In February, Porter and I drove an hour and a half to learn more about Urban Mushing. I had heard of the idea before but a bee was placed in my bonnet from Christina Waggoner and her mini talk at Clicker Expo on the subject.
With urban mushing, instead of sleds, dogs can pull carts, bikes, scooters, you name it. It allows those of us who do not live in the snow to have another fun way to let our dogs run their hearts out. This is different from just biking with your dog since with urban mushing the dog is pulling you, not just running at your side. I was eager to learn from someone who has been doing this awhile so I could learn how to do this safely and not injure Porter.
Rancy, from www.urbanmushing.com, donated a lot of time out of his morning to show a small group the ropes. He brought out at least 20 different sized harnesses in a couple of styles and went over all the kinds of equipment we could use and his opinion on the pros and cons of each. After the dogs were fitted with a harness and we walked them around the grass to get them used to pulling, we tried our turn with the scooter.
These scooters (www.diggler.com) are awesome. They are very steady and have great brakes. Porter did pretty well for his first time pulling me down the parking lot but he kept looking back and wanting me to catch up to him. I think if we were on an open trail he would have kept going, but with the parking lot ending he wasn't going to sprint and then slam on the brakes.
Next Rancy got on the scooter and had me walk ahead and call Porter, so Porter could focus on running forward. Man, that dog is fast! I know he will really love this activity!!
Less than a mile from our house are some dirt trails which would be perfect for urban mushing. In fact, one of my friends saw someone out there when she was running one morning. Once I get Porter measured for his custom harness I'll be able to purchase the scooter and we'll be all set. With the weather warming up and summer coming (kidlet out of school) I'm thinking of holding off on the purchase until the fall. You really need cool weather for this since the dogs heat up quickly. If I had a cart I could take my daughter with me, but those are ridiculously costly. You don't want to know how much just the scooter is going to be. Plus, after the summer Porter will be 2 years old and it should be safer on his joints to engage in this kind of fun.
My goal is to mount my Go Pro to get some cool clips. I've been horrible about using it!
I'd like someone to head out with but I haven't been able to find anyone yet...unless I want to drive 1.5 hours each way to meet the group who runs every Saturday morning.
Here's a commercial that Qualcomm created featuring Rancy. Note that he doesn't use a snow sled with wheels to do this, but it was cute for the sake of the commercial.
