Handling Question - Gaiting - Page 1

I have an e-friend who shows cardis, and also has a young labrador retriever she's triaining for the showring. She is no longer young, suffers from asthma and is currently trying to train under rather severe, snowy winter conditions.

She bought a lightweight scooter, and is using it to teach the dogs to gait. She reports that her cardigan gaits at 9 mph.

Which got me thinking: how fast do you have to go to show your GSD's gait to best advantage?  And, for those of you who are older, do you have a way of making the gaiting easier on your aging bod, such as bicycling alongside the dog, etc.?

I am physically handicapped now with very bad knees and a torn ankle tendon and I cannot run or ride a bike. I use an ATV to run my dogs and they absolutely love it. Your friend can email me and I can give her some help on this and how to do it and perhaps even provide her with some video clips to show her what I am doing. I seriously doubt her corgi is gaiting at 9mph as this is just around what speed I would gait a LARGE male. Females generally go in the range of 6-7 mph depending on their size. And of course there are a lot of things to look for to make sure one is not hurting the dog. When they have warmed up, I also let them race me a bit here and there but am careful about how I warm them up and cool them down as well.

Thanks, hodie. I'll send you a PM. Actually, I'm more the one in need of help here. This lady I'm talking about has been showing for over 30 years!

What kind of scooter is she using? I use oxygen and have a 4 month old male (GSD, German showlines) that I'm going to have to figure out a way to exercise. He's got good ball drive and I have a good pitching arm, and a friend promises to jog with him when he's old enough, but I'd like not to have to rely on the friend for extended jogs. A scooter sounds like it might fit the bill for me.

http://www.travelscoot.com/  It weighs 29 lbs. without the battery and 49 lbs. with it. She can fit it into her Honda Element without taking it apart, so it's EXTREMELY portable. One thing you have to watch out for is it's a bit tippy. She stopped abruptly because her dog had decided to answer a call of nature. When she leaned back to give him a bit more slack in the leash, the scooter tipped over backwards. They do warn you it's not as stable as the larger scooters.

I run my female on the treadmill occasionally and 6-7 MPH seems to be the perfect speed for her to keep up a nice, steady - but fast - trot.  I've put my JRT on it and he does best at about 3-4 MPH.  I don't think a corgi will do 9 without breaking into a run!  I do also run my dogs on a 10% incline to give them a better workout, so maybe they could go a little faster on the flat.

I think my friend was mistaken: the top speed of the scooter is only 6 mph, not 8. I checked the specs. on the website. And yes, I cannot believe a cardigan would gait faster than a GSD!!