Has anyone here tried skijorring? (sp)

[Montgomery]

With all this cold weather and snow in Canada, I thought this would be a great way to start exercising the dogs.
I am a fairly accomplished down hill skier, so I don't think that it will be hard for me. My youngest and biggest is now one and my older girl is now two. Is it too late to get them started on this cool, excuse the pun, winter activity?
I would love to hear from anyone who has tried this.

Thanks
Jill

[tisymoo]

my boy is 13 months old and we have started training for pulling a scooter or a rig the type huskies pull,we started off learning right and left and when we started to jog he would run by my side the way we do in fast pace in heelwork,so i would lef the leash get longer if he started to run faster than me and give him the command hike on everytime he went in front we have been doing this for 3 months now and we are getting on fine,he is getting his first harness in a couple of weeks and the scooter is ordered, i would like to try skijorring but sadly we don't get enough snow here but we have huge stretchs of beach wich we can scoot along, we have great fun.

[Montgomery]

That is so great! I would love to be scooting on a beach with my boy! He is also 13 months old.
I guess with the weather warming up, I will try your suggestions out on runs. Although, I am still a little nervous about running with him yet. Just because he is still growing so much!

Please let me know how your boy does with his scooter! I can't think of anything better for exercise!

Jill

[tisymoo]

he gets on great he sometimes will forget and stop for a pee but if you hit the brakes quick enough you will not run up his ass. don't forget learn right and left first though and you should have no problems.
He knows what his harness is for and gets so excited when he sees it,he curls around my legs like a cat.;)

[Liz]

I used to skijor in Wisconsin with a rottie years ago. There's a very good website located at:

http://www.ptialaska.net/~skijor/index.html

There are also books available at skijoring.com I think

You need cross country ski equipment and experience, especially the ability to stop on a dime so you don't crash into the dog :) The dog doesn't *really* tow you, you do need to provide a lot of the power yourself, but it's fun and a little easier than plain old cross country.

Rotties don't have the feathering between the toes that protects breeds like huskies from ice pack problems, so you really need to take care of feet, and will probably need to get racing booties for the dog. When you use racing booties, you need to take care of the pads with something like hoof-tough (a horse product), and make sure to condition them after the booties are taken off because they can sweat inside the booties and soften the pads making them prone to damage and infection.

Start slow, and don't expect a rottie to keep up with huskies and malamutes - they're powerful dogs, but this is not their forte. It helps if the dog has some basic turn commands down, like 'right' and 'left' as well as a command to go out in front of you and run. Oh yeah, STOP is another important command <g> Remember to bring a squirt bottle of water for your dog, and remember his age - a dog this young should really stick to short training runs until next winter.

I don't get to this board very often, so apologies if I miss a question after this, I'm setting the e-mail notification button and will try to keep an eye on it.

Liz