Age and Biking

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#1
Ok, so I wanted the opinion of people with dogs on the larger side who bike with them.....SASS!!

I want to start Fergus out biking, I've done it a couple times slowly on grass but I just want to get an idea about how soon is too soon and how far/long is too long with him. So any rule of thumbs?

He's not as big as people think, he's only around 55 lb so not a giant dog by any means and he'll be a year old next month.

Does it make a big difference between if he's "pulling" or running next to the bike?
 
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#2
I'd have no issue with a 55lb dog biking at a year age. It wouldn't be 15 mile forced rides a couple times a week, but a nice easy pace for 15-30 min? no problem.
 

Southpaw

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#3
Cajun was 14mos when I got her and we started biking right away. We didn't go long distances - and still don't - but I'd agree with RTH.
She's not huge either though, at only 50lbs.
 
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#4
I'm gonna go ahead and put on my flame retardant suit now, but I started running Squash (albeit together with Maisy, not alone) on soft surfaces in harness in front of the scooter at about 9-10 months. Not for very far, probably only 1/2-3/4 mile at that point and we were all so green that we were pretty slow with a lot of stops and starts. Many mushers start dogs in harness around 6-7 months, although those dogs are on larger teams, paired with experienced dogs and there is more help/less work for any one dog, but OTOH they are pulling a sled.

In theory the bike is less work for the dogs because although I do a lot of kicking on the scooter you are really helping them WAY more on the bike. But OTOH you can often go faster because of that, too, which might translate into more or harder impact depending on how he runs.

I'll say, too, that when Squash was neutered and had his hips x-rayed at about 13ish months, his growth plates were all well and truly closed. For a 90ish pound dog. So I don't know that I necessarily personally agree with the stuff that says wait until 2 years, etc. JMO.
 
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#5
Thanks for all your impute guys! I'm not one to really be strict about the "TWO YEARS BEFORE THEY DO ANYTHING" but just wanted some opinions.

Mainly, I want to be able to go to the local school that is 2 mile round trip with him. He would be on grass the whole time and would have a break between the first and second mile.

Does that sound pretty reasonable?
 

amberdyan

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#6
It seems like you've got your answer, but just my two cents- I've been doing a lot research about biking with dogs because I really want to take my herder mix biking when he's a year old (he's almost 7 months now). I don't really buy into the hard and fast age rule either. When I take Hugo off leash everyday he runs WAY more than I would ever do with him on a bike. I don't think 2 miles round trip would hurt a year old dog. Especially if he was willingly keep up with you without you calling him. I really think watching, knowing and reading your dog is a huge thing. If he's dropping back a lot and showing signs of wanting to stop, then stop and take a break. He'll probably love it. : )
 

GipsyQueen

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#9
Really depends on the breed IMO and when your dog stops growing. Our Breeder said to wait until she's a year to do anything like biking and jogging. (no stairs until 6 months)
We ended up waiting longer with biking and have started about 2 months ago (Zora was 14 mo.) because she had a spurt at 1 year and was awkward. ;) She better be done growing now though. ;) (She's 66.5cm :eek: )

Start slow and short distances to help him build muscles first though... :) A

We also taught Zora the commands "go left" and "go right" before we started biking.
 

DJEtzel

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#10
I started biking with Frag around a year I think, on trails. Short, he picked the pace and got to rest when he wanted to.

Around 2 we started biking a lot longer on pavement.

Patton's almost 10 mos, around 60lbs. I will take him out for one or two SHORT (half a mile or so) rides right before his birthday/the weather gets
Bad, then start trail conditioning him in the late spring around 17 months.

I would feel comfortable doing what you want with Ferguson at his age/size, personally. I just always let the dogs choose the speed.
 

yv0nne

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#11
(no stairs until 6 months)
Is it just me who finds this crazy? Am I misunderstanding or do people really expect you to carry your dog every time you encounter a set of stairs? I mean ..I can see not letting them run sets of stairs on a leash to get them fit. But going up& down stairs in their day-to-day life?

edit: I'm not picking on GipsyQueen at all ..or looking to start a fight. I know a lot of people feel this way. I just don't get it?
 

*blackrose

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#12
Is it just me who finds this crazy? Am I misunderstanding or do people really expect you to carry your dog every time you encounter a set of stairs? I mean ..I can see not letting them run sets of stairs on a leash to get them fit. But going up& down stairs in their day-to-day life?

edit: I'm not picking on GipsyQueen at all ..or looking to start a fight. I know a lot of people feel this way. I just don't get it?
I don't get it, either. I, for one, am glad we didn't have stairs with Abrams as a puppy because he was (and is) a clumsy oaf who would probably kill himself if he did stairs on a daily basis. But he was exposed to stairs as a puppy and I never carried him up/down, I made him do it. (Although, who knows. Maybe if he had to climb stairs daily he'd be less clumsy!)
 

Oko

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#13
As for doing stairs, I started letting Feist when she was 4 or 5 months old. But she's tiny so it was easy.
 
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#14
If there were to be an "injury" from doing steps, I'd think it could impact future joint development or elbows or whatever. I don't think the stress from doing a set of stairs should be overly burdensome to a developing puppy. Making them run stadium stairs over and over and over with you would be silly, but walking some steps on a daily basis? I highly doubt it.

A hearty puppy should be able to withstand "life". If you're breeding such weak dogs, maybe it's time to do a re-eval on this whole breeding thing. No you in particular, just generally speaking.
 

krissy

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#15
Kili started doing stairs at 8 weeks old. It never occured to me to not let her do stairs. I just didn't let her fall down the stairs and was always right there with her helping.

I didn't let her jump out of my truck (they ride on the floor in the back seat area... but the jump down to the ground is still about 2 feet) until she was about 4-5 months old. I would have prefered to wait until she was more like 7-8 months but she didn't like me picking her up out of the truck right from the get go. She'd kind of back away as you reached for her even though she didn't mind being picked up any other time. When she was small enough to be crated she couldn't go far, but once the crate was gone she would back to the other side of the truck and I'd have to crawl in to get her and crawl out carrying her... which became too difficult when she got to be about 5 months old. Sooo... I started letting her jump out. Doesn't seem to have harmed her. She would go in the truck 2-3 times a day generally.

I started jogging her right around her first birthday, but on trails and off leash so she didn't have to keep pace. I still don't like to jog her on paved surfaces and I still prefer off leash since I'm more interested in explosiveness and not pure endurance. I'd like to start biking with her... though she'll be two in a few days so not so worried about that aspect anymore.
 
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#16
I can't find it now, but there was a recent review that tried to look at evidence for the various claims of what does and doesn't cause hip dysplasia, and stairs were actually one of the things that were a risk factor with reasonable evidence behind them. But I can't remember for the life of me until what age or how many stairs/how much stair use actually increased the risk, and I can't find the study easily and don't feel like looking for it more thoroughly at the moment.

6 months with absolutely no stairs seems excessive to me, though.
 

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