General Cycling Discussion - Bring your dog biking?

Anyone include their dog in their biking? I've seen bike leashes (which look terribly unsafe for BOTH ends to me) and I wondered if anybody successfuly trained a pooch to ride in a kiddie trailer. :p

(I could probably just let my German Shepherd run alongside on a short, slow ride, if she didn't have arthritis.)

The road that I live on is very empty. One side of the road is all woods. My dog loves it when I take him along with me on my little 1 mile test runs down our road. He goes up into the woods and runs parallel to me about 30 feet away. The more I yell, the faster he goes. He is not a big dog, so the 17 mph he gets up to impresses me. On the way back he jogs net to my bike on the road, at a slower pace.

Hello.....

I have my dalmation trained to run along side me on my left side with a make shift spring attachment that I fabricated. When I get the bike out and he sees his leash he goes nuts... man can that dog run.

At the bike path last weekend I saw both a dog laying in a kiddie trailer and another smaller dog sitting in a children's rack seat. Both of them looked like they were loving it.

I have an Australian Cattle dog and have no choice but to run her beside my dog. She has so much pent up energy by the time I get home from work that she runs in huge circles arround the yard at top speed. And Fast ... I think she could take a greyhound.

I think I read in an article once that it is hazardous to take your dogs out on extended bike rides. The reason is that their bodies are designed for sprints of short distances - not high speed running for miles and miles and therefore cause unnecessary strain on their hearts...I can't really say anything about this though since I have a really small dog so he doesn't run much anyways :)

I don't know, these dogs are bred to work hard.

A little info (http://acdca.org/)

I think Dalmations (sp?) are working dogs as well.

I take my Doberman down the dirt road I live on and off into my hay field and around the barn and back. About 2.5 miles rt. She loves it. BTW Took her to the vet for normal yearly shot stuff. He said it certianly agreed with her she appeared to be in great shape. So that distance doesn't seem to be too far for her. That should hold for working breeds about that size.
Joe
:beer:

I have a mutt that I adopted 7 years ago (when he was only 5 weeks old) from the North Shore Animal League in Long Island.

He's half Lab. Retriever and half Chow-chow.

He's mainly an indoor dog. I feel bad that I don't have time to take him out as much. But he loves it out there in the woods when I bring him hiking.

The problem I had biking with him is:

1. He stops and sniffs at every hydrant & lamp post (there are around 2 fire hydrants & 4 - 8 lamp post on a typical city block), so if I don't look for him, and if he stops, he'll get the wind knocked off of him by the leash that's attached to the seat post.

2. My seat is set at optimal performance riding for me (ie. legs almost straight when I'm at the bottom of my stoke), which means if he stops, I'll have to get off.

3. I have no wooded (forest) area to ride on. I can't take him off the leash because others may be afraid of him.

But I would love to bring him in an empty park and have him run next to me at a real slow pace for a while. Althought he's beginning to gray under the chin, ears & toes (he's all black), he's still full of energy!

All I've got to say is:

Can I borrow some Armorall?

Special Purchase at Wal-Mart!!! Bought three boxes!

L8R

What do you use to keep your bike nice and shiny?

When I take my dalmation out we only do around 2-3 miles at speeds between 5 &10 mph. It can only be making his heart stronger. I also bring along his own H2O and stop every so often so he can sniff the bushes.