Purdie Posted September 11, 2011 Share Posted September 11, 2011 (edited) Was at the shop yesterday and saw an old Labradore with a short plastic covered chain on his collar;the other end on the collar of a young staffy.They were following a man on his bicycle.At first i thought it was cute but then thought it could be dangerous .Not sure who was meant to be leading who.Maybe the old dog had poor vision or it was to stop the young one wandering off. Has anyone come across or used this tandem arrangement before ? Edited September 11, 2011 by Purdie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
korbin13 Posted September 11, 2011 Share Posted September 11, 2011 Were the dogs attached to the bike as well? I am thinking that if I put a tether between my dogs without a lead to lead them, they would soon get tangled up and wouldn't get too far Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Purdie Posted September 11, 2011 Author Share Posted September 11, 2011 (edited) Were the dogs attached to the bike as well? I am thinking that if I put a tether between my dogs without a lead to lead them, they would soon get tangled up and wouldn't get too far No they were only attached to each other not the owner,he was riding ahead on his bike and they followed behind.The chain was about half a metre long covered in tubing so it didn't bend in the middle. Edited September 11, 2011 by Purdie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Willow Posted September 11, 2011 Share Posted September 11, 2011 I've seen people walking dogs on a tandem lead, holding the end of it though, which i don't really like at all anyway, but this sounds downright dangerous....one has to go where the other does no matter what...what if one runs off, or is attacked, or runs in the road? I've also seen cases of redirected aggression with dogs on tandem leads...one dog is approached by an offlead dog and attackes the dog he is tethered to because there is no means of escape for either of them. Very silly of the perosn on the bike, I can only see the potential for disaster here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
korbin13 Posted September 11, 2011 Share Posted September 11, 2011 Were the dogs attached to the bike as well? I am thinking that if I put a tether between my dogs without a lead to lead them, they would soon get tangled up and wouldn't get too far No they were only attached to each other not the owner,he was riding ahead on his bike and they followed behind. Not something that I would do, the possibilities of things that could wrong are too high. But as I said, would be no good for my dogs who manage to get themselves tangled up with separate leads held by separate people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cazstaff Posted September 11, 2011 Share Posted September 11, 2011 (edited) I have used a tether between one of my large calm dogs(Rocko or Ruger) and either a scared or untrained foster dog to help them learn to walk on lead. Im always at the end of the lead though. I have found a scared dog or pup gains confidence from being with Rocko or Ruger and are happy to be guided by a calm confident dog. They learn to walk on lead more easily. Rocko and Ruger are much better teachers than me. Once they have their confidence and the basics then they progress to their own lead. Thats the only time I use the dual tether, I dont use it for general walking... I wouldn't do it while riding a bike though Edited September 11, 2011 by Cazstaff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Purdie Posted September 11, 2011 Author Share Posted September 11, 2011 (edited) At first i thought oh the old dog is teaching the Staffy to follow his owner.This may be fine in a quiet area but at a busy shopping centre they may trip someone up or be harassed by another dog. I have seen the old Lab a few times before following his owner off lead.I hope when he goes the owner doesn't expect the Staffy to do the same as he may get stolen or thought to be a dangerous dog on the loose. Edited September 11, 2011 by Purdie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burkes Posted September 11, 2011 Share Posted September 11, 2011 I've seen it done with farm dogs. An older one teaching the pup. Certainly not out riding bikes round town though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sas Posted September 11, 2011 Share Posted September 11, 2011 Young dog was probably being taught the ropes by the older one. Given we don't know the owner or the dogs we can't really comment on them, for all we know the older dog has never put a foot wrong in its' life and is a good teacher for the pup.....would we have that arrangement with ours dogs....maybe not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Rusty Bucket Posted September 11, 2011 Share Posted September 11, 2011 Pretty sure the NSW dog and cat management rules say dogs in a public space are supposed to be held by a responsible human over 16yo. And the Australian road rules say no attaching the lead to a vehicle (includes treadlys), or holding the lead from a vehicle. So I guess he got that bit right and the dog rule wrong. I know someone who used to attach the dog with no recall to one with good recall... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andisa Posted September 11, 2011 Share Posted September 11, 2011 I've seen it done with farm dogs. An older one teaching the pup. Certainly not out riding bikes round town though. Yep - an oldie with some farmers. Have seen it done when I was a kid with great success. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Purdie Posted September 11, 2011 Author Share Posted September 11, 2011 Is this done on farms to teach young herding dogs or just to learn not to run off ? How and what can the young dog learn from the other dog.? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andisa Posted September 11, 2011 Share Posted September 11, 2011 Is this done on farms to teach young herding dogs or just to learn not to run off ? How and what can the young dog learn from the other dog.? It is going back ~ 35 yrs+ since I saw this done so not sure if I am right. The people my parents bought the farm from kept his dogs on the property for several years after they semi-retired (dogs barked in town so they stayed on the farm only 5 mins from town), he retained a few hundred acres as an interest but could no longer manage the whole farm. He picked the dogs up when he needed them, they were his dogs but we looked after them if he didn't come around - was easier this way and we had use of the dogs too. Only problem was he trained his dogs to whistles and we could not whistle the way he did . I think the dogs felt sorry for us and were fine with hand signals, watching the old farmer work the dogs was a whole new experience - amazing to say the least. He kept one dog with him but we did inherit the others when he could no longer manage them. Any way he trained the young dogs by starting them off tied to the experienced adults, I remember him explaining it to me at the time but it was so long ago. The pups learned the signals by learning from the adults - they learned or got dragged around a bit until the got the message. They soon picked up what meant down, stay, go back, go way back, come, forward, go slow, go round... much more to it but as I said it was a very long time ago. I watch him using the dogs to move stock on the roads too with the young pup tied to an adult but not in the yards. The last thing you want to do is risk a young dog getting hurt and putting it off working. He used either a short length of chain or rope tied to both dogs collars. It would need to be done by someone with a lot of patience and really knows the dogs well, not suited to just any dogs I would imagine. Same goes with people, not all would do this the right way either. Hope someone who has experience with this method comes in to explain it better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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