Bike Riding with your doodle

[Michelle]

Who does it? What's the best way to do it to prevent injuries? How old was your doodle when you started?"

[Lynda Kamrath]

The photos are on page 1 and page 2 of my photos.  As you can see, we sometimes walk more than one dog.  If one is on leash, the others stay close by, but my husband is taking the photos and he is on another bike with a BTL also.

[Donna K & Quincy]

I thought it would be fun to bike with my doodle but it really wasn't a good idea for a number of reasons. When I bike I travel too far and too fast for Quincy to keep up. Dogs really only do speed in bursts and are not geared for long sustained fast running. A dog attached to a bike has no choice but to keep running no matter how tired they are. I would worry that they could stumble or trip on something. I worry that it would be really hard on their paw pads especially running on asphalt. I do bike with Quincy but we do it off road and off leash and he just follows me but even with me riding slower than normal he starts to lag behind after a short while so we don't go too far. I usually just take him out first and then I take him home and go by myself. I would never ride on our streets with Quincy on any kind of tow line, drivers around here have no respect for bikes and believe we shouldn't be on the same road with them. This is just from my experience and I am sure there are doodles who would love it, it's just not for us. I briefly considered getting a dog bike trailer but hauling a 70 lb doodle up the hills around here is just more than I am up for. :>)

[Jessica Girardot]

I started when she was 4 months. I consulted my vet who said that very short rides ( 1 mile or less) at a slow pace is fine. She's basically walking at a trot ( faster than I can physically walk her) but not running for any period of time longer than a few seconds. She took to it very easily and has never ran in front of the tire. I have her on a five foot leash that I shorten to about 3.5 feet. A lot of praise when she's trotting where she should be!