This morning Luna and I took our, by now standard, 3 mile walk. Then around 2.30 PM we finally went and got my bike out to go cycling! I put her in her harness which has a ring on the left side, clipped her leash on and off we went. A nice, steady trot, the harness and leash setup worked well, all in all it was a great first ride! The trip was about 2 miles long, we walked the last 5 minutes as some sort of cooling-down.
Then, just now, the mailman came by and delivered a package filled with fleecy toys for us to play games of tug! A real treat, because strong, durable and yet comfortable tug-toys are hard to find here in Holland if you want anything other than Schutzhund jute tugs.
The photo shows the pile of new toys with Luna investigating.
It contains the following;
1 fleece ring (green & blue, top left of the pile)
1 fleece stick (blue and pink, bottom left of the pile)
1 long tug rope (green, pink, white and blue, closest to Luna)
1 fleece ‘spider’ with three legs
1 longer stick type tug (blue & green, bottom right, next to the blue & pink fleece stick)
I LOVE the colors and I can’t wait to play with them! But I’ll have to for another week or so, depending on what Luna’s knee thinks. ;-)
I went in search of these toys because about two months ago Luna finally started to REALLY enjoy playing tug with me. She could go on for hours, it seemed! I'm not about to test that, but now we do have something great, besides food and life rewards, to use as a 'job well done'!
Awesome toys!! We love fleece toys and thankfully a friend makes the best ones ever!:) Have you ever used a springer bike leash? I used one with Meeka when she was younger and they are great! Kinda a crazy looking thing but very safe for the dog and you, and totally hands free. I bet you could find one online easily. I don't really need mine now as it is too big for my little ones, but I am having a hard time letting go of my Meeka stuff just yet. . .:(
ReplyDeleteSounds like an awesome walk! Man if you ever joined one of our walking challenges you would kick our buts with your "standard three miles". LOL
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ReplyDeleteOops, I replied thinking you had commented on my blog post 'She's doing well!'
ReplyDeleteLOL at your comment about our 'standard three miles', and that's only the beginning! In about four weeks, if all goes well, we will be CYCLING 6 miles on as many days a week as possible. We both LOVE to go for these long, fast paced, off leash runs. I will say, 6 miles is too far for me to walk on a daily basis. Thank Heavens for bicycles!
When I first started cycling with Luna we did use a Springer, but we both decided very quickly that we did not like it. I had her on a leash and collar and attached to the Springer with a harness, and Luna couldn't figure out where she was supposed to walk; if she went forward, the Springer pulled at her, if she went backward, the leash & collar pulled at her. So, after two or three rides, I decided to just use her collar and leash, and that worked out fine.
I now prefer to use the harness as she is very savvy about 'collars mean loose leashes' and thus, if I go cycling with her in a collar and leash, she won't do anything because she might pull. On the harness, pulling is fine, and as such she's much more comfortable doing her 'business'.