Pets & Bikes

LotteBum said:

There's a bit of a pet thing going on in one particular thread, so I thought I'd start a new one.

Has anyone here had any luck training a dog to come mountainbiking? Our dog, Simon, is only 8 months old and Cadence is only 4 months so they're not old enough to come along just yet, but some advice as to how to go about this sort of training would be good.

TimC, do your cats come riding with you?

Cheers,
LotteBum

ahhhh dogs and mountain biking.... I was fortunate enough a few years ago to go mountain biking in canada with a friend I acquainted in a ski trip to whistler.... I spent at week at her cabin/lake, dont worry everybody in the far north of canada has a cabin and lake! she also had a amazing dog half wolf/malamute that came mountain biking with us..... now maybe something to do with the breed of dog... but effectively.. as soon as we started the dog.... disappeared! he had been well trained with obedience classes, she had that usuall 99.9% control of the dog... I mean its a wild animal you never really know what it is going to do......

we would finish the ride and the dog just appeared out of nowhere! she said, I never trained him.... initially she hiked with him on a lead and let me him off the lead every now and then.... but with the mountain biking...straight from her first ride... let him go.. he was gone, she never heard him or saw him the entire ride.... she would finish back at the lake/cabin... a whistle... shout out his name... *blink* dog out of thin air.

apparently on one occasion he turned up with a trophy as well, poor little *dead thing* had no chance

Cats out riding...!! that would be great.... what would you do, put them in a carry basket on the front of the bike ????

On 2005-10-02, LotteBum (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Quoted message said:

There's a bit of a pet thing going on in one particular thread, so I
thought I'd start a new one.

Has anyone here had any luck training a dog to come mountainbiking?
Our dog, Simon, is only 8 months old and Cadence is only 4 months so
they're not old enough to come along just yet, but some advice as to
how to go about this sort of training would be good.

TimC, do your cats come riding with you?

Not since they were kittens, and they weren't particularly fond of it
then.

I just needed to work harder to indoctrinate^Wtrain them from an
earlier age 🙂

Right, out you come of this here mother puss, now, get on the bike,
and peddle!

--
TimC
New!: Sysadmin Barbie! Complete with tiny pager, Leatherman, selection of
LARTs, and makeup kit for that haven't-slept-in-3-days look. --unknown

On 2005-10-02, LotteBum (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Quoted message said:

There's a bit of a pet thing going on in one particular thread, so I
thought I'd start a new one.

Has anyone here had any luck training a dog to come mountainbiking?
Our dog, Simon, is only 8 months old and Cadence is only 4 months so
they're not old enough to come along just yet, but some advice as to
how to go about this sort of training would be good.

TimC, do your cats come riding with you?

P.S. Roger and ... Megs ?

http://pizza.homelinux.org/~tconnors/photos/rides/2005-01/Warburton_track/dscf0571_Med.jpg.11.html
http://pizza.homelinux.org/~tconnors/photos/rides/2005-01/Warburton_track/dscf0570_Med.jpg.10.html

Roger is a rather old guy that flies up past me on hills with dog and
trailer on back.

The dog (Megs?) is old and arthritic, and just sits there on the back
all day.

--
TimC
Shift to the Left;
Shift to the Right
Pop up; Push down
Byte! Byte! Byte!!! --unknown

LotteBum said:

There's a bit of a pet thing going on in one particular thread, so I
thought I'd start a new one.

Has anyone here had any luck training a dog to come mountainbiking?
Our dog, Simon, is only 8 months old and Cadence is only 4 months so
they're not old enough to come along just yet, but some advice as to
how to go about this sort of training would be good.

When I get my postie bike, I'm going to use it to cart my
guineapigs around when they need to travel. Does that count? 🙂

Bleve said:

When I get my postie bike, I'm going to use it to cart my
guineapigs around when they need to travel. Does that count? 🙂

Guineapigs! Remember having a flock as a kid, they were like a small mobile poo factory with funny noises.

