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Teaching your small dog to use a bike attachment

All six of Kim's dogs

This is a guest post from Kim Garrison, a friend I met through Twitter (follow her at @kimhalligan1 or @jerseyshoredogs). Kim is the guardian of six (6) dogs, including three Lab mixes (mom Sequel and two of her pups, Stanley and Stella), two Japanese Chins (Oscar and Spencer), and Olive the Chihuahua. Kim bikes with some of her dogs, including the Japanese Chins, which are about the same size as Chloe — so of course I asked her to send me an e-mail telling me how it works.

Hi, I’m Kim. I love to bike with Sequel and Stella, two of my Lab mixes (Stanley doesn’t like the bike, so we do other stuff together). I’ve just starting biking with my two Japanese Chins, Oscar and Spencer. It’s a fun way to get around with your dog, and you get a lot of looks!

I found the bike attachment we use at a local store, and it clips onto my bike’s back wheel. [Editor’s note: From the pictures, it looks like a Sunlite bike attachment. Kim reports that hers, like the Sunlite, attaches with a Velcro strap, so that may be the brand she has. Kim says that she’s also heard good things about the Springer bike attachment.]

I recommend using a harness for your dog with a clip in front [like the Easy Walk Harness] rather than one with a clip behind your dog’s shoulders. If you have a harness that fastens in back, however, clip the bike attachment leash to the side of the harness. That’s what I do for my two Japanese Chins, and it works fine. I do not recommend clipping the bike attachment to your dog’s collar, because it would be too hard on your dog’s neck.

I started by clipping the bike attachment to my dog’s harness and just walking the bike, to see if he was okay with it. You can figure out pretty fast if they like it or not. If they’re comfortable with walking next to the bike, the next thing I do is jump on the bike and pedal slowly with them. My Japanese Chins only needed a minute of walking alongside the bike to get comfortable, and then we were off.

Go only a short distance at first, since your dog’s paw pads need to adjust to running on pavement. Be sure to check your dog’s paw pads regularly, looking for any sign of irritation. Oscar and Spencer are small dogs, so we don’t go far — just down the street and back (our Labs will run alongside for about two miles).

Kim and Oscar the Japanese Chin

I asked Kim if she feels wobbly on her bike when she has a dog alongside, especially her bigger dogs, and here’s what she said: I’ve never felt like the dogs (the biggest one I bike with weighs 42 lbs.) make the bike wobbly. It just doesn’t happen. I have a cruiser bike, which is a heavier bike. Sequel, our black Lab mix, used to pull something awful on the bike, and it still wasn’t a problem.

Kim and Sequel the black Lab

Related posts:

  1. Biking with a small dog: Walky Dog Low Rider In an earlier post I talked about options for carrying your small dog with you on your bicycle, including bike...
  2. Biking with your small dog Maybe you want to visit Block Island with your small dog and you don’t want to make a reservation months...
  3. Chloe’s Clicks: Dog travel links we liked this week The first link I gathered this past week, courtesy of @pettravelcom, was an article from The Philadelphia Inquirer about how...
  4. Photo Friday: Biking with a small, fluffy dog It’s spring for sure in the Washington D.C. area, where my friends took this picture of their son Paul heading...
  5. WalkyBasket: Biking with your small dog It’s probably too soon to be thinking about spring, but yesterday was a truly glorious day in Seattle — one...

See all posts about: Biking with a dog

7 comments

  • Rod@GoPetFriendly

    Great advice for getting started on biking with dogs. We don’t have bikes with us in the RV as Amy and I both prefer to walk the dogs instead. But there are some days where biking with Buster would be nice to give him an opportunity to run further (and get more tired) before we have to start driving.

  • m-a

    Hi, Rod — Isn’t it inspiring? Consider renting bikes — all of these attachments (and take a look at the Walky Dog attachment — it gets good reviews) need just a crescent wrench to install on a bike, so there’s no reason you guys couldn’t buy the attachment and use it on rental bikes around the country.

  • Catherine

    I am so happy to see that you also take your small pups on bike rides using a bike attatchment! I think that many people do not think that bike attatchments can fit their small dogs. I have a small dog who is only about 20lbs., but we use a bike attatchment with him almost every day! I use the Springer America bike attatchment because I can bike with multiple dogs at once, my dog rides right alongside of me instead of behind me, the spring reduces 90% of my dog’s pulls and tugs so that I feel very safe biking with him, and I know that my dog is safe riding with me becuase the Springer includes a safety release that will free him incase he gets stuck aound a bush or something. I suggest bike riding with your dog to everyone out there! It is such great exercise for the both of you! You can visit and order a Springer yourself on their website at http://www.springeramerica.com/

  • m-a

    Thanks so much for your comment, Catherine! Now I’m even more motivated than before to try it (we haven’t yet, but admire people like you and guest blogger Kim, who have taken the plunge). I think Chloe would love the exercise — I just can’t walk fast enough for her, and I am NOT a runner.

  • Catherine

    haha then getting a bike attatchment for your dog would be a perfect compromise for the both of you! Even if you don’t like to run, bike riding is such great exercise, and your dog will be able to run for as long and as fast as she’d like!

  • m-a

    Exactly! (Though given the heat right now, I suspect I’d only be able to ride as long as little Chloe could run — which is about up the street and back!)

  • Catherine

    I hear ya! It’s killer outside! After our bike rides, I always wet a washcloth and drape it over my dog to cool him down haha.

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