaces until 14 months to minimize damage to hips and elbows, which makes perfect sense to me.

I start my dogs next to the bike at 14 months, and it's an excellent tool. I also have the Walky-dog, best thing ever!


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## Gretchen (Jan 20, 2011)

From the problems I've seen with my neighbors' dogs I'd be very cautious until full grown. And even with that, depending on the size and weight of your dog.

Our neighbors over-exercised their 100 lb Rottweiler when he was about 1 year old, took him jogging up to 4 miles. At the time he seemed to handle it, but by the time he was 2-3 yrs. his front joints were shot, he could barely step into our car (we babysat him).

Our other neighbor with their 50lb Husky would let their dog run at the beach 1-3 hours daily from puppyhood up to about 18 months. Then they noticed it had difficulty getting up sometimes, ended up having surgery on it's hocks. The vet said it was overuse. Just use common sense.


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## Freestep (May 1, 2011)

1-2 miles should be fine, just work up to it and make sure you go at a pace that is comfortable for the dog--a brisk trot for a mile or two isn't out of line--any dog with some amount of conditioning should have no trouble with it. 

My first dog used to run beside my bike, everywhere I went. I didn't own a car. At one time she would run 8+ miles a day, would pull me at full tilt for the first half mile or so, and was always ready for more.

As always, you have to pay attention to the heat index and how hot the pavement is.

What is the distance for the AD?


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## GatorDog (Aug 17, 2011)

Freestep said:


> 1-2 miles should be fine, just work up to it and make sure you go at a pace that is comfortable for the dog--a brisk trot for a mile or two isn't out of line--any dog with some amount of conditioning should have no trouble with it.
> 
> My first dog used to run beside my bike, everywhere I went. I didn't own a car. At one time she would run 8+ miles a day, would pull me at full tilt for the first half mile or so, and was always ready for more.
> 
> ...


12 miles.


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## Elaine (Sep 10, 2006)

Freestep said:


> As always, you have to pay attention to the heat index and how hot the pavement is.


With how hot it is out there this year, this can't be emphasized enough!


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## Samba (Apr 23, 2001)

I go in the early morning to avoid the heat. I have never biked a dog as young as 8 months due to growing joints. For sure I would not put a youngster on pavement. 

When I bike, I put the dogs on the ground rather than pavement as much as possible. My vet asks that I do this too. 
Sometimes there are too many people on the desirable trail so we do a very short trip on pavement. I do not bike every day, but take at least one day in between for recuperation. I do not make each time out a maximum distance run either to allow for recoup. My older dogs work up gradually to several miles, but I wouldn't push a growing youngster that much. I am sure they can run without problems, but I don't want to contribute to any joint issues while they are in formative stages. I bike a one year old, but not very far and not on pavement.


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## JordanT (Mar 16, 2012)

Thanks for replies, i was worried about her joints, back hips are most likely apparently. 

And i am 95% sure she wouldn't be aggressive to another bike. Since that incident i worked hard with my trainer now she complety ignores them even when going past her about 4 feet away. She still has a thing for squirrels though, but there arnt any squirrels near the trail i would be aiming to take her.


I guess ill keep to walking her for now and throwing the ball like 100 times ( Over 3 walks per day ). Then maybe when she is a little older and has done growing, will take her out nice and slow.


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## Freestep (May 1, 2011)

Oh, one other thing about biking on the pavement. My dog used to run on a combination of pavement and dirt trails. I NEVER had to trim her toenails.


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## Elaine (Sep 10, 2006)

No reason you can't bike her if that's what you want, I've been doing it with a whole lot of dogs since the 70s and have never had a problem. Plus it not only gets them in shape, but you can get more exercise in in a shorter period of time. It also helps take their edge off and keep them calmer. 

All this waiting until they are older, is just silliness repeated by people that have no first hand experience with this.


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## TaZoR (Jan 26, 2012)

Can shepherds do biking? No, because their feet keep slipping off the pedals....(rimshot) buh dum dum.... I am so sorry...I waited a long time but couldn't resist. I apologize. I only did it because you have gotten perfectly good advice.


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## marbury (Apr 3, 2012)

Elaine said:


> All this waiting until they are older, is just silliness repeated by people that have no first hand experience with this.


This is incorrect.


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## FlyAway (Jul 17, 2012)

People with show dogs run them along scooters or 4 wheelers to get them in shape for the show ring. But I would wait until your dog is 18 months old, and take it slow to start, like others have said.


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## Elaine (Sep 10, 2006)

marbury said:


> This is incorrect.


This is absolutely correct.


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## Freestep (May 1, 2011)

Elaine said:


> All this waiting until they are older, is just silliness repeated by people that have no first hand experience with this.


My first dog was about 9 months old when I started running her beside the bicycle. I didn't know any better, and she LOVED it, so we kept doing it.

She never had any joint problems or injuries, and lived to be 16 years old. She was a very athletic dog. Of course she got stiff and slow in her old age.

The common caveat these days is to let the dog's growth plates close before doing any forced exercise--12-18 months. But I would think that if you are going short distances (1-2 miles) at a reasonable pace, you probably won't hurt your pup.


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## Wolfgeist (Dec 4, 2010)

I wouldn't do that sort of forced, hard physical activity until after two years of age and you've checked the dog's hips and elbows to ensure it can do the work.