The Cats? They're not remotely interesed in cycling, though Harry noticed the Lawrencia. And there's been several sightings of Big Red Fat Cat around Melbourne since 2002.
http://static.flickr.com/31/41425263_76582842d7.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/10/14900152_058a9fc1be_o.jpg

Miss Betty used to run along side the bike in her younger (sighted) days. She's 18 now, blind as a bat and preoccupied with sleeping & not moving (much).
http://static.flickr.com/11/14876722_b3077cf60e.jpg

TimC said:

P.S. Roger and ... Megs ?

http://pizza.homelinux.org/~tconnors/photos/rides/2005-01/Warburton_track/dscf0571_Med.jpg.11.html
http://pizza.homelinux.org/~tconnors/photos/rides/2005-01/Warburton_track/dscf0570_Med.jpg.10.html

Roger is a rather old guy that flies up past me on hills with dog and
trailer on back.

The dog (Megs?) is old and arthritic, and just sits there on the back
all day.

Roger is _not _that _old. He and partner Carol are MBTC/YarraBUG members, also have piccies of Megs was at the Wheels of Justice Ride on May 7th. Megs & Miss Betty are members of the '100 plus club', ie: over 100 in dawg years. 😄

LotteBum said:

There's a bit of a pet thing going on in one particular thread, so I thought I'd start a new one.

Has anyone here had any luck training a dog to come mountainbiking? Our dog, Simon, is only 8 months old and Cadence is only 4 months so they're not old enough to come along just yet, but some advice as to how to go about this sort of training would be good.

TimC, do your cats come riding with you?

Cheers,
LotteBum

My dog of lurcher type mutt status used to come out with me when I exercised the horses. She started out at about 11 mths and was lead trained and would come when called unless there was a better offer from small furry critters running away into the bushes (that's sight hounds for you!!). She used to gallop and trot along behind no problemsat all and run off to chase things. She would come and sit by the horse when traffic was passing on the roads - something I did train her to do. I always made sure there was plenty of available water either in puddles or creek that she could access (either to drink or to cool off) on the tracks I took.

There's an old guy who lives in my town who rides around the streets most mornings in suit (tweed usually, plus a tie) and work site helmet, with a small white fluffy thing dangling off the end of a lead running along side the bike.

I've had a number of animals who were keen on travel...

A rescued Lab x rather enjoyed sitting up behind the saddle when horse-riding (though not all the horses appreciated her company!)

A pet lamb used to sleep slung over the front of the saddle until finally turning into a real sheep 🙂

I collected a stray kitten from Arthur's seat many, many years ago... she started off as Arthur, but I realised later was actually Martha :eek:

She used to love my old school bag (if anybody out there is old enough to remember school bags... the back-straining devices before back-packs took over!) and would crawl into it at the slightest opportunity. As a result she learnt to also love travelling - to parks for picnics (on the bike, tram, bus, whatever was needed) but really, really loved a trip to the country - she'd pop out of the bag and sit up looking out of the window on the V-Line train. She never needed to be restrained or locked in - she knew to hang around where her school bag was...

Some time later I had a Jack Russell who spent a lot of time waiting patiently in his milk crate strapped to the front of the bike waiting for a ride.

I had high hopes my current pooch would enjoy a run through the park beside the bike, but he's not blessed with quick learning skills, and I'm not blessed with good balance so we've given up on that. He is a lab-rhodesian ridgeback x (as far as i can tell!) about the size of a small pony. He only has to turn his head when on a short lead and he has pulled me over... and a long lead is even worse... I've promised him when we're both a little older I'll get a big trike and he can sit on the back 😄

ali

"LotteBum" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

There's a bit of a pet thing going on in one particular thread, so I
thought I'd start a new one.

Has anyone here had any luck training a dog to come mountainbiking?
Our dog, Simon, is only 8 months old and Cadence is only 4 months so
they're not old enough to come along just yet, but some advice as to
how to go about this sort of training would be good.

TimC, do your cats come riding with you?

Cheers,
LotteBum

--
LotteBum

My dog Molly (7.5 years old) a chocolate and white border collie, reguarly
comes with me on rides. Mainly on half of the around the bay in Leichardt
Sydney (7km round trip) She loves a "puppacino" at Cafe Bones at the end.
She gets really scared of the noise on the Iron cove Bridge so we don't
cross it.

I have taken her into some small local national parks that have tracks in
them. But as you know taking dogs into National Parks is illegal, but i
would love to take her on some of the trail rides i do in Royal Nat PArk and
Blue Mountains.

