Hound
in the Dumps
More Gift Ideas for Animal Lovers For Sledding, Skiing or Roller Blading! Great Selection of Kids Skates & Accessories,
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Get Rolling : The Beginner's Guide to In-Line Skating Check
out Francis Blading in
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Don says: To help in controling the dog until he is trained, try pulling a 6 foot leash thru a 5 foot schedule 40 pvc plastic pipe. This when connected to the harness at the top of the back above the front legs will help from running into the dog if stops suddenly. Also you will be able to get along side then and lift his front legs off the ground if he is running to fast for you. Experiment, use a 1 inch wide nylon leash to fit thru the pvc. In the beginning it helped me, hope it helps you. Dogman P.S. I'm dog trainer Jessica suggests: Hi, I'm Jessica, I'm 12 Years old and I own a Siberian Husky/White German Shepherd. I taught her to pull in front of me when I'm on rollerblades. Some advice you might want to put on your web page is to let the dog know that it's all right if they go in front of you,(some dogs think they should heel all the time), and that it's O.K. to go fast, but not too fast. Some people might consider getting a racing harness because ot's easier on the dog and it's more efficient than a collar. It might be easier if they use some commands, such as musher's commands, to tell them where to go. Laugh a Little Francis's friend Gerry writes: Used to date a girl with a Norwegian Elkhound and did the blading thing. What fun! He would pull me down hills (up was too much strain as I didn't have a real harness) and it was just like water skiing. I'd cut slaloms behind the dog at around 25-30 mph. He would see the skates and freak out!! Cool web page. You are right though that its for experienced skaters. I couldn't imagine doing it if I wasn't comfortable coming to a complete stop quickly, on a downhill doing 30+. The hardest part was training him not to get a mailbox\lamp post in between him and I so his leash got caught. Took a couple of nasty spills our first times out. L8R Gerry R. P.S. Broke up with her.....damn I miss the dog. And here's my answer to Melissa, a five foot tall, 13 year old girl who needed some training advice: Hi Melissa-- See, I have tihs majorly big problem with my dog. I'm only thirteen, and quite small for my age. I love rollerblading (although I can only do it sometimes), and I always wish that I could do it with my dog (like the people on tv!) I guess you can say my problem is my dog. Her name's Shannon, and she's a huge purebred golden retriever, and she's like, almost as tall as I am (I'm almost five feet)! For some silly reason, she thinks she's still as small as she was when she was a puppy, and thinks that we can walk her around all the time. WRONG! She's so strong, I'm not even allowed to walk her anymore! My big bro or my dad ends up doing the task, which, I have to say, tires Shannon and them out. I don't think that being 5'0 tall should stop you from doing anything. When my friend Ellen who is about 5' herself was in second grade, she gave the class bully (who was quite big for a kid his age) a fat lip along with the warning to never call her short again! (He did in fact stop teasing her so I guess he got the message) what you need to do is to find a way to compensize for your lack of size in some other way. Since this is between you and the dog--the clearest place is that you have the higher intelligence of the two of you and you need to realize that with the dog, this makes you legitimatally the superior animal in terms of navigating the world. Your dog doesn't know this--but dogs have an innate concept of being in a pack. You need to firmly but lovingly establish yourself as the leader of that pack--where the rules are what you say they are. Just like small children will not always listen to what you say at first because they don't understand what you're saying--through patience and communication you can teach that child that some behavior is bad and other behavior is good. And also like a small child, a dog lives to please you--you feed her and love her--she depends on you and her love for you is unconditional and she has all the faith in the world that you will never let her down. She's so strong, that when we occassionally tie her to the gate, she breaks both her leash AND collar. Just remember this is not about her strength--it's about a lack of training. She is still a puppy. You need to patiently help her learn what kind of behavior you want her to have. Think of her like a two or three year old child. MOre than anything I want to be able to rollerblade with my dog. She's trained and everything, but I guess a 10-month old puppy has her own idea of freedom. Is there anyway I can be able to skate with her without being dragged around? If you want to have control over your dog, you have to take a very active role in training her--usually this role falls to parents, but in this case, you need your dog to repect you as much as she repects them. The first step, is to establish a communication bond with your dog. Get your dog into as calm a place as possible. I've been teaching Francis the word "chill" as a command for him to mellow out when he starts to jump or get excited by saying the word over and over and giving him a hug, scratching his back while he's in between my legs (I'm crouched) so it's like I'm almost on top of him. But this leaves him no where to go--allows him to feel warmth and teaches him that nice things like butt scratches happen when he "chills" If can't get your dog's attention, go in steps. Make sure your dog listens to you when you say sit. Sit eye to eye with her and show her some small piece of meat that she can have if and when she listens to you. Don't let her get anywhere near it until she does what you say (she will try for it). Reward her with praise and food, keep increasing what you ask of her in order to get those things step buy step, and gradually cut back on the food. Always give her praise. Eventually you want her to listen to you for the "good girl" and love she gets as a result--not only for food! When Francis and I set out the door--he used to try to start running the second the door opened. I told him no, that he would have to sit (we have steps at our front and in rollerblades that would've been interesting!!) and remain still while I stepped down the two steps, and then and only then could he go. I would also recommned your buying the kind of leash I mentioned on the rollerblading page--the kind that goes under the armpits. This way you can combine a gentle tug that restrains movement with a firm "Stay" and she will learn that much quicker. It also helps in terms of telling the dog to go left or go right--kind of like the reins on a horse! Also (some people may think this is crazy but I don't)--talk to your dog--tell her your concerns and how you want to take her out but don't want to be dragged around and how if she wants the good part of going out she has to play by your rules etc. and look her in the face when you say it. Telepathically communicate to her too--think what you mean really hard even as you are speaking. I think dogs understand more than we give them credit for. Please let me know how things are going...it's great fun for you and your dog--and something I wouldn't give up for the world. One note of caution--please for your own safety be sure that you are confident on your blades by yourself before you try to handle your dog at the same time. A strong dog can knock you off your feet if you do not remain in full control the whole time. And you've got to keep paying full attention (that's where I lose it sometimes--my mind has a tendency to wander when I skate--and with Francis--it's best if I see the kitty cat BEFORE he does or else...well..let's just say I have bruises (mostly healed by now) to prove it! Good luck! Hope you had fun visiting Francis and come back any time! Caryn
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