Skijoring

Skijoring is a great sport for you and your dog! In this video Leanne Ritz tells you all you need to know about skijoring such as equipment needed, assembly and more!

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to MN Dog Lover TV today we're out at Elm Creek Park In Maple Grove with Leanne Ritz and her two dogs Lyca and Gracie. If you ever wondered what is skijoring?...Leanne is here to tell us more skijoring is basically cross country skiing with dogs towing and helping you along the equipment is actually pretty basic basic cross country ski equipment for the human and that can include classic skis or skate skis and then for the dogs, each dog has a harness, a towline and a harness for the human the towline is made of bungee material which makes it more comfortable for the skier once the dogs start to run there’s a couple of different types of harnesses Lyca has on a basic x-back harness and the most important thing with harnesses is that it fits the dog well...yes Gracie (Gracie is howling in the background) and if you’re a runner you know that shoes don’t make you fast but comfortable shoes make you comfortable and it’s the same with the dog I don’t think there is a harness that makes them faster I think the one that is the most comfortable fit is the one that is best for your dog for Lyca here you can see that her harness fits well around the neck and you can take two fingers and easily fit them in there and then extend it out the back and it should reach right about the base of the tail make sure that they have a collar on but that it’s not caught up underneath their harness Gracie here, has a different type of harness on but the basics are the same that it fits well around the neck and shoulders and that it doesn’t slip down when there’s tension on it and you can put a couple of fingers in easily in between and again the length ends up right at the base of the tail with two dogs, you also need a neck line the neckline attaches from the collar of one dog to the collar of the second dog and the neckline just keeps the dogs together when they’re running so you don’t come up behind another skier and have them decide to go from one side to the other and it’s just a little measure of safety for the human you basically just need a pair of cross country skis poles and boots and again, depending on style you can use classic skis or skate skis I prefer skate skis since they give me a little more leeway in terms of starting and stopping with the dogs and you’re not restricted to staying in the tracks and can kind of move around a bit more so that’s my preference So there’s just a couple of basic commands for your dogs to learn the first one is “line out” which basically means the dogs go out in front of you and waits until you’re ready “Lyca” line out! Come on girl, line out! Good girl, “whoa” another basic command is, to get them to go, use the word “hike” and use all kinds of enthusiasm and fun because this is a sport that is fun for you and fun for the dogs and always use kind of an upbeat voice when you’re doing it if you want to come to a stop the command is “whoa” and they may need just a little backwards tension to remind them that whoa means stop right and left commands are “G” and “haw” a good way to remember which way is “G” and which was is “haw” is that for “G,” to spell “right” there is a “G” in “right” so “G” is right and “haw” is left I use the command “easy” especially when I come up to a part of the trail I am unfamiliar with or it might look a little icy and I’m unsure about it I use the command “easy” to slow the dogs up a little bit and “on by” is also a helpful command It tells the dogs not to stop, not to sniff, not to socialize and keeps them running down the trail