She rides happily on lead or off lead. Off lead she just picks the trail
that i would ride on and happily jogs ahead. I usually take great delight in
taking a detour so i watch while she looks around for me.

I have her trained (mostly) to stop at road intersections and sit when we
are riding on the footpath (another illegal act!). This did not take much
training. I trained her at 4 years old.

A few years ago i had her fit enough to do the endurance test as set by the
Canine Council which is an 18km ride at an average speed of 10km/h. But due
to a stuff up in paperwork (my fault!) i couldn't enter. This is broken up
into three stages over the course of a morning. This took a lot of training
and reguarly had her on 12-15 km rides at avg 12km/h 3 to 4 times week. She
loved it. She was generally knackered at the end of each ride but certainaly
perked up when i get the bike out (still does!!). I don't have the time to
devote the training to this now and she is now too old for the event.

To train them i would get them to walk confidently to heel first on lead.
Get them to stop and sit when you stop and to only take off when you start
walking again. This will take practice and food rewards. After they master
this get them off lead and do the same thing. This is much tougher but can
be acheived with practice. My advice is be consistent with you commands and
even with the feet you take off with. Use the same one each time. From here
it is a natural progression to the bike both on and off lead. Don't go to
fast when they are on lead about 15km/h is fast enough. As you know dogs
have a tendency to stop "and smell the roses" at all times. Be aware of
this. The fastest i have had her up to (off lead) is about 30km/h. Depending
on the breed of dog your dogs are i think 4 to 5 km is a fair clip and
should be enough to get them knackered.

I would also suggest enrolling in you local dog obedience school/club. This
teaches you to teach your dog. It also teaches you most of the above tips.
The dog will also love it. Since you are in Brisbane (I think?) i can't
recommend any but i would suggest your vet would k now the local school/club
or contact/browse the web of your state canine council.

Cheers

Matt H

We just got a whippet (think 50% greyhound)

Never been a dog person (well, never had em) but this dog is cool
Still in puppy-exuberance stage at the moment, but the idea of taking it on a ride scares me a bit. Apart from the possible tangles/running under wheels distractions the little bugger can sprint faster than Gags' rocket!!!

It is serious-fast, faster than a greyhound apparently but not as much of a stayer beyond 250m-ish

Also has not mastered 'stopping' or 'turning corners' as yet. bloody funny 😄😄😄

The cat has put in place the Garfield-Odie skool of diplomacy 🙄

Matt H wrote:

My dog Molly (7.5 years old) a chocolate and white border collie, reguarly
comes with me on rides.

I'm very fond of Border Collies, personally. Having said that, both of our dogs are German Shepherd crosses from the pound.

I have her trained (mostly) to stop at road intersections and sit when we
are riding on the footpath (another illegal act!). This did not take much
training. I trained her at 4 years old.

When I walk Simon, we get to intersections and we say "Stop, sit" and he does it. Most of the time he seems to do it automatically now. He's pretty good like that, but I do worry that if I were to let him off the leash, he'd run off. He's quite um.. energetic.

A few years ago i had her fit enough to do the endurance test as set by the
Canine Council which is an 18km ride at an average speed of 10km/h. But due
to a stuff up in paperwork (my fault!) i couldn't enter. This is broken up
into three stages over the course of a morning. This took a lot of training
and reguarly had her on 12-15 km rides at avg 12km/h 3 to 4 times week. She
loved it. She was generally knackered at the end of each ride but certainaly
perked up when i get the bike out (still does!!). I don't have the time to
devote the training to this now and she is now too old for the event.

Wow, that sounds like seriously cool stuff! We're really keen to get into agility with our dogs, but they're both too young still. They need to be about 18 months before you can do anything like that because you can interfere with their development by making them jump too much.

<snip>

I would also suggest enrolling in you local dog obedience school/club. This
teaches you to teach your dog. It also teaches you most of the above tips.
The dog will also love it. Since you are in Brisbane (I think?) i can't
recommend any but i would suggest your vet would k now the local school/club or contact/browse the web of your state canine council.

