|
Location: Virtual Showground
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 9,518
|
|
Originally Posted by
abbie
I have just reread some of this thread, nowhere did sallyin lancs say she wanted a sled dog just a dog that would be a great all rounder including run along side a bike and pull a scooter. Yes ours do that and love it. But it can't be made their full exercise and you also have to take into account the weather and not ask them to pull when its too hot.
Re sledding I was going by post 620- I tend to lump in variations of what are considered alternatives to sledding without the snow ie scootering, apologies for not being clearer
In reply to the person that said about the running on a long lead.
That was me too though long lines have been mentioned by many generally
What I love to see with my dogs is them running free and playing together. Can you honestly have more than one dog on a however long lead and get the same thing? Ok my dogs are around me but free is what they are. I honestly believe 3 dogs on leads however long wouldn't work and give the dogs the same enjoyment as playing together as they do.
We are`nt talking about three dogs though, Sally initially had the one so no reason for a line to be a problem there, and now she has another of which she says has excellent recall so for non-livestock area`s it`s not both who would need to be on a line, [ near livestock is a different issue as dogs should`nt be running around where they could spook stock anyway ].
I regularly took out a group of four together, my bridge girl Daisy-May, Defa, Gremlin and Willow.
Willow on the line played and tore around perfectly happily with the other three, I gradually built up how much line was out so that each of them was used to making sure they did`nt get tripped up by it, they would actually skip over it if Willow passed them or turned ahead of them, it never caused them a problem and because I had a line custom made for weight and thickness they were never at risk of getting hurt as they would from a thin flexi-lead type cord if they did`nt move fast enough.
Now that Willow is getting on a bit I have to be more restrictive due to his lactic acid problem so he gets to have brief chase about`s in the garden with the others but his walks are solo as it would`nt be fair on the others to have their walks cut short as his have to be these days, but certainly having one on a line in a group did`nt cause them any problems, I just had to make sure I knew what I was doing to let them get used to avoiding the line until they were used to Willow being on it
A correctly used line really is no encumberance to the dog, the idea is for the dog to not feel restricted and as a line should only ever be attached to a harness of a type which is also designed for the dog to not feel restricted it just is`nt an issue to the dog - we know they are secured to it, but the dog is supposed to be able to feel like
they are running freely - when handled correctly and with practice, that`s exactly what they get so are no more restricted in
their mind - the one that counts - than a voice only `lead` would restrict them, but with the handler having peace of mind that they can safely reel the dog in at such times as voice control only is not yet reliable enough to get consistent recall around distractions or on emergencies.