Hank is a super-high energy dog and I always struggle with keeping up with him. Running with him is not an option for me, since my knees would not hold up. Vinny will occasionally Roller Blade with him (see an earlier post about it here), but I’m not solid on skates. My friend and fellow trainer Lisa Long has been encouraging me to bike with him for a while. I’ve been nervous to try it, but finally gave it a go the other day.
We went to a quiet, dead end street (so quite that the only traffic on it the entire time was a student driver). I started slow, but Hank caught on quickly. We kept to the one block so that we could practice turns and teach Hank that he needs to pay attention to where I’m going. This video is the first turn he takes just off of watching me (I also added a verbal cue “here we go”). After that success, you can see him break into a trot for the first time. That’s when I knew he was having fun.
When starting an exercise program with your dog, they need to be conditioned just as you would. So, when Hank showed signs of fatigue we went home. Overall, this experiment was so successful that we’ll continue to ride together and increase Hank’s stamina. In fact, we’ve already trekked home from Dog Abby together!
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