We've done a fair bit of training with Simon at the VIP Pet Foods grounds at Yatala. These grounds are totally awesome and secure. Cadence hasn't even started puppy preschool yet, though. We've only had her 4 weeks and she's just been spayed and is yet to get her final vaccination (this happens tonight). Simon did puppy preschool (he did really well here and the trainer said he was ready for Obedience 1 straight away, despite being only 4 months old when he finished). After puppy preschool, we did a 4 week 'puppy gym' course which was basically puppy agility. Again, he absolutely excelled at this and was way better at it than any of the other dogs. He just has no fear. Anyway, at 5 months we went onto Obedience 1 where Paul handled him. The problem with this was that it was on a week night and Simon's brain switches off at about the same time as the sun goes down... he finished with mostly ticks on his certificate, but he definitely failed walking at heel and 'friend' (where you send your dog to a friend - he was happy to go to the other person, but proceeded to run around the grounds and hump teddy bears upon recall). Heel is one area with which we've had problems continually and we're constantly working on it. Usually, he walks like a little terrorist until about the halfway mark, then he calms down and walks fine for the remainder of the walk.

The plan now is to take Cadence to training and get her up to speed with Simon, then take them both to Obedience 2 and move on from there together because they are quite close in age.

My main worry is that because Simon is such a little sh!t, he'll just run off and I'll never see him again. Cadence, I'm fairly certain wouldn't leave my side. She's just always there, even when I'm mowing the lawn (at which point Simon is busy attacking the lawn mower, biting the wheels, barking etc).

I think I might invest in some private lessons for Simon... he's a psycho (but a nice one... and quite obedient most of the time).

Lotte

flyingdutch said:

We just got a whippet (think 50% greyhound)

Never been a dog person (well, never had em) but this dog is cool
Still in puppy-exuberance stage at the moment, but the idea of taking it on a ride scares me a bit. Apart from the possible tangles/running under wheels distractions the little bugger can sprint faster than Gags' rocket!!!

It is serious-fast, faster than a greyhound apparently but not as much of a stayer beyond 250m-ish

Also has not mastered 'stopping' or 'turning corners' as yet. bloody funny 😄😄😄

The cat has put in place the Garfield-Odie skool of diplomacy 🙄

Whippets can build up to endurance, greyhounds can't really. There is a guy who runs around the tan with a whippet, think 10+km runs. I know that will scare most of the a.b lot.

Would discorage strongly riding with a dog on a leash, just a nightmare for both you and the dog. A well trained dog (off leash) and slow riding can be acceptable

MikeyOz said:

Cats out riding...!! that would be great.... what would you do, put
them in a carry basket on the front of the bike ????

err, yes,that works. Well is did about 40years ago. the problem is
finding good carry baskets these days.

PiledHigher said:

Whippets can build up to endurance, greyhounds can't really. There is a guy who runs around the tan with a whippet, think 10+km runs. I know that will scare most of the a.b lot.

Would discorage strongly riding with a dog on a leash, just a nightmare for both you and the dog. A well trained dog (off leash) and slow riding can be acceptable

why do you say greyhounds can't build up endurance???? Why do they get taken for long walks at 5 am in the morning then?

We had afghans when I was a kid and we would trot them regularly beside the car or out the back of the station wagon (new estate roads - no traffic) to get them fit. You just couldn't walk them enough to get them that fit.

LotteBum said:

There's a bit of a pet thing going on in one particular thread, so I
thought I'd start a new one.

Has anyone here had any luck training a dog to come mountainbiking?
Our dog, Simon, is only 8 months old and Cadence is only 4 months so
they're not old enough to come along just yet, but some advice as to
how to go about this sort of training would be good.

Small dog? Backpack :-0

Seen it done by someone a while back, wouldn't want to stack though.

Cheers
Peter

Peter Signorini said:

LotteBum said:

There's a bit of a pet thing going on in one particular thread, so I
thought I'd start a new one.

Has anyone here had any luck training a dog to come mountainbiking?
Our dog, Simon, is only 8 months old and Cadence is only 4 months so
they're not old enough to come along just yet, but some advice as to
how to go about this sort of training would be good.

Small dog? Backpack :-0

Seen it done by someone a while back, wouldn't want to stack though.

Cheers
Peter

Good Morning Mr Sig,
You should know better than that. Surely you remember Rog McGrath and
McTavish at Blue Pools back in 1999? And way back in 1985, there was
that guy on the Combined Clubs Ride at Daylesford with his dog on the
back and the fake V/Line logo on it. I think I still have a photo of
that somewhere in the archive. Can't say I was ever a dog enthusiast
though, so you won't catch me doing it.
Regards,
Ray.

