Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Exercising Vizslas can be FUN!


There's a sport called "bikejoring". It involves :

  • A Bike



  • A "tugline" (note my tugline here is a leash wrapped around the post on the bike, then bungees to absorb shock to the harness) Poor man's way to bikejor...

  • A harness


  • A dog that likes to pull in harness

Scarlet is getting much better at pulling - Tessa is ready for the ididarod - except it would have to be dry and about 60 degrees Farenheit.

This is a very fun way to run your dogs - they get full running, pulling weight, but not too much. It's great conditioning for their "wind" when trialing and it always makes me smile doing it. I would suggest gloves, a helmet and a face shield, because they tend to pepper you with debris! Good luck and have fun!




3 comments:

  1. By spring you can hook them to the plow.

    We'll have to hook Bailey and Hank together. The competition to pull harder will put you at about 35 mph.

    I noticed that when we dog sat another male and I ran them next to me off the bike on the "springer." They would try to out pull each other to get out front.

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  2. Yeah, for this "photo shoot" we only hooked up one dog. Generally we'll hook two up with a collar line between them (note the double set of bungees on the tugline).

    Lemme tell ya! Two Vizsla's Starting off fresh and it's exciting! I want to video it sometime, but I'm too chicken to try it one handed! wonder if I can borrow a helmet cam from someone....

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  3. I have been hesitant about the bike thing simply due to there being more "involved" my preferred method of "roading" choice is Roller blades.. ( http://www.facebook.com/?sk=apps#!/video/video.php?v=124052058102 crappy video, but don't have willing videographers) She LOVES it.. but after about 40 minutes of her pulling me I usually have to stop due to her pads being worn smooth (she's just a little girl topping out at about 40lbs). Unfortunately I don't live near any good paved bike paths anymore, so the blades are collecting dust, which tempts me to get into biking...tempts..

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