Roading safely with Vizslas on bike

I have posted before on bike riding with our Vizslas. Here are a series of pictures taken on one of the neighborhood streets of South Lake Tahoe.



With a "Springer" attachment firmly attached to the seat post of my mountain bike, the dogs both run to my left.
This keeps the dogs close by but the spring action of the "Springer" takes away the side pull.

Good place to buy a "Springer"

http://www.springeramerica.com/

Note in the above picture the following:

The quick release pin at the seat post. This allows you to remove the "Springer" in 2 seconds.

The plastic attachment to the line that is designed to break if the dog gets hung up on a pole so the dog does not get hurts.



The harness the dogs wear I got from Petco. These are leather harnesses sold with AKC brand. These are a must. Never use the dogs collar to do this. This can damage the dogs neck. Bailey and Chloe both pull and with a harness, the forces are spread correctly mostly along their chest.



The "Springer" is attached to both dogs with the use of a "Y" leash and a 20" plastic leash. I purchased these on line from Gundogsonline.com


http://www.gundogsonline.com/Search.aspx?strSearch=leash




Each ride was safe and the dogs are very used to it now. When we left the house we rented to the marsh area or dog park, this is how we got there. The dogs could play with the harnesses on and the 20" leash and "Y" can be used to walk the dogs.

Riding a bike downtown with the dogs

Saturday morning.
"So dad, what are we doing today?"

I wanted a cafe latte at Peet's Coffee in downtown Walnut Creek, so we got the riding bridles on the dogs and I put on the helmet and off we went.

The "Springer" bike riding attachment goes right on the seat post and keeps the dogs nice and close. Bailey pulls me along quite well on level ground. Chloe goes along for the run.

Before we could go downtown, we had to burn off some energy.

Away we went on what ended up about a 10 mile ride.

The first leg was a four-mile ride down to the dog park at Heather Farms. This ride was a mixture of suburban streets and paved trails along the canal system in Central Contra Costa County. The trails are quite crowded on weekend mornings.

At the off-leash dog park, Chloe got to chase her ball in the field and Bailey got to play games of "chase me."

From there it was three more miles along the trails to downtown Walnut Creek. In the downtown area I walked the dogs and bike about six blocks to Peet's.
At the cafe, I came across a couple of our neighbors enjoying the warm October morning outside. We visited for about twenty minutes while the dogs relaxed under the table.





Afterwards it was back on the bike and the three miles back home. Good two-hour ride and play time at the park.



The dogs are asleep as I write this.



I think I'll take a nap too.