Quote: Sandy Moore

I think my brave days are pretty much over. I'm too old to fall . It takes forever to heal

I resemble that remark too Sandy. Me I had my appt with the surgeon yesterday I'm not a candidate for a hip resurface so I'm now scheduled .. in 10 mos for a full hip replacement. That still doesn't stop me from scootering http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHjmABFfGJU&feature=related with Sasha for her exercise. I have a Blauwerk Willy http://www.dogscooter.com/ScootersCatalog.htm#BLAUWERK and use a dog sled x-back harness with a 6ft leash tied to the frame.



Advantages =

1. You are closer to the ground so it is easy to bail out.

2. If the dog takes off after another animal you can squeeze the rear brake and swing the scooter around to point the scooter in the dog's direction while holding the brakes and having your feet on the ground the dog is going now where.


3. The dog gets an awesome workout as you and the scooter are a lot more resistance than trying to bike beside the dog.

4. The dog is out in front so you can keep an eye on the action as it unfolds ahead. Plus if the dog decides it needs to go for a pee or poop it won't catch you by surprise, because your eyes are on the dog.

Sasha is a retrieve Monster so if the weather is not co-operative for scootering, I still have the chuck it with her fanatic or the Frisbee. She has done retrieve games for hours. Nothing like building a dog's cardio (or tweaking my tennis elbow symptoms Ha ha!) like chasing a ball or disc!

Sandy,
Here's how I taught the 'On by'.

First, I took anything on wheels/skiis out of the equation (BTW, I am impressed that you cycle with only one hand on the handlebars!). Since I was training this command for use in ski-joring (where the dog is pulling you while you ski behind), I would put on his harness, attach the line to myself and then every time I went by something (car, dog-walkers, rabbit whatever) I would say 'on by'. I would praise him in an excited voice if he did so, and pick up my pace behind him. For situations that I knew where going to be more difficult, like passing another team (or a person walking a dog on the trail) from behind, or head on, I borrowed a friend and her dog. I am still on foot at this point (no bike or skis yet). I asked my friend to go ahead on the trail (with her leashed dog). I then started to jog the same trail (with my dog in harness on the line in front of me). As soon as we saw/approached the other team from behind (I had asked her not to react to my presence) I asked my dog to 'On by'. If he slowed or tried to visit with her or her dog, I would keep running and grab his harness and pull him past, encouraging him to keep running. I find that in general once we are past the distraction he is quite happy to keep running-getting past is the hardest part. The fact that the pass occurs quickly means that the other dog has little time to react, too. A variant of this that I also tried is to choose a flat, straight trail with good visibility. I would place my dog's bumper (he is crazy about retrieving) down the trail, showing him that I had done so. I would then ask my friend and her dog to place themselves on the trail halfway between the trail head and the bumper...and then I would go start to run with my dog and repeat the scenario as above. My dog was so motivated to get the bumper that he happily passed the other team to get to the bumper-especially in the presence of another dog. Once you are confident in Lear's grasp of the command, you can add the bike into the equation (or the skis, as in my case).

It sounds like you are well on your way to this command as you have taught Lear to keep moving while you are on the bike. I would simply generalize this behaviour to a command, whether or not the bike is present, and work my way up to using it on the bike. Geoff's scootering suggestion is a good one--scootering is a blast!

Regards,
Isabelle


Edited by Isabelle Schmelz (12/20/2008 08:45 AM)
Edit reason: grammer and spelling