Mary Allen
Cycling with a dog keeps owners and dogs fit over the long term. But be careful: If you don’t follow a few tips beforehand, you’ll quickly come home with abrasions, but without a dog.
Cycling is especially fun when you can take your four-legged friend with you. However, not all dogs are equally suitable for a bike ride together. To ensure that everything goes smoothly and that you both have fun while cycling, the following tips will help you.
Conditions for Cycling With the Dog
Your best friend should be an adult and healthy before you ride a bike with them while on a leash. The skeleton is only formed and hardened from the age of one and a half to two years. Before that, joint problems or injuries can occur if your four-legged friend overexerts himself physically during the growth phase.
Dogs that are too big or too small should avoid running alongside when cycling, as the physical exertion would be too great for them too. Sick, old four-legged friends or dogs with joint problems are also not suitable companions when cycling.
Tips for Cycling With a Dog
It is important not to take things too quickly when cycling with a dog. Four-legged friends like to overestimate themselves and easily overexert themselves when the journey is too fast. Even your best friend has to build up his physical condition with regular training. In the beginning, you should not just start cycling, but first, get your dog used to the bike.
A tip: Take the bike with you a couple of times when you go for a walk every day and push it alongside. Now and then you can sit on it and let yourself be rolled a few meters. Even if it’s tedious – this is the only way your four-legged friend will get used to the bike and its noises and, with regular practice, will soon be able to proudly walk alongside you.
Also, choose a quiet place for your test routes so that the traffic doesn’t distract you or even endanger you both. Incidentally, your four-legged friend is safest when walking to the right of the bike. It is best protected there. However, if you do not have an overview of a situation, be sure to dismount and continue on foot.