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## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

Pan got his AD at 20 months so obviously had been training before that. He's been doing shorter jogs (2-3 miles) probably since he was 10 months old. Hips/elbows were checked at 6 months and certified at 20 months. If you use common sense as far as distance and pace I don't see the big deal. He's had no joint or ligament injuries. If anything I have to be careful with his feet/pads on pavement.


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## marbury (Apr 3, 2012)

Hip Dysplasia in Dogs: Causes, Symptoms, and Tests

"Another factor that can bring on the symptoms of hip dysplasia is inappropriate exercise during the period of rapid bone growth. Young dogs should be discouraged from jumping up and down from heights in situations where they land on their back legs (such as jumping up to catch a ball), and from standing up on their back legs (which dogs do when they stand up against a fence or window to get a better view). They should also avoid running on pavement."

Canine Hip Dysplasia

"The interaction between the dog's genetic makeup and environment determine whether an individual dog will develop CHD. The genetics of the dog, to a large part, determine if a given dog has the potential to allow the environmental factors to act in such a way that CHD is produced. However, even dogs that are not genetically predisposed to develop CHD can contract the disease if they are pushed too hard when young by hyper-nutrition and excessive exercise."

Hip dysplasia (canine) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"The causes of hip dysplasia are considered heritable, but new research conclusively suggests that environment also plays a role. To what degree the causality is genetic and what portion environmental is a topic of current debate. Environmental influences would include overweight condition, injury at a young age, overexertion on hip joint at a young age, ligament tear at a young age, repetitive motion on forming joint (i.e. jogging with puppy under the age of 1 year). As current studies progress, greater information will help provide procedures to effectively reduce the occurrence of this condition."
(this is Wikipedia and not cited, however)

There are plenty more out there. These were just some google results. I'm trying to find the official study done in Germany a number of years ago that concluded that breeding a dam and sire with severe HD still resulted in perfectly fine adults when raised correctly, which suggested that although genetics play a role in predisposition proper husbandry techniques all but eliminate the expression in healthy adults.

It must be noted, however, that plenty of owners exercise their dogs before one year and they have no ill-effects. It's not iron-clad for all dogs. But in a breed that is predisposed to the condition why in the world would you take the potential risk? It's easy to just find a grassy area to bike them on instead of pavement. Exercise isn't the issue, it's the impact. Heck, a soft-belt treadmill would be better than concrete.


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## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

HD is polygenic, that is why HD dogs can throw dogs with good hips. As far as when/how to work my dogs I defer to the person I used for radiographs, who is an internationally known expert in HD, OFA panel vet, and whose research was used to start hip evaluations. His answer is genetics.

Now if the dog *already has* HD then of course certain activities will exaccerbate the symptoms. An adolescent dog trotting a few miles a few times a week does not *cause* HD.


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## marbury (Apr 3, 2012)

Liesje said:


> An adolescent dog trotting a few miles a few times a week does not *cause* HD.


I absolutely agree with this, 100%. The dog will trot far more than that on his own. Nor was I trying to say that a dog with no predisposition to HD that runs beside a bike will *get* HD. I was just defending an absolutist remark with some cold, hard research. 

I personally would not feel comfortable taking one of my puppy or adolescent dogs and running him 12 miles a day on pavement next to my bike. That's me, and that works fine for me. You do what you do and that's fine for you. But folks here have already chimed in about other people who do have dogs that suffered from early exercise. Others have chimed in about their dogs who are completely fine... clearly it can go either way. I just wanted to make it clear that it's not '_just silliness repeated by people that have no first hand experience with this_'. It's researched and correlated to development of adult HD in some cases. That's really the only point of my whole shebang.


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## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

And my point is that dogs that end up suffering are generally because 1) they were excessively exercised (whether they had HD or not) and 2) they already had HD, because that's genetic. There's a reason I check dogs at 6-8 months. The vast majority of the time, you can already see it (or not). A dog that looks awesome at 6 months is not going to rate severe HD at 2 years old from exercise.

As for the AD no one I know ever runs 12.5 miles in training. My dogs trained 1-2 miles 2-3 times a week, and then the young dog did a 4.5 mile run (once) and the older dog did a 6 mile run (once). The AD was not run on pavement. I knew the surface beforehand so that it could help inform the training. Like I said at least with my own dogs their pads tend to break down with too much running on pavement. That alone prevents any sort of over-exercise. I've never met a dog that had HD caused by biking/jogging but see plenty who end up with bloody feet because they were over worked too soon (and that's not unique to younger dogs but any dogs that need to build up to this form of exercise).


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## marbury (Apr 3, 2012)

I'm glad your training methods work for you. Looks like you have awesome dogs! Good to know that different methods of training work for different dogs.


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## Sunflowers (Feb 17, 2012)

Ugh. 

I just read, "Can Shepherds do *bikini*."

I am in obvious need of a nap. Been sleep deprived for a couple of days.


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## marbury (Apr 3, 2012)

Sunflowers said:


> Ugh.
> 
> I just read, "Can Shepherds do *bikini*."
> 
> I am in obvious need of a nap. Been sleep deprived for a couple of days.


:spittingcoffee:


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## e.rigby (May 28, 2011)

I don't know about the age, or the type of biking you're planning on doing (since an 8month old running on pavement might not be a good idea) but I do up to 10miles on the mt bike trails with my 5 year old gsd. He loves it. Of course, as with any activity, it needs to be slowly built up to greater distance and speed!


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