Back to health again!

I'm feeling much healthier again these days and have been doing agility training with Pogo, who has learned to push his way through a closed chute tunnel. I'm proud of him for learning so quickly (within a day using tasty treats).

I'm hoping next to teach him how to weave between my legs as I walk. I've seen videos of border collies doing that, and I think that Pogo is smart enough to learn if I'm smart enough to teach him how. He's a bit tall, but I think we can manage.

Dog sulky = Bike chariot

I haven't been able to do many dog pulling activities since mid-May, when a car accident left me in a brace with a fractured neck vertebra and broken collar bone. During that time, Pogo got exercise using our treadmill and chasing tennis balls rather than pulling me around on a scooter. I just got the neck brace (a.k.a. torture device) taken off yesterday and can now get back to dog pulling sports and boating. While incapacitated, I discovered that I can have people pull me around in the dog sulky behind a bicycle.

My visiting mom biked me to a physical therapy appointment:

Pat took me and Terra along on Madison's Ride the Drive:

We passed another dog getting a lift at Ride the Drive:

Pulling Power

I was very excited to receive my dorsal hitch dog sulky today. Thanks to Michele in Ohio for selling it to me, and thanks to Annie for bringing it to Madison. I tried it out along the Wingra bike path with Pogo (in the center), our neighbor's dog Daisy (right), and Annie's dog Summer (left). This first trial run went amazingly well, and it helped to have Annie biking ahead to motivate the dogs. All three dogs have been doing dog pulling activities like dog sledding and dog scootering, so they seemed to get the hang of it right away. I still have a lot to learn about which straps attach where and how to adjust everything properly. (You can click on the photo to enlarge it.)
Here's a video view from the sulky:


And here is Pogo helpfully hauling home a stack of library books last weekend in his wagon:

Urban scootering

I love it when Annie comes to visit from Chicago. Today was a beautiful day for scootering. Annie led the way on a bike. Summer (Annie's goldendoodle), Pogo (my Irish doodle), and Daisy (my neighbors' poodle) pulled me on the scooter on a loop around Monona Bay with little Terra along for the ride in my backpack. Yeehaw! Or should I say, gee-haw!

Pogo's new trick

Pogo can now turn off our hall light on command (see video below). The next step is to train him to toggle the switch in both directions. Good thing he doesn't seem inclined to do it randomly on his own.

Spring scootering

Our beautiful snow is melting in this 40 degree weather, so I took Pogo and our neighbor's dog Daisy out scootering along the bike trail today. It went well, and the dogs sped up as we got closer to the dog park.


At the dog park, we met another standard poodle who likes to pull. Hopefully Pogo and Daisy managed to convince her how much fun dog pulling sports are.

Team Oodle in the Dells

Team Oodle ran well at the Christmas Mountain Village dogsled race yesterday. Musher Annie stayed upright and did not finish last this time! Here they are in the starting chute, with Summer and Pogo in lead:

I was excited to get to try a dorsal hitch dog sulky after the race. The suspension and brakes worked well, and I was amazed at how smooth the ride was. Boy would I love one of these!

One guy built his own dogsled out of skis and hockey sticks:

And I enjoyed this scene:

Team Oodle in Naperville

On Saturday, we had fun dog sledding. We gathered a 5-dog team consisting of three doodles, a poodle, and a husky in Naperville. Here are Pogo and his buddy Summer during their pre-game strategizing session:I took this video while driving the team with Summer's mom, Annie:

Team Oodle at Winterfest

Pogo ran in his first sled dog race today at the Kickapoo Valley Reserve Winterfest. He was part of a 3-dog team along with his goldendoodle buddy Summer, driven by Annie on her kicksled. Team Oodle came in last partly due to a tangle at the beginning but finished the race and enjoyed the scenery (and apparently also peeing on the scenery). I was proud of Pogo for pulling hard. Thanks to our other neighborhood Fluffy Dog, Daisy, for helping him train earlier this week.

After the race, I took Summer and Pogo out to try the kicksled myself
and found this historic bridge (see video):

For more photos from the race and ice caves we visited afterward, check here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/chaopricha/WinterFestOodles?authkey=Gv1sRgCNuoq_2Qpt2Y7QE#

Skatejoring!

It turns out that Pogo is good at pulling people on ice skates, too! Wingra Lake was smoother today than I've ever seen it before. Pogo pulled me and Pat together all the way across the lake without our help. Here's him getting warmed up:
He also gave "rides" to several of our friends: