Dog sledding!

[bmathers]

I’ve just started bikejoring and dog sledding with Diggity. He is learning to pull after 2.5 years of me teaching him to walk on a loose leash! I use a totally different harness for walking and pulling, so he will eventually get it.

Yesterday we finally got some snow, so I went out with my experienced dog sledding friend and we did one run with Diggity pulling just me, where he pulled a bit, but I ended up running alongside the sled most of the way (and nearly dropping over from exhaustion!) So, we hooked him up to one of my friend’s dogs and she did a run with both of them and Diggity did so much better!

Amazing how much better dogs teach each other!

https://youtu.be/8N9d--0Hnxs


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[barry581]

That looks like so much fun!

[SunDance]

"nearly dropping over from exhaustion"

As someone who had a dog go into seizures from overheating outdoors in the wintertime, I offer the following: dogs can overheat in snow. Internal overheating can exacerbate any tendency to have a seizure. Two of my yellows did. Just a caution.

Other than my Debbie Downer comment....and made only because of your quoted remark....that sounds like fun.

[bmathers]

"nearly dropping over from exhaustion"

As someone who had a dog go into seizures from overheating outdoors in the wintertime, I offer the following: dogs can overheat in snow. Internal overheating can exacerbate any tendency to have a seizure. Two of my yellows did. Just a caution.

Other than my Debbie Downer comment....and made only because of your quoted remark....that sounds like fun.

Well to clarify, I was running all over the place, from one side of the trail to the other, trying to encourage him to move forward as he sniffed, meandered, marked, then trotted a few steps forward, rinse and repeat. On that leg of our run, it was definitely way more work on my part. He certainly ran a lot more when he went out on his run with the other dog.

But, I hear you on being careful. We’re building up his stamina slowly and not pushing it too fast with him. He certainly does seem to enjoy it and truthfully seemed to enjoy getting into a cadence with the other dog as opposed to our solo run where we were pretty chaotic trying to make our way down the trail.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[bmathers]

By the way, anyone else on the board to any kind of bikejoring or dog sledding with their dogs?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Black Labbies]

What fun! Diggity did really well for his first time!

[Snowshoe]

What about skiijoring? I am a cross country skiier but I have not tried it. We used to meet a man skiijoing with his standard poodle and boy, could they move. In fact, the speed they travelled at is partly why I never tried, figured I'd never keep up, because you do still have to ski.

[bmathers]

What about skiijoring? I am a cross country skiier but I have not tried it. We used to meet a man skiijoing with his standard poodle and boy, could they move. In fact, the speed they travelled at is partly why I never tried, figured I'd never keep up, because you do still have to ski.

I was originally going to do that, but my arthritic knee took a turn for the worse this past fall and certain things really hurt it, like cross country skiing. So far, the motion on the dogsled hasn’t been bad and biking is very good, so that’s what I’m focusing on now.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[MightyThor]

I’m so impressed! We’ve tried skijoring with Thor and Barley but the places we go have a lot of other dogs and they are way more interested in visiting with other pups than pulling. [emoji38] I feel like labs don’t have the pulling drive that other dogsledding breeds might have. and it can be dangerous if they are hooked into a harness and decide to go in a different direction.

[bmathers]

I’m so impressed! We’ve tried skijoring with Thor and Barley but the places we go have a lot of other dogs and they are way more interested in visiting with other pups than pulling. [emoji38] I feel like labs don’t have the pulling drive that other dogsledding breeds might have. and it can be dangerous if they are hooked into a harness and decide to go in a different direction.

Well one of the biggest challenges I have with Diggity is his impulse control around other dogs, but it is pretty cool to see him click into “working mode” once we start running. And to see him hitched to another dog and able to work in that situation was awesome. Although, my friend said when she stopped to turn around, Diggity took the opportunity to jump on her dog to start playing and she had to pull him off and start going again to get him to refocus. So, he is definitely still a work in progress!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk