I’d love for my weimaraner to bike with me, tried a couple of times but she’s just too nosey ie in and out of fields at the trailside, which is ok until said fields contain livestock then all hell breaks loose. Her recall is 100% better than it was, she’ll be 2 at Christmas so still very much a live wire.

Please don’t consider a Lab for a trail dog. They are quite a thickset solid dog that flush out and retrieve game. They are definitely not a consistent runner. If I wanted a trail dog I would go for a trailhound , vizla or wiemaraner.

Vizslas aren’t a good choice either. They’re not bred for running long distance.

Patterdale terrier! run forever and because their light, very little chance of joint problems, mine will easy do 20+ miles, if I stop for a brew she keeps on running round like she’s done nowt! mad as peas she is 🙂
mine is the longer legged smooth coated version, fantastic lil doggies.

a patterdale terrier earlier
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0prBZ-ywg6A/UKkXj6fwtTI/AAAAAAAAAnE/c1yK1aTcF1k/s1600/PatterdaleTerrier3.jpg

Border Collie here. She loves every minute of it and slowly building up her rides. She took to it straight away and runs at the side of the front rider or if its narrow she tucks in behind the back wheel. She came from working parents on a farm so this probably helps.

Wait until the dog is fully grown, at least 18 months, or you’re it’s/you’re gonna have all sorts of joint problems to deal with. We’ve got a red setter which could gamble along for about 10 miles in it’s hay day but that was fairly short lived. By the time it was 5 or 6yo, 6 miles was too far. It used to get stiff after, and even bonked a couple of times which is not a great situation and made us change tactics – walk the dog on dog walks and go for a decent ride on bike rides. That way you can use footpaths and bridle ways as intended and explore different places rather than being confined to bridle ways.
We did a lot of training with ours, and labs are pretty quick to learn so you should be okay there. A few buzzes of the front tyre soon teaches them to stay out of the way of the front wheel.
Remember a lot of people are not keen on dogs, particularly ones they consider are not under close control. It can be shot without question for chasing livestock.
I’m not a fan of dogs at trail centres, it’s pointless and disrespectful but have no problem with common access trails etc.
Pads should be ok if the dog does daily hard surface walking, ours have never had a problem. A friends lab was regularly car’d to grass walk areas and when it went cycling it used to rip it’s pads up in its enthusiasm. It, as labs do, loved water and so kept making its pads soft by being wet which definetly didn’t help.
A dogs for life so take care of it.

I have a black lab who is an excellent trail dog. They are very trainable dogs so work well in the correct conditions.

If you haven’t already done so, have your dog hip-scored at the vets to ensure that you are not likely to cause issues. My vet recommended that there should be no more than 5-10mins of exercise per day per month of age until 18 months. Our vet knows our dog is a trail dog and is fully supportive of it as he is in great shape.

As others have said recall is essential. Recall is pretty easy to train with labs as they will do anything for food. 30mins in the back garden one evening was all it took with mine at around 16weeks old. He was giving a paw at 12weeks.

I have no problems at trail centres although I would not take him in a weekend as its too busy. Night rides he wears a reflective jacket for safety and visibility.

Our dog loves water so,plenty of stops for drinks and rolly-polly in streams etc.
At first we spent a lot of time talking to him the whole way round just to keep him close and calm. He quickly got the hang of it and it’s second nature now. He thinks he was made for chasing our bikes although interestingly he won’t chase anyone else’s bike.

Springer spaniel here, loves to run (shock!) and would happily run all day at her pace, any bit of water/bog/shitty puddle and she is in it – just toodles along in front of me, hates being behind me and tbh I prefer her being in front so I can see her..