"flyingdutch" <[email hidden]> wrote in
message news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

We just got a whippet (think 50% greyhound)

Never been a dog person (well, never had em) but this dog is cool
Still in puppy-exuberance stage at the moment, but the idea of taking
it on a ride scares me a bit. Apart from the possible tangles/running
under wheels distractions the little bugger can sprint faster than
Gags' rocket!!!

It is serious-fast, faster than a greyhound apparently but not as much
of a stayer beyond 250m-ish

Also has not mastered 'stopping' or 'turning corners' as yet. bloody
funny 😄😄😄

The cat has put in place the Garfield-Odie skool of diplomacy
🙄

--
flyingdutch

Here's another use for an old bike.......when I was a kid, my best mate's
dad from across the road always had 4 or so greyhounds on the go and me and
my mate used to help him train them. He was a welder and he took an old 10
spd racer, took off the front wheel and welded it to a stand. He then put a
loop of wire on the back as a guide point and attached a big long piece of
strong cord to the back wheel after removing the tyre/tube and welding thin
steel to the rim so that it made a deeper channel for the string to run in.
On the end of the string, he had a block of balsa with a rabbit skin stapled
to it (one that my dad had shot).

We would go up to the local school that had a big oval and he would set my
mate David and I up at one end of the oval with the bike (pegged to the
ground) and then he would unwind the string right across to the other side
of the ovals (prob 150 metres or more). Basically, he would hold the
greyhound about 5 metres or so back from the "wabbit" and give us a yell.
Dave or I (depending who was on the bike) would pedal like crazy and start
retrieving the wabbit and then his dad would let the dog go and he would
chase the rabbit.

Once we had worked out what gear we needed to be in, it was great fun and
whoever wasn't riding had the job of telling the rider when to brake so that
the wabbit stopped about 10m or so away and didn't end up getting jammed up
against the guide thingo.

Man those dogs could run........I remember that he did have a few wins with
them at local dog races but I don't think he ever turned a profit.

I always thought it was strange that the greyhounds had to wear muzzles when
they were being taken for a walk as we used to play with them pretty
regularly at Dave's house and they were friendly as!!

Gags

Gags said:

Here's another use for an old bike.......

<snipped bit>

Man those dogs could run........I remember that he did have a few wins with
them at local dog races but I don't think he ever turned a profit.

I always thought it was strange that the greyhounds had to wear muzzles when
they were being taken for a walk as we used to play with them pretty
regularly at Dave's house and they were friendly as!!

Gags

sight hounds are awesome in full flight. I had a very tall deerhound (3 foot at the shoulder) and man he could fly. Funny as to watch as a baby with legs flying every which way.

I think the muzzle thing is as much for saving small furry critters that run away as much as protecting humans (small ones in particular??) from nips and bites. Afghans are more "agressive" than greyhounds and are much more likely to attach a human ( short range eye sight very poor ie they can't see you so they will attack - go figure) and should be muzzled in public. Come to think of it, most dogs should be muzzled in public, as should ignorant owners!

Somewhere between Warrandyte and Croydon is an extremely long fully fenced public (ie part of a sports ground) sand run for speedy pooches to gallop safely.

TimC said:

P.S. Roger and ... Megs ?

http://pizza.homelinux.org/~tconnors/photos/rides/2005-01/Warburton_track/dscf0571_Med.jpg.11.html
http://pizza.homelinux.org/~tconnors/photos/rides/2005-01/Warburton_track/dscf0570_Med.jpg.10.html

Roger is a rather old guy that flies up past me on hills with dog and
trailer on back.

The dog (Megs?) is old and arthritic, and just sits there on the back
all day.

Bit of side topic (as if this thread hasn't gone OT enough). Talking to Carol this morn at the BUG tent (RTW thingie ), unfortunately Meggs went to dawggie heaven recently. Nineteen and a half. That's a terrific innings. And Meggs went along to plenty of bike rides, several YarraBUG meetings, and the Melbourne WoJ ride in May.

http://static.flickr.com/10/13258398_85a6c04bef_o.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/10/13257957_45c18d6544_o.jpg

vale Meggs 🙁