Mush!

A while back on a sunny afternoon visit to Seah's, we discussed the possibility of welding together a sort of dog cart for the boys to pull (Phoenix & his brother, Bruza), and since then I've often thought of it - especially when riding my bike up steep hills or ending up on my knees when roller blading with the dogs. Last night over the batch of cupcakes we were making, we had a bit more of a chat, and on the way home Chef & I really got to business, throwing around ideas about what sort of tires, brakes and harnesses we would need, and the lightest possible materials we could make it with.

Generally, when it comes to my ideas, I'm considered somewhat mad. So it's nice to get together with with Dog People, because it usually means someone's thought of it first. See here.

There's hundreds of sites for cart driving construction (and instruction), weight ratios for what the dog is able to pull (apparently three times the dogs weight is maximum, which is great considering I only weigh 6kg more than Phoenix), harness requirements and motivation for the dog. It's wonderful! I have visions of myself racing along the foreshore with my big boof of a dog, tongue lolling and saliva flying while I'm in my little sulky, complete with my own little numberplate and flag on the back, yelling such exciting things as 'haw' and 'gee'. I obviously can't be instructing him to 'mush', as that's his release word to eat.

Don't you think they'd make a brilliant sled dog team?