Transportation: Dog Carting

[rebecca100]

I thought I was the only one that was into that kinda "wierd" stuff. Our choc.lab has pulled the kids in a rigged goat harness. Later we used the same harness on the goat. That was an absolute blast!!!! Dh's cousins wife was over and we hooked the goat to the mini's wagon and put the kids on it 2 at a time. The goat wouldn't move so she walked in front of it with his favorite treats. Then he was so excited to get a treat that he kept speeding up. Next thing I know she was in a dead run trying to keep the buck from taking her down for the treats and he was in a dead run after her to get the treats and the kids were screaming "faster, faster!!"! Of course I was laughing too hard to rescue her! She finally threw down the treats and the goat stopped. The thought of getting speared with one of the metal wagon poles was not a very good one if he were to catch her or knock her down. He is a very big goat, but the poles went past him by several inches.

 

[Wildsky]

I so have to make a cart for our dog to pull. She'd love it.

 

[tortoise]

I'm off again. Made reins, fitted a new dog halter. This is the hard part. She's got a wicked opposition reflex, but whatever. I'll look like a fool. I'll be walking behind a wagon behind a dog. Glad we don't have many neighbors!

Tomorrow afternoon I'm adding weight to the wagon. 30 lb. In a 3-yr-old boy's body. lol

Wish me luck. With my luck the thing will fall apart when I'm 2 miles from home. I've been staying very close to home!

I could go foraging for rabbit food better with a cart. It's crazy how much vegetation they eat to equal the calories in pellet food!

We live about 1 mile from "downtown" so I'm daydreaming of the day that I drive my dog down to the hardware stor and hitch her on... on... the cigarette butt stand?



I totally would do that for groceries. We don't buy much at the local IGA. Prices are high! But for a gallon of milk or something, I'll walk the 4 mile round-trip. Even better if I get to ride! Probably not, but at least the kid and the milk can ride.

I've been wanting to have better local (small-town) transportation and buying an expensive bike trailer for my kid is not something I want to do. Now I have an option that makes ME happy!

I'm weird. lol

 

[patandchickens]

Certainly there is absolutely no reason not to use a leash or "reins" (attached to what?) if you happen to want to

But remember that historically AFAIK it was commonest to have the dogs working loose, purely off voice commands, same as sled dogs or good walking-plow horses even today... and I believe that is the basis on which breed-specific draft tests are currently done e.g. for Newfies and Swiss Mtn Dogs... so certainly it is quite feasible.

Indeed given its historical commonness, it may even have some advantages (i.e. presumably people who did a lot of real-life occupational dog-carting knew what they were doing <g>)

Just an observation.

BTW, I love your wagon conversion, and actually the kids' rusty lil' red wagon is fairly similar and they don't hardly use it anymore... hmmmm... LOL

Pat

 

[tortoise]

Went pretty well tonight. She was freaked a bit at first because of her oppostition reflex. Then she got it! With lots of circles, she figured it out. The problem was the left. She turns her head to the right because I usually walk on the right and she tries to look back once in a while. So she migrates to the right. Lots of left circles. She would feel/hear the centripedal force of the cart behind her, spook a bit and run forward. Sweet! I rewarded it - she was running out there.

Then I took her in an area with some gravel roads the cross to have her "listen" to the reins. As soon as she figured out that she didn't have to watch me to know where to go, it was perfect!

I got tons of exercise because we got moving fast and went a long ways! I have to make changes to my cart again - I used screws where I should have used bolts (I didn't have any). But I don't mind spending a couple dollars since she's doing well and I haven't spent anything on it yet.

 

[Farmfresh]

We live about 1 mile from "downtown" so I'm daydreaming of the day that I drive my dog down to the hardware stor and hitch her on... on... the cigarette butt stand?



I totally would do that for groceries. We don't buy much at the local IGA. Prices are high! But for a gallon of milk or something, I'll walk the 4 mile round-trip. Even better if I get to ride! Probably not, but at least the kid and the milk can ride.

I've been wanting to have better local (small-town) transportation and buying an expensive bike trailer for my kid is not something I want to do. Now I have an option that makes ME happy!

I'm weird. lol

'Bout as weird as me.

Sure the neighbors gawked and laughed, but I did the same thing when we were first "training" our old Husky, Sasha, to pull a wagon. We live right in the heart of the city too. Of course that was many years ago. Now days people don't even seem to bat an eye about me. Not when I rode the pony home. Not even when I came home with a truck full of sheep!

Training a Husky to pull is about as hard as training a duck to swim however. The main thing we had trouble with was training her to STOP!

I am anxious to see how a REAL trainer teaches a dog to pull.

 

[tortoise]

I am anxious to see how a REAL trainer teaches a dog to pull.

LOL. Don't copy me! I'm breaking all of my own rules.

What type of pulling do you want to do? Training is different depending on the goal.

 

[Farmfresh]

Right now I just want to watch you all!

My mixed Husky/Shepherd Cassiopeia has far too crooked of legs for any pulling. She spends a lot of her time upside down waiting for tummy rubs anyway.

 

[tortoise]

Correction: We live TWO miles from downtown. We (my son, dog, and I) went to the local IGA to buy 2 gallons of milk. I worked in the reining some more. I started teaching her hitching. I hitched her up to a bike rack - the kind that has a big space every so far. I had my son stay outside with her and feed her treats through it so it was like a stantion for her. Neat. And I almost RAN through the store because my son is only 3 years old ....

Scary...

I told him to NOT talk to ANYONE and to SCREAM as loud as he could if anyone tried to get him to do anything.

Whew...

I am too used to being in the city. My parents let me run around, even cross streets to go play with neighbors when I was *gasp* 4 and 5 years old!!!

We got quite a few comments and 1 old guy stopped to take a photo of us.

I'm TIRED, and I have 20 - 25 minutes before I go walk with my IRL waling buddy!