I got the ok yesterday to start rollerblading, and actually my surgeon said that would be tremendous rehab for the old ankle. Since the weather was crap and I was super busy I didn't get to go yesterday, but I did take Ghost for a little spin today. We went approximately a mile, and she did pretty well. We need to work on distractions and we need to build her endurance some, but we both had a lot of fun. The last time I rollerbladed with a dog I think I was around 15, and it's been like 5 years since I was on skates at all, so I was a little wobbly at first but got my skating legs back quickly.

SQUIRREL!!!

iceblulady wrote:

SQUIRREL!!!

Yep, we had one of those moments tonight. I saw it coming though and braced, so she wasn't able to pull me where I didn't want to go.

Ghost looks like she's having fun! If I did that with our Ghost, I'm sure I would end up in a ditch. Gotta keep your eyes peeled for cats and squirrels!

This is one activity I wish I could do with mine. I don't know how to rollerskate and I'm not sure I even can because of my issues with my left foot. It seems like such a fun way to burn the dogs energy.

Had our third little rollerjoring session this evening, and I think she's getting comfortable with the whole pulling thing. We hit the street coming out of my driveway and she went like a bat out of hell for about a half mile. I think we may have to move this little operation up to the paved trail in town. The only negative is she's still kind of distractible, especially with other dogs and small animals (SQUIRREL!!!!).

ken is a good inline skater, played inline hockey, i keep telling him to take one out at a time but he has not yet i and not sure i could pull it off, i got to get air in the tire and get them out on the bike!

Ok, I'm looking into roller blades, but I know nothing about them. I can't spend an arm and a leg either. I found these.

thoughts?

http://www.sportsauthority.com/product/index.jsp?productId=13071789&cp=3077572.3084895.2716606.2734287&pg=1&s=A-StorePrice-TSA&searchSort=TRUE&parentPage=family

As long as they fit/support you right the should work just fine.

I need to Get Kelly to film me as I fly out of the house half awake with my two in the morning . 6k and by the end they are DONE.

It looks like your having A LOT of fun Meredith.... and I know it can be a blast ^^.

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The only negative is she's still kind of distractible, especially with other dogs and small animals (SQUIRREL!!!!).

In terms of random dogs, and rodents, I just use my momentum and weight to keep going. Even with two of them yanking me in the same direction after a squirrel I can generally force an on by just by skating wide and pulling them past.

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Ok, I'm looking into roller blades, but I know nothing about them. I can't spend an arm and a leg either. I found these.

thoughts?

There's a Break even point when it comes to Blades.

The cheap ones are generally really really bad. The wheels on them suck to high hell and they are all plastic and feel like crap. I'm not saying you can't find a decent pair of blades for under 100 bucks, but in terms on quality and enjoyment you get what you pay for. In my experience once you hit the 130 - 150 buck mark you get a good skate.... Anything more than that and your just spending money for small increases. It can be worth it, it just all depends on what you want.

I've bought cheap blades, worn them once and shelved them for the year before. They just felt like crap.

When blade shopping for leisure your looking for Wheels, Comfort, Performance in that order. Brakes don't do a thing when your being pulled by a dog so if you find a good deal on hockey skates (inline hockey skates generally don't have a brake to allow for EASIER reverse skating) those are fine too.... Just learn how to drag one foot to slow yourself.

Most inline skates have a NUMBER in their description or name. In your example above Mel yours are 90s. The number represents the size of the wheel. they generally go from 72 to 100. The bigger the wheel the faster you can go, but you lose maneuverability. The smaller the wheel the more agile you can be, but less fast.

If your just learning how to skate I would try and find a pair of 76s or 80s. You'll pay less for them and will be a lot more stable just starting out.

Or get a pair that can support up to 90 and work your way up to better wheels as you wear yours out. I can't stress how important a good set of wheels are, and learning how to rotate your wheels when they wear.

The two really big brands are K2 and RollerBlade. You get what you pay for with them either way. Both generally offer speed lacing technologies (I put my foot into my K2s and pull a string and I'm out the door) and are just as fast to take off. Both tend to offer a lot of comfort...

I always recommend K2 skates however as they aren't a HARDBOOT like a lot of other brands. Most of the good K2 skates are a soft boot made with a memory foam type material... The more you skate the more it molds itself to your foot. It is braced with hard plastic, but the fact the boot is soft means they aren't digging into your shins, and are VERY breathable. These things are important especially when starting out.

K2 Athena Womens 78s

Above is a link to a really nice K2 pair only 10 dollars more then your roller derby find. They come with 78s wheels, but can be upgraded to 80s. hey are soft boot but aren't speed lacing.

K2 Athena Womens 80s

Those are the exact same skate but this years model with 80mm wheels and speed lacing tech BOA. 40 bucks more for something you really don't need.

The next two are RollerBlade Entry level skates. one at 120ish and the other is 99 right now.

RollerBlade Spiritblade

RollerBlade Womens Spark 80s

Both are 80mm wheel sets but the spark is aimed more at comfort with their side lacing and help on pressure points.


Whelp.... There you go ... Sorry for the Hijack and the Wall of text. I hope it helped Mel!!!!

~Chris~

Wow, you're awesome Chris!!!!!!!! Thank you so much for the info!!!

Yes, smaller wheels would probably be good then! I used to skate all the time as I kid (I was pretty good), but it's been YEARS!!! It's going to take me a few days of skating on my own before having the courage to do it with a dog. I would like to start off with Asia since I can control her better, but she's only 9 months so I'll have to wait until October. Maybe if I feel EXTRA comfortable I'll take Kody with me. I think that keeping up the momentum and pulling them by the "object" (haha) will work best for me too!!

