I knew there would be a time when my little cattle dogborder collie cross's energy would begin to surpass my ability to find a reasonable and convenient outlet.
At nine months old, the daily one-hour hike he participates in with my other two dogs just is not enough and when Piper and Zumi crash on their beds, Raider looks at me and says, "Now what?" Eventually Raider will accompany me when I ride my horse at which point his energy needs - both physical and mental - will be satisfied. But maturitywise he isn't quite there yet. So this weekend we learned how to ride a bike. The commands I use for Raider while I ride a bike will be exactly the same as when I ride my horse.
Raider picked up the concept of riding alongside a bike rather quickly and even though his heel command was never his strongest - because at a walk I am simply not fast enough - on a bike his heeling was perfect. The biggest hurdle was just getting him used to being beside a bike.
The first step in this training is to begin teaching your dog how to heel.
Heeling means to stay at my side - I choose the left side - and when I stop moving the dog must sit without being asked.
Next is introducing your dog to the bike. Decide which side you want your dog to remain on while you ride the bike. Then, for training purposes, you will be on the opposite side holding the handlebars and the dog's leash. I chose not to use treats and train Raider's heel command separate from this exercise, but you can most definitely incorporate treats to lure your dog through this training process. Also, I suggest training in a large empty parking lot away from all traffic instead of practising this on a sidewalk with a lot of pedestrian traffic. I began walking with Raider in heel on my left with the bike between him and me. Speaking from experience, you may want to temporarily remove the pedals from the bike while you work through this phase. It will prevent your shins and calf muscles from impalements while walking and guiding your dog.
After Raider was comfortable walking beside the bike, I then sat on the bike while using my feet on the ground to move the bike along at a slow speed. Every once in a while I would coast with my feet up and allow Raider to get used to the feeling of the unsteadiness of the bike beside him while on leash. If Raider got too enthusiastic and attempted to rush forward in front of the bike I gave a verbal correction - "Ah-AA" (which is his command to back away) - and when he adjusted himself to be in heel position I gave verbal praise: "Atta boy!" If you do not have a verbal correction command for your dog, but have a strong heel command, you can reissue the heel command if you see your dog beginning to rush past the bike and out of position.
The next step is to teach your dog to slow down. It is important to teach a slow down command because hitting the brakes on a bike with your dog running alongside can result in injury to both you and your dog.
This is the tricky part because if you go too slowly on the bike you get wobbly and risk falling into your dog, so just go for short distances with lots of stops. I began to pedal at a slow yet steady pace then applied the rear breaks and allowed the bike to coast to a stop while telling Raider to "whoa." After a few repetitions he soon learned that "whoa" means to slow his pace down and get ready to stop.
Now it was time to put all of the pieces of the puzzle together. I found a quiet area that allowed Raider to be on mostly soft surface and off we went taking lots of breaks and monitoring Raider's level of exercise tolerance the whole way.
If you are planning on teaching your dog to run alongside your bike while leashed remember that every dog learns at its own pace. Be patient, kind and have fun! Joan has been working with dogs for over 15 years in obedience, tracking and behavioural rehabilitation. Contact her at k9kinship.com.
