Reese and I attended part 1 of a 3 part series on Carting facilitated by Sue Ailsby. After Reese’s biking efforts last year, she is no stranger to wearing a harness and loves to pull.
The 1st seminar was a bit mind boggling, with explanations about different types of harnesses and carts We also got to see a demonstration of what a beginner Draft Dog Test would be like. The host club had a number of carts and harnesses on hand and the 1st thing we did was harness our own dogs . Once they were comfortably walking around in the harness we introduced them to the cart , then to a moving cart.
After spending much time last year getting Reese comfortable around the bike and teaching her not to bark or bite at the tires, I was prepared to take it slow and work through anything that cropped up. I am happy to say that she was not disturbed by the carts at all. We worked in pairs and my partner moved the cart while Reese stood close, touched her with the shafts and eventually moved it along side her while I treated and encouraged her. I also coaxed her to walk in between the shafts and back out. Next we attached 2 leashes to the harness and my partner walked behind Reese putting some drag on the leash and giving Reese the feel of pulling.
This week I ordered Reese a harness of her own from http://www.wilczekwoodworks.com/
The next part of our Carting Workshop is in 4 weeks, and our assignments are to get our dogs pulling. So I made what is called a sacrificial tree. I used a 2 X 4 cut to about 3 feet and screwed 2 eye bolts about an inch from each end and a third eye bolt on the other side of the 2 X 4 in the middle. We will get out and try it with the bike harness until our harness gets here.
No comments:
Post a Comment