Dog Powered Scootering!

 by Kristi Benson
Scootering with Pawtrekker

Recently, we bought two Pawtrekker Scooters from Canadog. We bought the front suspension disc brake model, as it seemed a good compromise – we live on a farm near a large provincial park and forest reserve, so the higher clearance seemed wise. And based on a single bike-joring episode I had two years ago on the tracks around our property, I knew that front suspension would be important to prevent my brain from rattling out my ear (again).

The scooters arrived in the mail in large boxes. They weren’t completely disassembled but it did take a while to put them together, especially the first one. Luckily, Yoenne had worked in a bike shop and knew which end was up. Before we bought them, we’d never seen scooters or tried them. We had read the sleddogcentral forums and other reviews of scooters, and watched some videos on YouTube about it, but the scooters were a bit of a surprise. They are large but not unwieldy.

We scootered around the front yard and found them easy to propel and balance. We also discovered one of the best parts of scootering: They are an oversized kid’s toy that can be ridden with impunity. Your family and neighbours already think you’re cracked for having 19 dogs, they won’t judge your choice of ‘training and exercising’ your animals. It just so happens that it’s as much fun as a ten foot pogo stick. And being dog people, we have enjoyed the occasional joke about the name of the apparatus.

We sagely took only one dog each out for our first trip, two of our most solid skijoring dogs – dogs that will stop and listen (generally). Unlike our other dogs. We only went about three miles along gravel roads, but in the 10 degree C weather, that seemed enough. For the first hundred meters or so, during which I saw my life pass quickly in front of my eyes, I feared the decision to buy was in haste. However, I soon got the hang of steering, braking, and balancing. After about a mile, I thought I would try pedalling to help the poor 65lb young male running like a banshee in front of the scooter. The thought was nice, but we were moving a lot faster than my leg could and I almost lost my foot in a vortex of gravel and antimatter.

The scooter is very easy to balance on. For me – much easier than a bike. Yoenne has more experience biking and is more ambivalent about the scooter. Some of things I was worried about are not problems: I can stand with my feet side by side on the platform. I can easily jump off to one side or another. The hand-brakes are intuitive, and if you’re standing on the scooter they can hold two dogs. After a few runs, it’s easy to pedal on either side. It’s easy to steer, even around sharp corners. The brush bow is great, and useful if you have a dog that is warming up to scootering more slowly (we’ve never tried it without). If you don’t mind a bit of gravel in the face, you can crouch down well below the handlebars if it’s windy (try that on a bike). When skijoring, skiing, running dogs, and erm... walking, I tend to fall a lot more than anyone I know. I haven’t fallen off the scooter yet (give me time) even though I have made some interesting choices (my two most stubborn and fast dogs? Together? Through the Canada goose playground? Sounds Great!).

To rig the scooter, I made a double-loop with a fid, each loop attached separately, through the fender/brushbow. These were made from heavy polyethylene nicely available from a section of chewed gangline. I left the standard-sized loop for attaching to the lines. We use a locking carabiner here after a bad experience with a quick release. The carabiner attaches to a standard skijoring line with a bungee section.
After a few good single dog and double dog runs on gravel, we decided it was time to try the muddy, twisting, deactivated logging road in the forest reserve nearby. Again taking only one dog each, we loaded up the scooters and the dogs and drove to the trailhead. The scooters are light and easy to toss into the truck. The scooters (and the dogs) handled much of the trail well. In deep muddy puddles, Yoenne found she was wishing for the pedalling ability of a bike. I just held on and tried unsuccessfully not to plant my feet in anything over two inches of water, and found that plan worked excellently. However, it seems that the scooters don’t handle mud as well as a bike. I prefer to foot pedal when required, Yoenne more often hopped off the scooter and jogged through technical parts or up slippery hills. All in all, it was a fantastic fun time for us and the dogs. All four of us were covered with mud and out of breath at the end.

We found that the dogs, ours are Alaskan huskies, took to scootering much the way they took to skiing. Several of our dogs do much, much better alone or paired in front of the scooter than they do in team or in front of team. Dogs without much experience skijoring took a few miles to get the hang of it. Several of our dogs started off only pulling on the way home and loping uncertainly beside the scooter on the way out, but with encouragement are starting to do it. If our dogs didn’t have skijoring experience they would probably take to the scooter more slowly. For some of our dogs, their first skijoring experience was a bit scary – the skis, the poles, being alone. But almost all of our dogs will skijor, and only one or two will not work as the frontrunner.

Unless your dogs are more sedate and well trained than ours, scootering isn’t for the faint of heart. On twisty tracks it has all the excitement of skijoring a fast, hard trail. The scooter wheels provide almost no resistance. It is exhilarating and crazy and fun.

A Few Tips!

DO:
· Buy a bike helmet. Now. Before your scooter arrives.
· Scooter around a bit to get used to the steering and brakes.
· If you’re on a gravel road, consider a bandana worn bandit-style to prevent small flying rocks from giving you an inexpensive facial. And it just looks good.
· Have a bungee line – we are using our skijoring lines and they work perfectly.
· Plan your trip so that the dogs can drink and wade in water, if possible.
· Expect your quads to be sore if you scooter 15 dogs, one at t time, on the first day.

DON’T
· Attempt to look behind you on your first few runs, while in motion.
· Take two dogs out on your first try.
· Wear clothes and shoes that shouldn’t get muddy.
· Expect a dog that has never skied or led to do it on the first try.

 -Kristi Benson, San Clara, MB