Dog Cart or Dog Sled

12 August 2012
6:38 PM

Sunrise at	5:30 AM	in direction	51°	Northeast
Sunset at	10:19 PM	in direction	308°	Northwest

Duration of day: 16 hours, 49 minutes (6 minutes, 54 seconds shorter than yesterday)

So, I have this sled dog living at my house, see?  And I was sure I would not take him out on sled runs because I need more dogs for effective mushing.  Every experienced musher echoed that observation. So, I'd given up on the idea of mushing him and made sure my daughter and son would give him weekly exercise of some sort in winter.  I resigned myself to being sensible about it all, or so I thought.

Then he came home and first thing I do is take him out on the bike.  This is pretty funny, since I resisted doing that bit of exercise for myself and JayJay many days over the summer.  But, it was different.  Here he is; he is trained; he prefers a steady pace to steam rolling; he needs the exercise.  What can I do about this?  I thought, "What if I don't need to go on long trips.  I just need to get him out there and exercise him. And if the weather is not too ridiculous, I can exercise my doberman bitch at the same time."

Brilliant!

Allen mentioned dog carting as a solution.  That is how his girls got started, which drew him into the sport as well.  He said a medium sized to large dog could pull a cart easily.  That seemed like a really good possibility.  I could do dry land mushing in summer and still run the cart along the bike paths in winter.  All sites concurred that one or two dogs could easily pull a cart.  The trouble was they are nearly impossible to find and when you do find them, they are nearly impossible to afford.  Prices ranged from $500 for a very small cart with virtually no braking system, useful only on flat roads, to $1999 for deluxe, seating, steering, braking, and maneuverability.  I am not joking!  That doesn't include shipping costs.  

So, I spent much of yesterday's surfing time, looking for better deals, shipped from closer.  No luck.  Every vendor I found started at $950 to $1000.  Clearly this was not going to work.

"I just need to get him out there and exercise him. And if the weather is not too ridiculous, I can exercise my doberman bitch at the same time," I grumbled to myself.  Would there be any sled, made by anyone that was designed for just that purpose and didn't cost a month's salary to ship?

I found a sledding equipment website and started going through them systematically.  I found several light weight sleds, but none that were affordable until .. ta da .. Affordable Dog Sleds.  They have a sled they named the Seeley Slider which is designed for beginning mushers with teams of one to three dogs.  Perfect.  The sled must be assembled, which reduces shipping costs.  Great!  The cost is $249.  Okay, finally something in my price range considering I am not young and most likely will not be using it daily.  

I just need to run it by Gary to see if he is okay with it, but I feel hopeful and a little excited.