My checklist:

- Trail to train on ✓
- Bike ✓
(Innertubes for bike ✓)
- Dog/s able to train with ✓
- Dog Harnesses ✓
- Gangline ✓
- Bungee cord ✓
- Neckline ✓
- Helmet ✓
- Gear to wear ✓
- Bike attachment ✓
- Karibiner ✓
- Bell
- Lights for bike


Everything is checked that I need straight away. I don't plan on going on roads or in the dark with them so the lights are questionable. And also the Bell.. I may just take the silencers off the dogs tags - they jingle. But I can get them later.

My reason for doing this is (as said in my introduction) because my OH goes on tour in a couple of months time. He normally goes for 6 mile runs with Louie every weekend or so when he is home from camp. Whereas I despise running so cannot do this. He wanted to train Pen up to run with him but would find this kind of difficult when he's in Afghanistan. So in order to keep the dogs in tip top condition and also something to do when I am pushed for time or am feeling too lazy to walk them. Lou and Pen love to run and if their leash manners or lack of are anything to go by - they love to pull too.

So everything is ordered. The trail I will be practising on is perfect because it's a odd shaped circle (so there are both left and right turns in as well as straight bits). It is fairly flat-ish with a path clearly marked out and is beside a lake so water if they need it.

I will be doing this with Lou and Pen. Today I decided to start teaching them Left and Right, however with my accent, "Haw" (left) sounds like "whore" so I won't be shouting that and will just do Left and "Gee" the reason for not just doing left and "right" is because Louie's "you're being a pain do as you're told now" word is "right" and if I use it he stops what he is doing and comes back to me. They already know hike because I have them walking down a country lane verge (a wide verge) and sometimes they need to be in front so I use hike then. Stop and wait is also in their repertoire. Leave it or On by needs some work though.

Anyway - I took Lou out first using a harness I have, it's a regular one so I attached my double lead to the rings at the sides. I fully expected him to get away with this and love it. He walked beside me the entire time - even when jogging. Now I know the OH has him offlead when he runs him so perhaps he's not confident in pulling so much on a lead. We shall have to work on this. Pennie and Jack (foster dog) went out next. Now I took Jack out as a dead weight, normally he rarely moves faster than a trot when OH takes him out, even with the other dogs. So I fully expected him to be the same and Pen is a little crazy and has to do things at break neck speeds so I took Jack out as a way of slowing her down. Well today he decided he would quite like to go flat out and I turned into a kite.

So interestingly instead of Lou helping Pen out - Pen will be helping Lou. Obviously Lou will help with stops and steadying but to get the initial going Pen will be helping him.

Just need to get my gear and their gear here and then fix my bike up (two wheels dead!) and thankfully it'll have fallen on the two weeks OH has off as pre-deployment leave so he can film/photograph us in action and also encourage the dogs by running ahead.

This is my team:


Louie


Pennie


Our gear is from here:
http://www.indi-dog.co.uk/

The owner of this company scooters with her huskies, so everything is tried and tested. I ordered the trail harnesses as I would only put the x/h back on backwards.

Any tips? I want to know more. My bike gear doesn't come till next week and as the owner of indi dog is nearing her due date - so could take a week or more. So I am itching to know more!

Ok I took Pen out for a short go at training. Quiet farm track. However we have to make do until my bike is fixed and our gear comes.

So Harness from Kennelgate, the double ended lead clipped onto the sides, rather than the top - to take the pressure off the front. And also so I can apply pressure to the side of the harness I want her to turn into. Sorry about crappy photo - she kept wanting to sit in front of me then I got the lead tangled..


This is the set up I did. There is a little marked path and then I put cones out to mark out where I wanted to go - I was teaching left.


Well..

The good news is - she has some speed on her and definitely can pull.

The bad news is - nose to the ground..

So thats a problem I'm going to have to hope stops once they focus on running.

