Hi all, I’ve started taking my weimaraner biking with me, she loves to run at the side of me and do a little exploring of her own. At the moment just taking her where we go walking locally. How far do you bike with your dog, obviously being a weimaraner she just keeps going but I don’t want to over work her.
Also do you carry anything in your back for your pooch, was thinking filling my hydration pack with water and pouring into my hand for her to drink.
I would like to take her around marple, Mellor, Hayfield if anyone knows this area and has route suggestions.

You can get foldable water bowls, which will work much better than your leaky fingers!

Interested on ppls thought on the ‘how long’ though.. did take our old dog cycling round my normal Wyre run, & he was happy as larry, but I didn’t know if it was too much or not really. Got a new dog this week, and am very interested in getting him trained up to go out with me.

Huxley the (older now) Dalmatian runs about 5 miles at a time it takes an hour plus to do this distance. He can manage this twice per day (to and from work) with a big rest for 9 hours between runs. It helps that we cycle alongside a river so drinks are never a problem.

I expect that this distance will shorten as he gets older to avoid breaking him. As long as you build up slowly and don’t over speed your dog should manage a 20 mile day without too much stress but you will be out for several hours doing this (greater than 3, maybe 4). Which could be a bit boring on a bike, short and pacy is probably better for all concerned.

Mine will do 19km but is tiring towards the end especially if its below 1hr30mins. He’s done 20milers when younger but was puggled by the end. Were about to he’s round newcastleton before they close the new start. He’s begining to tire easier now but still barks if pace is too slow.

We’ve done a couple of 5 milers of like you say about an hour on flatish terrain that she just trotted along and one 8.5 miler which was more hilly, so naturally a little more pacey on the downs, she appeared to like it, this was over a couple of hours though with a few breathers for her. She’s almost 2 1/2 now and we didn’t doing any strenuous biking or running with her until she was at least 18 months on the advice of many dog forums/owners, although from a pup she has been around my girls on bikes in the park to get her used to them.

We don’t take our Springer x Lab riding anymore as he has a couple of compressed vertebrae and cant run for extended periods but we trained him pretty easily to drink from a Camelbak hose.
Basically squirted water at him and he very quickly worked out that he could drink it!
Also carried a little folding bowl for proper drinks when we had more than a minute or two break.

You can’t just say, oh, my dog goes this far. Look at my great dog, can do 10 miles!
Depends entirely on the breed of dog, age of dog, weather, area you take them (water for dog to jump in?) etc.
My pointer is similar to a Weimar but I wouldn’t take her for more than an hour (how far?- no idea) if theres no river to jump in to refresh herself. Local thicket to me has loads of opportunities for a dip, so we can go out for up to about 3 hrs. She walks back after that, so no further.
Know your dog and take care of it.

Ziva is just over five now, a rhodesian ridgeback and generally comes on my 8 mile loop with me in the wyre forest where we have specific stop spots and water and slow spots. She cant take two days in a row so needs recovery time and I wouldn’t go any further than 15 miles really but this will mean reduced pace to allow for recovery for her. Wyre forest is also all natural so pretty easy going on the legs and paws for her but if it was trail centre I know her feet would get chewed up more

My lurcher is knackered after 500 yards!

I’ve been riding with my dog for 4 years so can spot his tired gait. Some rides we stop for the view some we don’t. He’s a riding partner who suffers from fatigue or feels/looks strong. Rides are tempered by how we both feel. He’s getting on now so I take him on rides that hell do easily. He puts a lot less effort into loping up corbylinn than I do. So yes I can say my dog will do ………
Cant tell you what your dog can do tho.

Also do you carry anything in your back for your pooch

dog poo bags and a tuperware to put the filled ones in

This thread needs pics.

I have just acquired a springer as a future trail dog.

I have no idea how to post pics

Was going to start a similar thread soon as I have an 18month working cocker. He’ll run 4 miles with me but needs rest afterwards.

Was thinking of cycling his usual haunts slowly for an hour and see how he gets on. Plenty of streams on the route but I do have a collapsible bowl.

Being a working cocker he has bundles of energy but wee ickle legs!

Couldn’t possibly give advice without plenty of photographs of said Weimarana.

