Bicycle Exercise With Dogs

Bicycle Lady I

Bicycle Lady II

No need to buy an expensive product to make it safe to exercise your dog from a bicycle.

A piece of nylon webbing, a metal snap and a leash is all that's needed to make the simple B-Loop (short for Bicycle Loop) below.

Jo developed the B-Loop after she had a crash exercising Comet. She was holding his leash IN HER HAND, when he saw a cat and lunged. Instantly, she was down on the ground with blood spurting out of a big gash in her leg. Fortunately, it wasn't her head! Obviously, the hand method wasn't working... Jo weighs about 140 lbs and found that when she attached the leash low down on the stem of her bicycle, even 92 lb Fudge couldn't pull her over with a sudden move.

The B-Loop makes it quick and easy to hook your dog to a bicycle.

This was corroborated by Wendy (April 2011) from MN:
Today I made your "B-Loop" for bicycling with my dog. Ollie, an Aussie/Lab of 55 lb & almost 1 yo took to it immediately. I used a no-pull harness on him, and we had NO problems with balance or pulling. He made a few attempts to cross in front and behind the bike, and did not like the results, so I think he'll stop that after a few rides. His leash is 6 ft, which was way more slack than was good for this, so I wrapped the excess around the bike frame between the B-loop and the handlebars. Worked great.

After a couple slow trips up the block and back, Ollie had it all figured out and I had to keep up with him! He loved being able to RUN. Thank you for coming up with a very low-cost alternative to the pricey "real" equipment.

We appreciate you sharing your experience, Wendy! Ideally, your dog should wear a harness (see our Custom Dog Harness) when doing bicycle exercise with dogs rather than having the leash attached to his or her collar. Yanking on dogs' necks can cause them physical problems.

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B-LOOP INSTRUCTIONS

• 15 minutes with a sewing machine
• Jo was able to sew webbing on regular sewing machine settings
• 30 minutes by hand

MATERIALS

• 1 1/2 inch Nylon webbing 14 inches long (Approx 40mm by 350mm)
• Heavy duty snap link

DIRECTIONS

• Fold over End One of webbing 3 inches (75mm) from the end
• Sew end onto main piece in a rectangular pattern with an X in the middle, leaving a loop
• Fold over End Two, 3 inches (75 cm) from its end
• Sew together as with End One

• Thread the B-Loop around the front bicycle stem above the fork
• Make sure it does not interfere with your brake cable
• Take your heavy duty snap link and attach through both loops
• You can now snap on a tug line or leash

If you know of some different ways to do bicycle exercise with dogs, please add your ideas to this site. Simply go to Share Your Dog Story


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