With Lou - I'm still working on getting him to go in front of me. For the amount of time I'm forever telling him to stop pulling and the once I want him too he forgets how to pull.

Mum's all set for bikejoring.

that last pic has me cracking up!!!

jbealer wrote:

that last pic has me cracking up!!!

My poor boy - he'll tolerate anything, bless him. Sometimes I wish he'd tell me no but he just puts up with it.

My bike is ready. Ok it's not a mountain bike - but I'm not planning rocky terrains just yet.

New inner tubes, sprayed with special stuff to loosen the rust thats already there and to protect it from further rusting. Brake pads repaired (they were too tight). A big thank you to my OH.

Awesome! Welcome to the fun world of addicting Bikejoring!

norbreedslove wrote:

Awesome! Welcome to the fun world of addicting Bikejoring!

At least it's a healthy addiction! I haven't even started and I keep thinking about 3 dog, 4 dog and 5 dog lines Although I suspect if I use more than my younger 3 I'm going to have to change to a scooter.

Be warned - I will be asking you lot loads. It's the reason I joined a husky forum. Might as well as the people who know all about sledding etc.

Ok - sorry for the unflattering picture - I got trousers that were padded



Thats me all geared up

The dogs new collars came. Now for the tow lines and harnesses and we are good to go

Ok so after waiting for my harnesses to arrive - they did earlier this week. However - I measured wrong and so they are being sent back. But not only to be resized, but to have metal I.D tags sewn into them - That way I don't have to worry about jangling tags or having to move their tags from their everyday collars to their bikejoring collars

And shortly after my harnesses were returned. My bike broke

So I bought a new one

I was so giddy I didn't even wait for OH to get back from the gym to fix it up - I did it myself! It's HUGE! Same size specs as my old one but this one looks bigger! Much bigger.

Apologies for the mess! As soon as I'd put it together I had to go to work so didn't have chance to clean up.



And after being really impatient, yesterday afternoon I took Louie out for a short trial. Luckily I have some beautiful countryside just outside my front door. So I took him up the old farm path. Basically it's a drive that used to belong to the farmhouse that is now in ruins. But the track is fairly straight and easy to run on. I used a car harness that fixes up like a pulling harness. And he did brilliantly He doesn't like to be in front of the bike but more to the side - but still ahead of me. Which is a good start. We shall see how his little sister does when the harnesses get back. She's not a fan of wheels - so it should be interesting.

This is great. Keep us posted !

Ok so waiting for my harnesses to come back I've been looking for a cheap affordable bike arm. Well I'm not paying up to £50/$74 on a piece of metal. So did some googling and found someone who has made a DIY scooter noodle with some piping and rope. - I can do that for £2/$3. Which suits me fine

Definitely let us know how you like that! I've thought about doing that as well because I can't seem to justify spending that much on a bike attachment yet.

katiesham wrote:

Definitely let us know how you like that! I've thought about doing that as well because I can't seem to justify spending that much on a bike attachment yet.

I did think I could make an antenna type thing - get one of my Dad's old fishing poles and welding it to a clamp that can go on my bike then - the pole loop where the tackle line goes through can hold the tow line and it holds it off my tire - However. My Dad will not let me take apart his fishing stuff And it's just too complicated - easier said than done.

Will let you know how I get on with the DIY scooter noodle.. They're only $20 for you - but they don't ship over here and I dread to wonder how much it would cost with shipping.

Post pics if your able to DIY it. I'd love to be able to just make some of my gear instead of paying a small fortune for everything.

KibaHope wrote:

Post pics if your able to DIY it. I'd love to be able to just make some of my gear instead of paying a small fortune for everything.

Here is the post from the other place quoted.

Quote :

I used a piece of PVC pipe about 12 inches long. The PVC is 3/4". I used a big drill bit and drilled a hole in one end, just through one side, not all the way through.


And then I used a piece of rope to attach the PVC to the clip on the line, so the PVC will stay where it needs to be.


