Did some dog training with it! I thought the eager to please puppy would be best at it, and the Shepherds would need the work. Wrong! Poor Annabelle had no concept of transferring "heel" to the bike. She needs a lot more training to be bike savvy. Now, I've never ridden a bike with a dog before, but I heard the worse thing you can do is be nervous or afraid, or timid. You need to be your same old firm dog trainer self. Now, I haven't ridden a bike in about 9 years, but got plenty of practice in the parking lot at the bike store. LOL Then did circles in the driveway like a kid. Very pleased with the bike, best one I've ever owned, but I figured I'm grown up enough for a nice one now. My dad's Swchinn is 35 years old, maybe this bike will do that for me.
Anyways, I grabbed a dog and walked along, same left side, same commands, just a bike tagging along on the right. On the driveway first. Logan, was like a duck to water! Reinforced heel, since it had been awhile since the weather was decent enough for a walk. We were all out of practice. Got to the sidewalk, looked at him, and he looked at me, like, we going or what? So I put foot to pedal and off we went, with a couple "come on, keep up", "slow down", "heel!" ..... "Pole!"..... avoided disaster with the pole and leash.
All I did was take the leash along the handle bars, not tied, no wrapping, safety first! Gave him enough slack to relax, but not enough to cross in front of me. He did great! We stopped for other dog walkers, kids, squirrels, and cross streets. LOVE the sidewalks in this neighborhood.
Next came Ricca the lunatic. This dog is spastic, high energy, can stress herself so bad she can't "hear" with the joy of a walk. If any dog will benefit from the increased speed and distance of a bike, she will. But she also has the most training of all of them, and she figured it out pretty quick, and we found a pace much faster than me and Logan. We went into the long blocks and covered about twice the distance we do on regular walks. Cars were slowing down looking at us! She's quite the dog to see. And we acted like we'd been doing this bike thing all along, didn't feel or look like the first time, until the lady came around the corner with two small yappy dogs. But we have worked extra hard on that, so a good firm "focus!" and we kept right on going.
Usually it's hard to keep their noses up and a good heel. But the added speed, and they seemed to know the bike could be dangerous... they kept up awesome. So much fun! And only a little scary but don't tell the dogs.
Best chunk of money I've spent so far this year. I hardly ever buy anything for myself. But this bike, for me AND the dogs, they're smarter than I give them credit for. But I can't imagine actually attaching the dog to the bike. That looks like trouble, those spring things. But we could totally get a bike rack, throw 2 dogs in the car, and hit the bike trails and cover some serious ground.
After we got back into shape. Poor Ricca, she LOVED it, but was so out of shape she needed her pool after. And we didn't even get far at all, by bike standards. Short training distance. But it was a blast. If you have a bike, and a dog that knows "heel" pretty well, try it! Most fun I've had with the dogs in a long time.
Anyways, I grabbed a dog and walked along, same left side, same commands, just a bike tagging along on the right. On the driveway first. Logan, was like a duck to water! Reinforced heel, since it had been awhile since the weather was decent enough for a walk. We were all out of practice. Got to the sidewalk, looked at him, and he looked at me, like, we going or what? So I put foot to pedal and off we went, with a couple "come on, keep up", "slow down", "heel!" ..... "Pole!"..... avoided disaster with the pole and leash.
All I did was take the leash along the handle bars, not tied, no wrapping, safety first! Gave him enough slack to relax, but not enough to cross in front of me. He did great! We stopped for other dog walkers, kids, squirrels, and cross streets. LOVE the sidewalks in this neighborhood.
Next came Ricca the lunatic. This dog is spastic, high energy, can stress herself so bad she can't "hear" with the joy of a walk. If any dog will benefit from the increased speed and distance of a bike, she will. But she also has the most training of all of them, and she figured it out pretty quick, and we found a pace much faster than me and Logan. We went into the long blocks and covered about twice the distance we do on regular walks. Cars were slowing down looking at us! She's quite the dog to see. And we acted like we'd been doing this bike thing all along, didn't feel or look like the first time, until the lady came around the corner with two small yappy dogs. But we have worked extra hard on that, so a good firm "focus!" and we kept right on going.
Usually it's hard to keep their noses up and a good heel. But the added speed, and they seemed to know the bike could be dangerous... they kept up awesome. So much fun! And only a little scary but don't tell the dogs.
Best chunk of money I've spent so far this year. I hardly ever buy anything for myself. But this bike, for me AND the dogs, they're smarter than I give them credit for. But I can't imagine actually attaching the dog to the bike. That looks like trouble, those spring things. But we could totally get a bike rack, throw 2 dogs in the car, and hit the bike trails and cover some serious ground.
After we got back into shape. Poor Ricca, she LOVED it, but was so out of shape she needed her pool after. And we didn't even get far at all, by bike standards. Short training distance. But it was a blast. If you have a bike, and a dog that knows "heel" pretty well, try it! Most fun I've had with the dogs in a long time.
