Barbie Biking video

We went out for a short ride this morning with a couple of cameras trained on Barbie. The cameras are a Camshot bike camera which I bought from Torpedo7, and an OTEK DVS 550 mounted on the bars of N's bike. The bike is a Bike Friday New World Tourist folder.

She was pretty tired from a run at the beach yesterday so she is trotting pretty steadily. Usually I can get a few more turns of speed out of her, but not today!

Magic glowing collar

There are a few disadvantages to being a black dog - the sun is hotter, as your coat soaks up the rays, and you blend into the night so people could easily walk into you.

For safety's sake, I bought Barbie an LED collar off ebay so that she will be visible when we are biking together after dark. It cost $6.99 with free postage. The bike already has good quality lights as I use it as transport myself, and I got some little silicone lights to put on the Walkydog pole so that other cyclists and pedestrians can see it clearly.

The collar and the silicone lights use little 'coin' style batteries so I'm not sure how long they will last - so far I have only used the collar for our half hour walk, but hopefully we won't burn through them too quickly!

I made a little video on our walk tonight so you can see what it looks like when I'm walking about a metre behind her, letting her go to the end of her leash.

I wish they made these kinds of things back when I was into nightclubs and dance parties - they would be a hit!

Barbie and biking....

For the first time in a long time, we managed to go out biking while there was still some daylight. I rigged my little Otek DVS550 video camera to the bar end of my Bike Friday - unfortunately the mount I used doesn't move the way I would like, and it slipped so it ended up pointing at the sky every time we went over a bump. This walk takes something like 27 minutes walking, and only 15 biking it. Barbie doesn't get over a trot, or we'd be going too fast. I bike with her on her collar because she I haven't been able to find a harness that she will tolerate wearing. We don't go much over jogging pace anyway so there have been no ill effects of her running in her collar only, even if she is providing the forward momentum for the bike at least some of the time.

There will be more biking videos to come now that I have sorted my camera problems and the days are getting longer. This one is a bit rough, but it's fun, so I thought it would be great to share :)

There were also three offleash dogs on this lap of the block. I didn't get any on the video. The first one was hanging around near a massive skip bin. He looked like a big block headed Mastiff type, and he was dragging a chain along behind him. He also looked like his right eyeball was almost hanging out of his head. If I didn't have Barbie and the bike I would have probably stopped to find out who his owner was, but there were people working in the nearby house, and he stayed in the general vicinity so I figured he belonged to them. Barbie very much wanted to keep an eye on him and so she slowed down and kept looking over her shoulder.

The second was when we went past a park where doggies are allowed off leash. One of those dogs was not very well controlled by it's owner and came towards us. I stopped quickly, but in hindsight I should have just kept going. It came and tried to jump all over Barbie. She wasn't particularly happy about that as she doesn't have a lot of room to move on the end of the Walkydog. As a result I have decided to make the 'leash' part of the Walkydog a couple of inches longer - this increases the risk of her running the wrong side of a pole, and the Walkydog doesn't have the emergency release feature that the Springer does, but I absolutely do not want an auto-release feature, where we ride there are still cars and people and the last thing I'd want is Barbie barrelling off!

The third dog was a Border Collie looking thing, and it's owner called it back when he spotted us. It obeyed. Good dog!

Harnesses and biking....

Barbie has developed a dislike for her WWW harness, so I'm going to have to get her a different style. I put it on her to go running a few months ago and she wouldn't even walk in it. She wasn't a fan of it the first time I put it on her, either, but she seemed to have gotten over it.

Anyone have any suggestions? I walk her in a fat martingale, and have done a bit of 'walking alongside the bike' type training with collar only but I have huge reservations about running her with the bike collar only. I'm thinking that it would probably put less strain on her neck in normal trotting circumstances but a sudden stop wouldn't be very nice. As I am the impatient type I will be checking out the local pet store for options on the weekend but I'm looking for suggestions. I'd say it needs to be as light and soft as possible. I'm not sure exactly what she dislikes about the harness though so that makes it hard to select a different one! I suspect it may have something to do with how it feels under her armpits when she walks. It may have something to do with the very slight tightening action the 'no pull' harness has (it has a small loop at the top where the d-ring is, which pulls maybe a cm of strapping if she pulls on the lead). I might stick Bender's tracking harness on her and see how she reacts to that - it has really broad seat-belt style straps so if she is OK in that then I know it's more about the tightening action.... if she has a problem with that too then it's most likely to be the armpit chafing.

Problem is I can't put his tracking harness on her anywhere in earshot. He hears that velcro and he gets all excited!

I intend on starting Bender's bike training tonight also. I have given this some thought. Bender is a mad man on the leash a lot of the time, so is going to require more deliberate training. If he tugs I have the springs in the walkydog to absorb some of the pull, but the other thing is that I have been riding bikes for the best part of 18 years.... pretty much constantly, and I think that I have the built in balance to counter any pulls he makes instinctively. I have the walkydog on my Bike Friday folder as well which has 20 inch wheels and a low centre of gravity so I think that is in my favour too. I will give it a go tonight and see how well he does.

Biking with Dogs

When I first adopted Barbie, her foster mum said she was happy to trot along with a bike. I have been too chicken to try it - until today.

Barbie is a great biking companion, in the main predictable and well mannered. She did put on her turbo boosters when we first took off, but I told her 'whoooooah' and she slowed down. She did resist the pressure from the lead a little, pulling outward, which affected my balance a bit.

Anyway, she seemed to enjoy it, so I think I might invest in a 'Springer' - especially if I can find one at a reasonable price!