And now I have a scooter noodle! Which as you can tell by the pic is clearly doing its job as it's all scuffed up.

Mine will look similar to this as this is what I am going on.

Just been out again with Lou but around the lakes. He was fantastic - until we saw another dog. Told him to stop - he slowed down, I used my brakes.. kerplunk! Front break gone!

Decided to do it again as it's a fairly easy trail. And as I was taking a breather and letting Louie toilet, a couple of women on mountain bikes came past. I asked them if they knew anything about disc brakes, one of the ladies came over and had a look. Turns out it wasn't tight enough - there was too much slack in the cable. So she got her little tool out and tightened it a little - she said not to trust it completely but to tighten it more when I got home.

Which is what I have done, tightened everything. She also mentioned my seat needed to be higher. However. I went to loosen it to give it some more height and the allan key nut upon loosening has worn the edges away.

So the place I purchased it from will be getting a call and the manufacturer also. I did get told it wasn't the best bike to buy but I had already ordered it and I'm impatient. And at the end of the day - I rarely used my front brake when I was cycling 4 years ago.. Now it's fixed - time to take the jugonaut out! (Pen)

Some advice needed.

Those of you who run your dogs;

- What supplements do you use - if any?
- Do you warm your dogs up before - and how?
- Do you warm them down afterwards - and how?

I know the above for humans as I did double award P.E. But not quite sure how to with the dogs.

I'll be giving them a short walk so they can toilet beforehand - will that stretch their legs a bit? They do run rather than walk - the further away from me to toilet is better..

And of course they'll have a short walk to the route and then the way back..

I do have a jet spa for my bath tub - I know some greyhound racing kennels use spas after the dogs have run to cool them down.. I'd have to get a deeper bath though

I bikejore with my sibe and I don't use any supplements specifically because I bikejore with him. I use Nupro Silver with Joint Support as a general supplement and I also give him a Glucosamine, Chondroitin, and MSM supplement for his joints because my sibe is a senior. So I do use supplements but I have been using those supplements all along whether I bikejore or not.

I don't do any warm up or cool down with my sibe, but I do take a "break" halfway through our bikejoring and walk alongside my bike so that my sibe can catch his breath and take a pee break at a walking pace for about 50 ft before I get back on the bike and continue the rest of the way. Bear in mind though that I don't bikejore for very long distances though, just a few miles 2-3 times a week so it's nothing strenuous for my sibe.

When we do it, not often but I try to start off at a slow jog and build up speed, they tend to slow down before were home so that's their cool down. My bike seat keeps gettin loose so I got to fix it. We just found a trail yesterday so I hope to get out more, I hate biking them on a hard surface.
We just use Glucosamine daily for their age.

Thank you

Mine are already on Salmon oil for their coats, but that also does well for their joints so I don't think I need anything else.

Well we went out for a short time yesterday with both of them. Their harnesses came Crappy photos cos I only had my phone - my camera mount comes next week





The harnesses will be washed and worn as much as possible to see if that will make them looser as it's not as easy to put them on or take them off as I would want it to be. However I am assured that if I am not happy with these in a couple of weeks that I can send them back for either an exchange (for x-back or shoulder harness) or a refund

Ok - so I didn't wait. After I found the charger did work on the camera battery - I took Jack and Pen out.

We did have one moron who thought it was hilarious for his two dogs to run around my two whilst I was setting them up! Cue bike falling over. I was not impressed in the slightest - not even an apology or even fake telling his dogs to leave mine alone..

But we had a good run after that and here's the video.

Bikejoring 1 P&J - YouTube

I have to go to work soon and just found your thread. I don't have time to read through it all from the start right now, but I promise I will when I return home. I'd also be happy to help you with anything you need. I've been bikejoring for 3 years with my 3 dogs. We go out daily for 3-6 miles, 6-7 days a week. They love it! Here's a pic of my 2 main dogs (my German Shepherd is missing from the photo. I'll have to get my wife to take a pic of all 3 this week).