Bikes, harnesses and roadwork

I biked for years with Bailey using a springer bike attachment and a properly fitted x-back harness. When I first started, I had a leash attached to her collar as well, but I definitely didn't use it forever.

I sent my springer attachment to my friend in Ohio and she's been using it for the last year or so with her Golden. He wears a Howling Dog Alaska distance harness with it. I am pretty sure she still has him on a collar and leash she holds as well.

I loved my springer.

I just put a harness on Bandit and his brother, grabbed the leash and held on. I have pretty good balance and the only time I ever took a spill was because I tied the dogs to the front of the bike with zero training.

Maybe I'm a whacko because the pair of them were nuts back in the day. I had almost 100lbs of crazy neurotic testosterone driven marathon athletes ripping out my left arm.

I was a crazy teenager. I would never do that now.

I hold the leash in my left hand. DJEtzel and I have been talking about making a sort of altered Euro-lead so that I could attach it if I wanted to and have extra handles down the side to grab if need be.

I always put them on LLW, though. I don't have them pulling out front. I've biked with collars and harnesses, and definitely prefer the harness. I've just got a ComfortFlex for Harlow that we use as she doesn't really pull after the first 1/2 mile.

Pavement is pretty hard on them, though. Do you have any sort of bike path around that is gravel or that is paved with grass on either side where you could put the dogs?

Just another thing to mention, make sure you vary the speeds.

ETA!: I forgot to mention! I've found that speed cues (such as "ease up" when you are getting ready to slow down), stop cues, and some directionals can be helpful too.. I put those on Lucy right away as she had a pretty good prey drive. The stop cue saved my butt a few times.

I've been biking with Frag for years, biked with my little Rat Terrier Bailey, and biked with Sir. Frag and Sir both biked on a leash and prong, I don't like anything attached to my bike and I like having the control a prong gives if necessary. It's never been necessary even with deer and geese, but you never know. Bailey ran on a flat 1" martingale.

Recon will start biking this summer on a prong as well. We do trails and pavement, always warm ups and cool downs. I will be doing stretching exercises with Recon prior to biking as well. Excited to be doing some more biking with Meagan! XD

I've biked with a leash only and with the walky-dog attachment... If something happens and the dog pull I like the pull to happen where my center of gravity is(under my seat) as that is much easier to control and therefore ends with less pain. The upside of biking with a leash is that if you hold it in your hand and are very observant you can drop the leash immediately if needed... the downside is if you're not observant and something happens it yanks the front of your bike which is less easy to correct(and therefore can end in more ouch).

I've also biked with collars and harnesses... I really much MUCH prefer the harnesses. A dog that knows LLW on a harness isn't going to be pulling, but in the event that something happens and there is any kind of jerk(and remember on a bike you're traveling faster(sometimes much faster) than a walk... I really don't like the idea of that being centered on the dogs neck.

Obviously though, at the end of the day, you have to weigh all sides and decide what is most comfortable for you.

I've never understood this. I tried a bike attachment once on a friend's bike and it made my ride so uneasy. So much easier for me to hold the leash, only bike with one hand and have full control over my body's movement.

I bike using the Walky Dog attached to a harness, and hold a leash attached to a prong (because I usually bike around town, so it helps to be able to correct Roxie). I keep my thumb in the leash handle and both hands on the bike.

Roxie knows "gee", "haw", "woah", "faster" (so she knows im picking up a little more speed), and "STOP!". I started training her those cues on walks, and got her used to the bike and equipment around 1.5yrs. When she was 2, we began going for walks and slow trots with the bike. 2.5 was when we began running on flat ground, and then slowly eased into going uphill. You don't have to be exact with the age thing, I just wanted to be safe since Roxie is a shelter mutt.