I use foldable bowls but have also got my springers to drink from a bottle as well…

The thing to remember is that it’s riding with your dogs and not just doing your normal ride wiv a dog in tow so you have to dial in something suitable for everyone.

my prefered dog route involves pond and a mix of things I can play on more technical biased than a fast blast. Which is around 7 miles and takes a leisurely 2hours ,I wouldn’t dream of taking them to a trail centre. Also not bad to get them and you able to ride on lead alongside for urban moments..as opposed to comedy dragged from bike giggles.

+1 for drinking from camelback directly. But I do have a silicone folding bowl too I take some times on picnic rides.

Chewie and Ahsoka can manage around 15-20 miles stop start around the forest in cool weather. Open down land continuous is a bit less, it’s also via every horse trough so they can get in and cool off(scumier the better it seems). We’ve got a folding dog bowl as well.

Ill start the photos necessary comment

Great dog! And his tongue compliments your bike 8)

Edit: her tongue.

Will trot alongside bike at a slowish pace all day or will sprint around at full speed chasing small furries in the hills till he cant stand up any longer lie down for 30 mins breathing through his arse then get up and do it all over again.

How do I post pics and not just a link from a mobile? S4 in particular.

This is Murdo. He runs well on the bike, about five miles at a time. He’s only two but I fear he’d run till he burst so lots of slow bits/water stops to keep him happy.

I’ve never been to a trail centre with him as I’m lucky to have lots of natural stuff on my doorstep although I do fancy taking him to the likes of Glentrool of a week day so we don’t annoy anyone.

Thanks for the replies, went out for a couple of hours today, she tracked the bike very well, even running alongside the bike on the lead when on the road. Plenty of water stops drinking from the camelback and a couple of river stops for her paws, majority flat trails/towpath with a total of 14 miles.

Hopefully you can see the image!

have two springer/cocker crosses that love coming with me.
one likes to run up front and the other tucks in at my back wheel.
They have done 25 k in a day over a good few hours without apparently any ill effects.
at least once a week they would do a 10 – 20 km ride, but at least some of this will be on techy single track where i am much slower than them and they have a chance to take it easier ( but they don’t – they charge off after rabbits/squirrels etc if things slow down too much)
i wouldn’t take them on this length of a ride if it was an out and out xc ride at a continuously fast pace.

and like others, they have easily learned to drink from my camel back.
a word of warning re trail centres. One of my dogs and a mate’s have made a real mess of their pads (blisters and bleeding) on relatively short rides.
we thought it might be because these man made rails often have a lot of still sharp quarry stone on the paths which macerated their feet, as opposed to well worn natural paths.

i felt guilty as hell at the time when this happened.
If i was doing a lot of trail centres with them i would probably consider buying them some doggie booties. ( i always thought these were ridiculous things, or if needed were due to someone pushing their dog too hard/ dogs pads weren’t hardened enough, but changed my mind when i saw the state of my dogs feet. )

Brian

Trail dog paws now hung up but does enjoy a good walk. (not with me now tho)

Still I see him every two weeks on Skype 🙂

Couple of older videos

Another Ridgie owner here. Take our lad Rogue around gisburn during the week when it’s nice and quiet. Sounds like the op has done the right thing in waiting until his vim is fully developed so well done there. Any other tips ? Recall, recall, recall imo. I use a whistle to help. One long blast means stop, two short blasts lie down and three for recall. It’s taken me a long time training him but it’s worth it, he loves coming out with me. In fact if I don’t take him with me my wife says he sulks big time when I’m out.

My last lab and border could manage 20 miles easily at a decent pace, even when the border was about 9 or 10. It depended on the terrain though, moorland and grass were fine. Gravelled fireroads and the likes were no good both would try to run on the verge.

Rides were never far from water though, burns, peat bogs, streams or rivers so they could have a drink and cool off.

You’ll find what your own dog can do. Don’t take them out too young, don’t over do it they’ll run until the collapse, make sure they don’t get too hot and have plenty of water.

My dog can do 350 miles easy, we do the SDW double every weekend

We take Fin out most days locally and usually do about 5 miles. On a weekend we tend to take her if its safe and away from roads.

Yesterday we set of from Langsett, up onto Cutgate and back via North America. She cant wait to get out with us

We have had to put a muzzle on her when riding as she tends to try and undo shoe laces.