I'm definitely going to be getting one of these on payday this Friday! It makes me nervous that I won't be able to try them on though. In your experience do the sizes run small, large, or normal?

Anytime Mel Happy to help.

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It makes me nervous that I won't be able to try them on though. In your experience do the sizes run small, large, or normal?

This is a really hard question. Everyone's feet are different and what is true for me may not be for you. And sizing is SOOOOO important. If your liner and skate doesn't fit right you won't use them ever.... They will just collect dust because they are too uncomfortable while skating.

That being said K2s are generally spot on for me. My K2 boots are the same size as my shoes and they fit me perfectly.


Honestly your best bet would be to get an idea of what blade you want and try and find a retail store close to you that carries them. SPORTS AUTHORITY I think carries some high end brands down in the US I believe.

If you can make it to a retail store you can at least try on some skates and see how the diffrent brand sizes fit you. (If your leaning towards buying a K2 skate try on K2 skates only until you find your size, vise versa for the RollerBlade). Once you got a good fit, and know the size you can just say sorry they aren't what you are looking for and go home and order there. on a side note.... If they Price Match you might be able to get them for the same price if you bring a print out and show the free shipping to the store as well.

That being said places like Inline Warehouse and other nice online retailers have good return policies. They understand you aren't trying them on in store and they might not be the right size.

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IW Guarantees Fit with FREE return shipping on skates. Return label request must be made within 7 calendar days of receipt. Order has to be made from within the contiguous United States. Skates are in NEW condition as described on customer service page

So as long as you return them within 7 days even the return shipping is free. Provided the Skate is still NEW.

Once you have your skate on you need to make sure they fit well. Wear the socks you will be skating in when you try on your skates for the first time.

Wiggle your toes.
You'll want to press your ankles back against the heel of the skate, while you wiggle. If your toes are crammed against the front of the skates, they're too tight. If your foot can jiggle around inside the skates while you hold your foot up, then they're too large. You want them as snug as possible without hurting.

Stand up and put your weight on each foot and see how it feels.

Move around a bit for a couple minutes and let the liner conform to your feet. Re-tighten the skates and make sure they're still snug.

You need them to be COMFY! If they aren't nothing else will matter.

There a decent video for Ice skate sizing here.... Most of it pertains to inline skates as well.

There ya go Mel Hope it helped

~Chris~

wait very important question I hope I am not repeating anything but .... how do you stop them from being distractable??? or will they just get over that in time???

You have to be super vigilant for distractors, and as soon as you see them getting distracted use some sort of command to indicate to keep going. We use "on by", and I taught that by basically dragging her along and saying "on by!" until she got going again. She knows it well now.

hmmm, maybe I should try practising that now with them =S but it is anything from dogs, to pigeons, to squirrels (there are five in the park I walk in), to cats .... the list is endless ^^;

Jess-Crichton wrote:

hmmm, maybe I should try practising that now

That would help a lot my two get antsy when they see critters or birds and I just say "on by its just a ________ (fill in the blank). After a while they know enough to give up on t he idea of a good chase after what ever it was.

I want to do this with mine, but my problem is their feet. Can anyone recommend good booties who do rollerblading with their dog for asphalt/pavement/concrete? Our surfaces down here just get so hot that if I don't run them first thing in the morning, by nine or ten the temperatures are already over 100*. Hopefully this will be changing soon with 'winter' (LOL) coming in.

I tried some cheap petsmart booties when Steele was younger, but they fell off every five steps no matter how I put them on.

P.S. If this is considered hijacking your thread, I'm sorry! I just felt like it was on topic, and something else people might want to look into for their dogs xD

https://www.dogbooties.com/
good and cheap! love them!

http://musherssecret.net/
great for healing pads and protection

I took Kao roller blading today for the first time and OMG she loved it!! Shes soo pooped out now. Before i was just taking her to the dog park for exercise, but after a couple bad experiences i thought i would find a difference method. Im kind of worried about it being too much for her though since shes still only 7 months old.....

If she's still only 7 months, I'd back off a bit. We did some *very* short bikejoring sessions with Ghost starting around 9 months, and even that was on the early side. She probably hasn't finished growing yet, which means the growth plates are still open and could be damaged by the impact.

That being said, glad she had fun! That will really be something for you guys to look forward to doing more and more as she gets older, and you're lucky that you guys don't get the oppressive heat up there that we do down here. We couldn't do any joring from May through the beginning of October because of that.

Ok that makes sense thank you! She doesn't pull a whole lot yet just runs beside me but ill keep it short and sweet for now.

Sunny weather doesn't sound so bad to me, We're supposed to be getting snow here within the next few weeks!

Sunny weather is great until it's 98F with 85% humidity

I'm actually looking forward to the prospect of snow when I move to Maryland in a couple weeks.

Can't wait to do this with my new Husky. I've played hockey for 17 years and I'm an excellent skater. Have a harness on the way.

What do yall think is a good age to start them rollerjoring?? It doesn't really qualify as weight pulling in the same way sledding does, but it does imply vigorous running.

Thanks.

Personally, I would wait until at LEAST one year of age. I won't start canicross with Sheba until at least 14 months. When you start before the growth plates are closed, you risk major damage. You can start the training for it at around 8 months, but no REAL rollerjoring.

If you do research on the effects of major exercising before the growth plates are closed, you can come to your own educated decision as well. This is just how I personally feel and how I will go about it with Sheba. She is 9 months old right now, and we are starting with the commands for running.

Also you need to make sure you get your pup checked out by a vet to make sure they are stable enough for rigorous exercise. What I did with Kennedy is that I took her to both a conventional and holistic vet before deciding to go ahead with training. As Sheba grows, she has also been regularly checked by vets.