My wife is beginning the process of training her GSD to harness and cart, much like our horses are all broke to harness.
Just wondering if any one else has ventured down this pathway
I feel like there was a thread at one point on this forum about dog carts. There was a lot of interesting info I recall reading about safety and dog comfort that never occurred to me before. I mean who didn’t skjol off the family dog as a kid, right? Anyway it was interesting stuff. Hopefully the same peeps are still around. Neat that your wife wants to do this.
she has worked with her dog through FEMA scent training and now wishes to try something different, dog will do whatever she asks.
Our kids (youngest daughter) used to hook the kid’s trained protection dog to her wagon and off they would go around the pastures … but she just used one of the horse’s halter as a body harness with lead lines as tugs … dog was quite happy taking care of his charges
I am pretty sure wife will do well
I will search for the older thread, thanks
We used a halter to get our rottie to pull a cart on evening walks, just for fun.
That was not really carting, like when those breeds were used to pull milk wagons to deliver dairy milk directly to households in little towns.
I bet you can find a dog carting group on the internet, if not even carting classes at breed shows.
she has harness ordered, first set was a little small so daughter’s golden will learn also (an if my daughter has her way possibly the cat also, she is obedience training the cat any way)
new harness should be here today or Monday
the company who makes the harness is pretty good, if there is a sizing problem it is $7 to exchange but rather than sending the first back since the first set fit the golden she also will learn a new job
I know they use Bouviers to pull carts. Apparently Bouvs were used as ambulance dogs during the war (can’t remember where it was WWI OR II). A friend of mine who used to breed Bouvs was often seen going down the road with one of her dogs pulling her in a cart. Personally I don’t have any experience with it though I have thought about it as my present dog is a very strong puller. I would probably get run away with.
A friend of a friend does this with his Swissies. Takes them to the Farmers Market. Another friend with Berners used to compete in this at their nationals. They all really enjoyed it.
