Peaches first carting adventure!

Today I went over to Jennifer's to see what Peach would think of a cart.  This last week I have been getting her used to the harness and moving around, in and out, sitting between and going under a fake set of PVC shafts that I just held or laid on the ground.  We worked with those for a few minutes at Jennifer's and then moved over to the actual cart and did about 15 minutes of click treat for getting near it and then working towards standing and then sitting between the shafts.  Then Jennifer stood in front of her and fed her non-stop while I moved the shafts up and down and touched her rear end and sides with them and such.  (She's a little sketchy about having her rear end touched).

Per Jennifer's nod that she felt she was ready, we slid the shafts into the harness loops and had her do a few sits and stands while I held the cart from the side with Jennifer standing in front of her.  We then took the leap and hooked up the traces and low and behold off she went.  Hitch and go!  We walked down her long driveway, did a big circle in the culdesac and back up the driveway about 1/4 mile in all, up hill and down.  The cart had about 10 lbs. in it.  We were both quite surprised how quickly she took to pulling and that the cart really didn't bother her much, less so than the fake shafts did.  I made sure to give treats at the very moment it made any noise or hit any bumps like the ridge from the driveway to the street.

I guess now I can send in my registration for the draft test in Seattle, and get busy building her own cart and practicing...  I'm so glad I have the videos from the June draft test, I'm going to study them so I know more of what to expect!  Hopefully we will get in.

Peach was awesome!!

Cart Design

The cart parts came today and I spent this evening sitting on the living room floor coming up with a design.  I think it will be pretty cool and quite flexible, and very easy/quick to make, unlike the bicycle cart!

The wood is just a scrap piece I had so the size/scale is off, and the other black plastic pieces are just loosely placed on the aluminum tubing.  But basically here are the features:

• The shafts (two long pieces that go beside the dog and hook the harness to the cart) only need to be straight pieces of 1" square wood with two holes drilled in one end for the snap rings, there can be a series of holes drilled so the length of the shaft can be adjusted to the dog.   The other end will have a moveable clamp for the brake where it hooks to the harness, and the ends would be slightly tapered for ease of inserting into the harness loops.  The shafts and wheels would also be easily removable for transport.

• The black plastic fixtures that hold the shaft to the cart can be adjusted to two height settings and two width settings to accommodate the size of the dog using the cart.  They are held in place with snap rings (not shown in photo, but similar to the ones holding the shafts in place).

• The really cool thing is that the cart can be run with either side up!!!   As it is shown in the photo the wood platform is below the axle so the weights for a test will sit at or just below the axle giving the cart a very low center of gravity.  For fun events, parades, etc. the cart can be flipped over so the flat piece of wood is on top and side rails inserted for a more fancy look (would have a higher center of gravity, but less weight is being pulled).  This is possible because of the fixture that hold the shafts on can also be flipped overdue to being mounted with two snap rings (not shown).  There are also 4 pieces of wood rail (not shown) that would define the bottom box "sides" and contribute to sturdiness of frame, these would be permanent unlike the fancy rails for the flip side which would be removable.

• We'll have to figure out a neat removable system for holding the weights for the haul in a draft test.

• The frist thing that needs to be determined is how wide the ideal distance between the shafts should be for Peach, should they be close to her body or farther away?  All other measurements will be based on that, there would then be another setting that is wider by about 4" if the cart were to be used by a dog that is less long and skinny than Peach!!!