kids and dawgs: first sled run
My kids have four legs, but I love taking other people's kids on adventures. This is my cousin, her hubby and her two boys. Both are outdoor animal lovin' kinds of kids. After a recent snowpocalypse in southcentral PA, we hit the trail sat the local state park.
My usual method with the wheeled rig is ride a bike, leading the dogs, while someone rides the rig, or with small kids, ride the rig with them in the basket. With the sled, I ride the runners with a kid in the basket, or lead the dogs (at a walk, crummy knees, no running) with the kid on the runners.
The snow was deep and wet ...and maybe some ski wax on the runners would have been good. Or more dogs. Three or four dogs would have been able to pull an adult and kid along nicely, even in these "mushy" conditions.
After grinding to a halt on a downhill, I did the unthinkable...
I let them off the leash!
We had three adults, to catch wayward dogs. The dogs knew the trail and were used to running it a certain direction (so unlikely to take off into the woods... unless they spotted a deer). The conditions were slow (so, no runaways).
I walked down the trail with the dad. Mom stayed behind with the kid riding. When I was far enough down the trail for a good run, I called the dogs, the kid on the sled kickstarted it, and off they went!
The dogs ran downtrail nicely toward me, happy they only had to pull a light kid in the wet snow. The dogs enjoy being out on the trail no matter what, and this was interesting for them. They got attention (and bikkies as they ran up to me). The kids got to actually drive the sled by themselves and experiment with standing on both runners, on one runner, pedaling, running between the runners, leaning to turn the sled, and falling down in the snow a lot.
We stopped whenever the dogs needed to, offered water (they preferred to eat snow), and let them roll in the snow and kiss kids.
With a seasoned small trail team, this is a great way to introduce kids to another way to enjoy the snow, and interact with animals in a positive way.
My usual method with the wheeled rig is ride a bike, leading the dogs, while someone rides the rig, or with small kids, ride the rig with them in the basket. With the sled, I ride the runners with a kid in the basket, or lead the dogs (at a walk, crummy knees, no running) with the kid on the runners.
The snow was deep and wet ...and maybe some ski wax on the runners would have been good. Or more dogs. Three or four dogs would have been able to pull an adult and kid along nicely, even in these "mushy" conditions.
After grinding to a halt on a downhill, I did the unthinkable...
I let them off the leash!
We had three adults, to catch wayward dogs. The dogs knew the trail and were used to running it a certain direction (so unlikely to take off into the woods... unless they spotted a deer). The conditions were slow (so, no runaways).
I walked down the trail with the dad. Mom stayed behind with the kid riding. When I was far enough down the trail for a good run, I called the dogs, the kid on the sled kickstarted it, and off they went!
The dogs ran downtrail nicely toward me, happy they only had to pull a light kid in the wet snow. The dogs enjoy being out on the trail no matter what, and this was interesting for them. They got attention (and bikkies as they ran up to me). The kids got to actually drive the sled by themselves and experiment with standing on both runners, on one runner, pedaling, running between the runners, leaning to turn the sled, and falling down in the snow a lot.
We stopped whenever the dogs needed to, offered water (they preferred to eat snow), and let them roll in the snow and kiss kids.
With a seasoned small trail team, this is a great way to introduce kids to another way to enjoy the snow, and interact with animals in a positive way.