Urban Mushing

stepcodd

Hi All
Has anybody ever tried "Urban Mushing", its like dog sledding on dry land.

People are using scooters (http://www.pawtrekker.com/)

and carts to do this.

There are plenty of videos of this on youtube.

I have seen an ad also on donedeal associated with the website www.mushing.ie about a weekend in the wicklow mountains over the august bank holiday.

I am taking care of an American Akita for two weeks while relations are on holiday, the dog loves to run and pull things so would suit her perfect.

If anybody has any info on this can you let me know.

ISDW

Hiya, I run my dogs with a scooter and am getting a 3 wheeled rig within the next couple of weeks. There are a couple of clubs in the country that do this, one is Tails 'n' Trails, that I'm part of, the website it under construction, but we are on Bebo if you want to check it out. We had a scootering meet at the end of May in Roscommon and had a great time.

If you're just looking after a dog for a few weeks though, I wouldn't have thought you'd be able to do anything with him, he'd need to be trained into the harness first, and then start on the scooter, which would take a little while.

The weekend in the Wicklow mountains I believe is a backpacking event, not a scootering one. It sounds great though, should be a lot of fun.

stepcodd

I only have this dog for a few weeks but we will be getting two dogs of our own soon. Thanks for the info. I will check it out.

Alun

Looks like fantastic fun! I've done real mushing in Northern Sweden with a pack of 6 huskies, and that was fantastic, if a little expensive, and it'd be great to try dog scootering or something like that on forest tracks. We've plenty of those here in Wicklow. Only snag is I don't have a dog .. do you think I could persuade our two cats to pull me along Seriously though, it'd be great to be able to try something like this, even if you didn't have your own dog, I'm sure there'd be a huge demand.

stepcodd

Hi ISDW
Do you have a picture of the three wheel rig?
Could you put it up please?

Stephen

madaboutdog

You can visit Tails n Trails here and see the scooters in action in the video box.

http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=9405744851

ISDW

I haven't got my rig yet, but this is a link to a company in the UK that makes them, to give you an idea. I can't afford one of these just yet, they are expensive, but very good.

http://www.cudosrigs.co.uk/

stepcodd

Thanks ISDW

I'm toying with the idea of making one from two mountain bikes and some tubular steel.

Do you know of anyone who has tried?

Have you seen "Sacco carts" from norway?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP-J40sb33s

Stephen

ISDW

There are some people in the UK that have made their own rigs, Im trying to remember where I've seen them.

If you look at the husky forums in the UK, I'm sure you'll see them. I think there are some pics of some on Siberian Husky Welfare Association forum.

Those carts look great. There is a guy in Germany that builds carts as well, including passenger ones, Fritz Dyck, he has some amazing carts. One day, one day ......

Spitfire666

wow, those crazy norweigans,
did you see how close the kart was to the edge of that very high cliff when it was being knocked about?

stepcodd

It looks a bit dangerous alright. You would really have to trust the dogs that are pulling you. Looks great though. I think they are about 1500 euro to buy.