Bike Riding

[menacebear]

I've just started riding the bike and I have had Bear and Bundy gaiting beside it. Bear is a 7 year old rottweiler x GSD who is very fit and still runs flyball at a division 1 level. Bundy is a BRD who is around 16-17 months old. Both dogs are quite big so they just gait along beside the bike at a nice even speed.

My question is how far roughly should I be going to begin with? Bear is in peak fitness but I worry a little because he is 7 now and is 2 large breeds mixed. Bundy looks like he is loving it and seems to want to go alot further than Bear (Bear likes to conserve his energy ) I want to take Bundy out for a run this afternoon but the lap I was going to take is probably a couple of KM's and I wasn't sure if this may be too far for his legs? Bundy is probably best described as a pitbull mix on steroids. LOL one of the rangers from work described him as a pitbull x quarter horse

Does anyone else Bike to keep their dogs, and themselves, fit? Any opinions would be greatly appreciated. I don't want injure either of them. Bear still runs flyball and I'm in the process of training Bundy up for it.

[aquaticmalamute]

I have a 14 month old dog that I am currently biking. We go 10km every second day which takes about 45 minutes, on every other day he gets walked 8-10km mainly on the beach and occasionally on paved walking tracks. He wants to go further but at the minute we are sticking to 10km due to his age, and any sign of soreness he gets a break and a vist to the chiro.

You are probably the best person to judge the distance your dogs can go though, the best bet is to start off at a shorter distance (say 4km) and work your way up to longer rides as their fitness improves

[rijbiz]

This is something I want to get into as well and I think I will just play it by ear, seeing what the dogs seem comfortable with.

I would really like to ET title her and this is defiantely the way to go.

[menacebear]

I think I will play it by ear with Bundy too. Might not take Bear as far now he's getting older, just enough to keep him good and fit but not wear out his joints.

Bundy is a cross, can I do his ET with him? It's something I wouldn't mind giving a go

[rijbiz]

Bundy is a cross, can I do his ET with him? It's something I wouldn't mind giving a go

Didn't want to ignore your question, but to be honest I don't really know. I cannot see any reason why not as it is not conformation showing. Probably best to give your canine council a ring.

Best of luck with it all ;)

[Starkehre]

Absolutely ET can be done by asssociate dogs. ;)

[TigerJack]

I cycle 5km with my 4yo kelpie and she isn't even panting. I did 10km on the weekend with her and she was in the back yard playing tug with my foxie within a few minutes of getting home, ran around for hours. Don't think anything wears her out. I take out my 8yo Malinois cross ridgeback and he is happy for about 4km then he tries to slow down. He is huge but very lean and still does flyball but he just doesn't have the stamina of the kelpie. (Don't think anything has the stamina of a kelpie actually.)

[Miranda]

Try to do some of your biking off road, continual pounding on pavement puts a lot of stress on the dog. While the dog is young everything may seem fine, but problems may appear when the dog is older. Dogs aren't really designed to run long distances on hard concrete surfaces.

[ultrarealist]

just a reminder,

1) Touch the ground to feel the temperature to see if it is too hot

2) Check their pads wear regularly and give them time to grow between runs if you observe excessive wear