Amazing Extreme Biking – With Dogs
Welcome back!
One of the most radical and awesome extreme biking activities that you will find anywhere is an exclusive sport you can enjoy with man’s best friend, by means of ingeniously innovative scooters, bikes, and skateboards designed specifically for your precious pooches — and generated by bona fide dog power.
You can even take your dogs ‘off-road’ for some extreme biking, or attach the dog pull system to your skateboard. What better way to have fun with your furry friends and get one of the best forms of exercise in tandem at the same time.
These extraordinary dog scooters, trikes, and skateboards — designed to use with anywhere from 1 to 4 dogs — are the brainchild of Mark Schuette, of Bend, Oregon.
Mark believes that “dogs need to be treated on a par with us as humans. Just as we need to have a job, there is nothing wrong with asking our dogs to help out a couple of times a week.”
He adds, “Many of us also love / need strenuous athletic sports, and so do many dogs.” The trendsetter compares it to not doing activities with your dogs and how that can be unhealthy by leading to obesity, and physiologically damaging as well as a source for behavioral problems.
“It’s also great for aggressive and reactive dogs since the dog control is so good. What’s more, the models are excellent for blind dogs who can never run — now the rider can steer for them and they can fly again!” Schuette affirms.
Given that they’re also human powered, the entire load can be removed from your dogs, or you can team up with them and enjoy the thrill of mushing — urban style. They will require your human-power going uphill, therefore overall it’s an excellent way to get exercise with your companions.
Dogs are still able to sit and lie down while hooked into the trikes or scooters. The configuration in fact supports the animals side to side and vertically without any weight bearing down on the dogs, therefore eliminating concerns of physical or mental stress on them.
“I started this project after observing how we always want to have our dogs pull us; that seems almost innate in humans.” Mark explains. “But we do it poorly — especially in these modern times where we live in cities.”
“After researching all of the traditional and new ways we have our dogs pull us, I knew there was a better way; we were still using technology and designs from 100 years ago.” says Schuette. “I’m an architectural designer / draftsman so I know how we get stuck in a small box and just keep on doing dumb things in our house designs that are killing our planet, thus I knew the design was poor.”
“So I knew first that I had to put the dog BEHIND a steering wheel NOT out front. I tried my first prototype which was the lowest cost vehicle I could find in a scooter, and it worked fine. But I placed a third wheel out on the end of the outrigger bar since I thought that would be needed for stability.”
On the contrary, Mark quickly realized the 3rd wheel wasn’t really needed after all. “In fact, the scooter was more fun, you could lean it, it was more of a sport, smoother, cheaper, less spooky for the dog and less stress on the scooter frame; thus simpler and more elegant.” he says. “Then I just tweaked the hardware and harness over time.”
In due course, Schuette’s invention progressed from his first prototype.
“I started to attach my outrigger bars and continue the concept on other human-powered rigs like trikes, bicycles, trailers, and skateboards. And they all worked!” Mark adds, “But the trikes made the most sense and the safest and most marketable. I want to do a wheelchair soon.”
The inventor states, “I wanted to do my own rigs but couldn’t afford to have stuff made overseas in large quantities, so I began selling the dog system for existing scooters and trikes. But in the future I would like to have my own rigs made, although I would need an investor for that.”
Mark claims to have sold 1,600 scooters and bikes over 6 years, and has never had a report of an injury to either riders or dogs. “The other methods of dog mushing cannot say that!”
Schuette adds, “Anyone can ride these — kids, old folks, and some disabled folks; they are very safe. Therefore, the market will increase substantially over time versus using bicycles with the ‘dogs out front method.’”
Incredible Biking with Dogs
To learn more, visit Mark Schuette’s website. All images property of Mark Schuette and Dog Powered Scooter.
Tags:animals bicycles bikes biking dog dog mushing dogs extreme sports features pets riding scooters skateboarding skateboards sports
One thing that I would like to add here which I didn’t in this article, is that Caesar Millan — one of the best-known authorities in dog behavior — frequently states that dogs should be either beside or behind their owners on walks, as this teaches the dogs to be followers, particularly for dogs with behavioral issues.
To go into explanation would be an entire article in itself, but you can find information on the topic all over the net, which confirms this for a plethora of reasons.
Great! Biking with dogs and also extreme. Nice to watch it live. thanks for sharing these pictures here.
Just as long as you don’t attach a greyhound and a chihuahua to the same scooter…
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well deborah, to bring to your notice, that usually doesnt happen. in walks, dogs are walking ahead of their masters which makes their masters the dog follower
These look kind of cool but do the dogs actually enjoy it? And what if nature calls when they’re being pulled along on a long ride? Hmmm…I like the idea, especially for blind dogs who can never go crazy and have a good run, but I’m not convinced enough to invest
@ News
It’s all a matter of patience in training to get your dogs to walk beside you, rather than ahead. Allowing them to walk ahead can lead to numerous behavioral problems.
Dogs are inherently pack animals, and owners need to be the strong pack leader, otherwise the dog will take over as the alpha in its natural course of instinct. They need a pack leader, so if the humans in the family aren’t strong enough as one, they will assume the role out of necessity.
I smiled~So lovely dogs.
live with hpv
well deborah, to accompany to your notice, that usually doesnt happen. in walks, dogs are walking advanced of their masters which makes their masters the dog follower
It is so good to see you bogging again, I know how taxing this type of blogging can be.
You always had a theme running through about animals.
I bike with my dogs all the time. I do the hang on and go method. I find it actually way more dangerous to have the dog connected to the bike for both dog and human. My dogs are very well trained when it comes to the bike and even then we’ve had some nasty falls when the dogs were connected to the bike. Never once while the dog was being held like it usually would if you were walking it.
It’s an amazing bike!The bike can make dogs and the owner do more physical practice at the same time,this is worthy of trying.But can dogs do it well?I mean can they run fast enough when the bike is fast?
It is so amazing doing such thing while biking. It safe because your dogs will protect you and you and your pet get fit too. So great!
Great job….amazing post with your bike & dog!!!
Thats a great article that you have written. We are always searching for nice articles to be shared with our clients in order to make them understand better.
This is a great article it a good exercise!!!
Ha Ha ! What great ways to walk your dog
Biking with dogs? Wow, I wanna try this. I usually bike alone and I wanna try to bring my dog. It can be exciting and helpful to my dog as well.
I agree with Deborah re:Cesar Milan – these bike ideas are great as they are something you can do together and enjoy, tiring your dog out nicely in the process! Great pics and article.
This is an ideal way to have some time with your pet. I agree that pet owner should always cater the needs of their puppy to have some walk and training activity.
These dog walk pics are quite interesting and worth trying out. I can’t wait to have a walk with my dogs tomorrow evening.
Nice post and images. Its really fun to see this incredible bike with dogs. Well, what would be the cost of that bike? I would like to buy one for myself. But are you sure, the dogs are really enjoying it?
yeah !the dog looks like very friendly with human .we are help the dog day day happy !so human day day happy !