How To Bike With Your Dog

Your biggest consideration when it comes to biking with your dog is safety—yours, your dog’s and that of people around you.
To ensure your safety, it can help to invest in an attachment that allows you to place the force of your dog’s pulling low on your bike’s center of gravity. If you bike along while holding the dog’s leash in your hands, you are at risk of several problems:

• Your dog can pull the leash out of your hands.
• Your dog can pull you over sideways.
• Your dog can pull on the handlebars and cause you to turn the bike precipitously.

Attaching the dog's leash to the seat post or back wheel axle reduces the risk of an accident.

Additionally, if your dog is on a normal leash, he/she can go on the opposite side of an obstacle. If the obstacle is something solid, such as a pole or tree, then you might crash; if the obstacle is something living, such as a human, it can be disastrous for everyone involved. For that reason, a breakaway leash is recommended. And because the risk of an accident or even just sudden stops and turns is increased, it’s especially important that the human bike-rider wear a helmet.

For your dog’s safety, the dog should never run with a bike (or even worse, pull) while wearing any sort of neck collar, especially a tightening collar, such as a choke chain or martingale. It is extremely dangerous to ride a bike with a dog on a head halter of any sort. Your dog should always wear a body harness. Check frequently to see if the harness fits well and is not chaffing.

If your dog is not very used to running on pavement (or even dirt trails) for long periods, your pal might need some conditioning time to toughen up paw pads. Check their paws frequently.

Dogs don’t sweat like humans do; they lose heat through panting and through their pawpads. Longhaired dogs, short-muzzled dogs (such as Boxers or Pugs), and short-legged dogs (such as Dachshunds, Basset Hounds or Corgis) are in greater danger of overheating. Be sure to bring lots of water along for both you and your dog. (You can bring a lightweight bowl.)
Dogs that are easily distracted, have little impulse control or are quickly stimulated by encounters with other fast-moving things (other bikes, other trail-users, birds, squirrels, etc.) are not very good candidates for bike-along trips. Likewise, a dog that responds well to an attention cue (“watch me” or his own name) and has a good response to “leave it” is probably your best biking partner.
This content was originally published at
www.exceptionalcanine.com/blog/how_to_bike_with_your_dog/index.html.