Anyone bike with their dogs?

I have been keeping an eye on CL for a bike for this year, gonna get my butt outta the house and into shape!

I was wondering for those that bring your dogs with you, what do you do re: the leash. Are they off leash... or are you holding the leash?

Anyone hear good things about the *wand* system that you attach to your bike so you have hands-free riding?

I have gone offleash, and also holding the leash in my hand. Depends on where I go. But I'm not a serious biker or anything lol

I would never bike with my dogs... everytime I have been on a bike I have fallen off and almost killed myself... I wouldnt subject them to my lack of coordination... I envy people who can do this though.

I do!

I used to use a leash, but my dog isn't always the smartest thing and won'tt hink twice about diving between the wheels to go after a squirrel or something And I don't really have a place I'd be comfortable biking without a leash.

Have you heard of the springer? My dad made an attachment to my bike that is similar to it. We just attached a HUGE spring (a foot long, 4 inches wide?) right behind the backseat and then attached a short bungee cord to that. The bungee cord has a clip instead of the hook that attaches to Jack's harness. I wish I had a picture of it.

It works BEAUTIFULLY! He can pull as much as he wants and it doesn't affect the stability of the bike at all. He can also veer off to the side and even if he sees a squirrel and lunges at it or speeds up it doesn't affect me on the bike at all. I just keep peddeling forward.

Yea! I couldn't think of what it was called and it wasn't coming up on google for me.

I do and I love it. Someday I would like to get the springer(or similar attachment) for the bike. Right now I have a 2 foot lead attached under the seat that attaches to his harness and then I have a lead attached to his collar or halti(just for a bit of extra control) as we do alot of biking on trails with lots of wild life.

I've been thinking about buying a bike this year too Mere..

I do. I just hold the leashes. I can bike my two at the same time. I always go before dawn or after dusk so they can't see the squirrels etc. I live in a decent enough neighborhood, so I just bike around the block. We never go faster than a trot, and I waited until my dogs were done growing before starting.

I have with Blaze. I just hold the leash. But he knows commands like slow down, here, walk, no (= stop), and don't pull on leash when biking! lol

I do. Both on and off lead. Always with a harness on if on lead. It's great fun. Take it slow. The pit bull forums actually have a really good tutorial on how to teach your dog how to do it properly on lead.

I bike with Lola. No matter how fast I go or how slow she is always able to keep up. We did a full 12 mile ride last summer and she stayed with me all the way without stopping.The only time we did stop was for about 5 minutes after 6 miles so she could take a pea break.We are usually going about 12-14 miles per hour.

I used to but haven't since fudge tried to break my wrist

It's fun and I should try again to see if i can train him NOT to herd the bike LOL

I have one of the nice attachments for my bike. It does work great - if she pulls, it is set on so low it doesn't pull the bike over at all. I hook her harness to that (it has a break away piece that you can set to different levels) and keep her leash on a collar in my hand.

It took a lot of work to make Meg comfortable with it, but she is Meg and she is odd. Lots and lots of cookies. We just did relatively slow (trot speed for her) loops around the neighborhood. I wouldn't do much on pavement or go fast on pavement - I'd be worried about feet and possibly joints.

I have not, but I do rollerblade with her

I used to with me eskie...but I just held the leash AND the handlebars with the same hand, he was a really good dog. I can't imagine trying it with my two now..Milo would attack the tires and Benji would totally go into a panic attack about being so close to the big scary bike.

I use a halti headcollar with a leash for now, but I want to get a springer attachment at some point.

I'd love to do something like this with Raja, but I shudder to think what she would do. Probably pull the bike over and drag me out in front of a truck or something... Evil mutt. I actually would like to try biking with her, though.

When we had four dogs, I'd go biking for 2 hours and rollerblading for 1 hour with them everyday.

We had...
Oliver the Larador
Samwise the Border Collie x Lab
Layla the Boxer
Georgia the Boxer

There was a nice long trail behind my house, and I go with Oliver or Samwise on the leash some of the time, and then let them off. They'd run alongside the bike and I never had a problem with them getting in front of it, although sometimes they'd fall behind to go potty and then run as fast as they could to catch up!

At first I'd go with only one dog at a time, holding the leash close to the bike so the dog learns what you're doing and not to get in front of the bike, and to keep up. And then you can let that dog off the leash, and take the second dog on the leash, and so on.

Good luck, it's a lot of fun, be safe, and wear a helmet. It's twice as dangerous with dogs.

I bike with Blaze ALOT in the summer.
I just tie the leash to under my seat. He knows not to pull after a squiral or dog ect. He just trots along beside me. And when we get to a safe are I let him run off. If I say "OK" then he knows he can run ahead as far as he wants. If I say "Back" he rides behind/side me. "move" means to get out of the way.

It took a good amount of training, but I would rather train him to be awsome, then worry about him dragging me down after a squiral or beaver or somthing lol.

In summer we have been known to bike for hours, covering about 20km's. He is one tired dog by then lol. We DO take breaks. We always stop at my grandpas grave, and sit under the big tree out there and relax for a while.