Ziggy Goes for a Bike Ride

Thank you so much for your kind comments on my last blog post.  It means a lot to me that you take the time to comment on my blog, and your support really helped me to deal with losing Sal.  I thought it might be time for a happier post, so of course Ziggy is the dog for that!  

Ziggy doesn't ask for much out of life.  Some good meals, a good chew bone, and a daily walk is his idea of a perfect day.  However trying to fit in a daily walk between working and caring for the other fosters can be challenging.  Ziggy would be happy to take himself for a walk - no human required - but the neighborhood cows would probably not appreciate that.  So for times when Ziggy needs a walk but I don't have an extra hour to spare, we use the bike.

Ready for a bike ride!

I tried to teach Ziggy to ride the bike, but for some reason he just couldn't get the hang of it.  So I bought this neat attachment that lets me ride while Ziggy walks.  At first I was worried about using this with Ziggy, because he's very strong and when he sees something he wants, he just goes for it.  Since I live on a dead-end road and have to ride past a field of cows to get anywhere, this means a long distance where Ziggy would be trying his best to pull me and the bike into the field.  However I'm pleased to say that as long as we're moving, Ziggy has not managed to pull me off the bike.  He does pull me up hills, which I appreciate during a long bike ride.

On our way!

So far Ziggy has only managed to pull me off of the bike once.  That was when we were standing still, and he was anxious to get started.  He managed to pull me and the bike on top of him, which must have hurt!  But he got up, shook himself off, and was much more patient after that.  In the interest of fairness, I should report that I also managed to fall off the bike once when neither Ziggy nor any other dog was around.  I'd like to claim I ran over a big rock or something.... but I can't, because at the time I was standing still.  I'm not a very good cyclist.  Fortunately I live in the middle of nowhere, so there isn't a lot of traffic on my road, and I have plenty of space to swerve back and forth as we go.

Empty roads help a lot.

Ziggy usually wears a harness on our rides so my unique style of weaving back and forth doesn't pull on his neck.  I'm careful not to go too fast, and we occasionally take breaks so he can sniff around or watch the cows.  It's not quite as good as a regular walk, but for days when we don't have a lot of time, it's a great alternative.