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ScooteringOctober 17, 2010 Travvy and I have been taking scootering lessons with our friend Carole. You know that scooter that you maybe had as a kid? Dog-powered scooters look like that, but they're sturdier and they have front-pull brakes on front and rear wheels, like a bicycle. Carole has one, and she offered to let us try it out. "Trying it out" has turned into a multi-lesson course. This is good, because no way could I have done this alone, even if I had my own scooter. This past summer I bought Travvy a pulling harness. Travvy wants you to know that he was not consulted about this. First he knew of it was when a parcel arrived from Black Ice Dog Sledding in Minnesota, then Susanna was standing over him with this tangle of black webbing and gray fleece, trying to get part of it over his head and his forelegs through the right straps. The standard size was too short stem to stern, or neck to tail, so I returned it for a custom-made model with the same neck size but about two inches longer. That one arrived promptly and fit perfectly, but since we were in the midst of a summer of hot-and-humid days, that was as far as we got till September. After dealing with horse stuff for so long, everything to do with dogs seems cheap. The standard-size, good-quality harness I ordered for Trav cost less than $25. Custom-made is $10 extra. The one-dog tow line was $19. So cooler weather finally arrived, and Trav and I started practicing two or three times a week with a wheelbarrow tire that currently lacks a wheelbarrow. First Trav needed a lot of coaxing, aka treats, then we went for short walks (10 or 15 minutes) with him pulling his tire. I didn't think he was really getting the hang of pulling, though, of leaning into the harness. Malamutes have been bred to pull for centuries, but I've heard that obedience training can confuse matters: Hey, first you reward me for not pulling, and now I'm supposed to pull? People who do both sledding and obedience with their dogs advise against doing obedience exercises with the dog's harness on: harness means pull, collar means don't pull. Not to mention, pulling a tire down the driveway and up the dirt road is not exactly thrilling for either Travvy or me. So yesterday Travvy and I went over to Carole's and met the scooter. Travvy and the scooter got along fine, but the idea that he was supposed to run in front of it and pull was not coming naturally. He would walk alongside me, pulling the scooter with Carole riding on it, but he kept turning around to look at what was following him. Carole hit on the idea of hitching Walter with Travvy. Walter is her younger Springer spaniel, whose need for vigorous exercise led her to get the scooter in the first place. Jake, her other Springer, and Pip, the 10-pound terrier mix, get their exercise following Carole and Helga, her Fjord pony, through the woods in their carriage. Walter is less trustworthy on such expeditions: he takes his own trail and comes back when he feels like it. So the opportunity to run had to be combined with some kind of restraint. Travvy is similarly unreliable on the loose, which is why I got the Springer attachment for my bike and why I want to scooter. We turned all the dogs out in the big fenced-in yard to make sure they all got along; Travvy already knew Jake and Pip, but he hadn't met Walter. They had a great time chasing each other around, so we took the two of them down the driveway to the short side road and hitched them up together. This didn't work as well as we'd hoped, because Travvy was more interested in sniffing the bushes and Walter was having to pull him as well as the scooter. Walter went back to join his buddies, and Carole returned with a bicycle. Aha, brilliant! Put Travvy's prey drive to work! Following me on the bicycle wasn't quite as exciting as chasing the UPS truck down Halcyon Way, but it worked. We went up the side road to where it dead-ends at the woods, then back to where we started, then we made another round-trip. Travvy was finally beginning to get what was expected, so we decided to quit for the day and have another lesson in the morning. This time we used Trav's Springering harness, which has a "girth" around the belly to keep it in place; the x-back doesn't, and until Travvy learns to keep the tow line tight, the harness tends to bunch up or slip sideways, and he could conceivably figure out how to back out of it. I also brought along his Kong Wubba, his favorite tug toy, which has a full-bodied squeak. I rode the bicycle, squeaking the Kong Wubba, and Travvy trotted after me. He was pulling the scooter -- the line was tight! After a few rounds of that, it was time to see if he'd follow someone else, so Carole rode the bicycle and I rode the scooter. Travvy kept pulling. It was so cool! With that we quit for the day, unhitched Travvy, and let the dogs run around in the yard. Our next lesson is tomorrow afternoon. Our goal is to get to the point where Travvy and I can do it alone without a helper.
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