Use Caution When Cycling With Dogs

[luckypenny]

Of course that goes without saying but, even then, accidents do happen. And, of course, I have to learn from experience .

We've been taking the dogs cycling almost daily when the weather is nice. We use Springer bike attachments and, rather than clasping it onto their collars, we use body harnesses. Penny's pretty good, just likes to gallop alongside and will pull away if she sees something that interests her, especially the neighbor's chickens and turkeys . But she's easy to control. Lucky, on the other hand, loves to run like mad and I often have to keep my hands on the brakes while he pulls me up the road. He also has high prey drive so I have to be really cautious of what's in our environment and maintain perfect control of the bike just in case he sees something before I do and I don't get a chance to use "leave it."

Sunday evening, dh and I decide to take both dogs for a nice long ride. We only made it about 4 houses away before an unleashed dog charged at us. Penny was terrified and tried to get to the other side of dh's bike. Lucky must have gone straight for the other dog....I say "must have" because I don't remember anything . All I know is that one second I was riding along and the next, I was face down on the pavement, it all happened in a split second. Lucky had pulled the bike right out from under me .

Thank dog I was wearing a helmet, that it wasn't one of the boys, that a car didn't happen to come along at the time, and that Lucky and Penny listened when told to sit while the owner tried to get his dog under control (who wasn't even wearing a collar ). I wanted to scream at him but I was in too much pain, all I managed to mutter was "get your dog." I heard his wife say something about his dog being loose and he responded with something like, "but they're animals." No idea what the hell was going through his head at the time other than trying to shirk away from responsibility.

Anyhow, all this to say, please be careful if you cycle with your dogs using bike attachments, especially if there are off-leash dogs in the area or, if your dog is unreliable when it comes to lunging. And PLEASE, ALWAYS WEAR A HELMET!

My head was spared because I was wearing a helmet although my right shoulder, elbow, ribs, and right leg from hip to knee are bruised as is the inner thigh to knee of my right leg. What bothers me most though is that I'm going to be afraid to take Lucky cycling again .

Here's what my left leg looks like .