THOUGHTS ON CARTING



Buying ready made carts can be expensive. Many people are worried about spending a lot of money on a cart and harness before they know if their dog will like carting. Going with an inexpensive or home made cart is a good way to get started. Your cart design <FurwheelDrive.com> gives people a good inexpensive way to build a cart. I started with just 3 pieces of PVC pipe taped together into a travois. You can do a lot of early training to see how well you and your dog will take to carting with just that. It's also a great way to train a younger dog because there is no weight to the PVC pipe.

The one thing you can't skimp on is a good fitting harness for your dog. That is a MUST. If your harness doesn't fit properly it can rub and chaff your dog. He isn't going to like carting if his harness makes him uncomfortable. Your harness should have ample padding made of fleece or other cushioning soft material on all areas where the dog will be exerting any kind of pulling pressure.

Those building carts will have to be careful not to make the wheel base too narrow. With Danes we tend to use larger wheels which makes the seats higher. This will make for a higher center of gravity which will tend to make the cart easier to tip while cornering especially at the speeds that Danes can go. I have a speedometer on my sulky cart. According to my speedometer, Gus walks at 2 miles per hour, trots between 6 to 8 miles per hour, and he runs between 32 to 38 miles per hour. At speeds like that, you can see how a narrow wheel base or a sharp corner could easily turn a fun event into a painful disaster.

Your cart needs to fit your dog properly. For a standard double shaft cart, the shafts should run along your dogs body at the mid point ending just slightly back from your dogs chest about in the center of the front leg. The shafts must be long enough so the dog can fully extend his legs in any gait and not hit your feet, legs or any part of the cart. If the shafts end too short on the dog, say behind the front leg, he will get poked by the shafts in the back of his front leg when he stops the cart. If the shafts are too short he will also get poked in the ribs while trying to make a turn.

The shafts also need to fit along the sides of your dog fairly close to his body with just about two inches on each side of his body. This may sound kind of close but it is more comfortable for the dog if the shafts are more fitted than if they are bouncing from side to side banging him. The shafts also have to have a brake on them. This means some of attachment to the harness or something on the shaft that will prevent the shafts from slipping forward through the harness shaft loops. This will allow your dog to stop the cart when he stops and also allow your dog to back up the cart.

Shafts can also be made from pipe or conduit and bent to fit the height and width of your dog. For those who chose to make a cart with smaller wheels and wider wheel base, you can bend an offset in the pipe (shaft) to obtain the correct height and width to properly fit your dog. This is going to sound confusing but, when using a low cart, the off set in the shaft should be high enough, so the portion that runs along your dogs back legs is high enough so he can't accidentally step over it and get tangled in the cart shafts. Also be sure that the traces don't rub on your dogs back legs. I had this problem with the first ready made utility cart that I bought. I had to make a spreader bar to make the attachment point for the traces wider so it didn't rub Gus's back legs.

The cart must also be balanced so it does not put any weight on your dog. When you hold the shaft in your hand with it at the height it would be when it is in the harness loop, it should be balanced such that it is weightless. The shafts must never run down hill toward your dog.

Balancing the weight in the cart is the key to the load being weightless on the dog's back. It doesn't matter if the load is bricks or you. When you hold the shaft end in your hand at the same level as where it would go into the harness loop with weight in the cart, the shaft should still feel weightless in your hand. If the cart isn't weightless feeling in your hand then your dog is going to have weight on his back. To fix this problem if it's a sulky, try moving the seat back farther. If your butt is directly over or just slightly behind the wheels and the shafts are level or just a tiny bit elevated there should be no weight on the dog. You could also try lighter shaft material like aluminum.

I would use caution in making the cart too high and/or too narrow. This can be a dangerous combination. Remember, you can start your shaft training with just a one piece of PVC pipe about 5 feet long. You can even use a broom handle to start with. Actually that's what I used before I went out and bought the PVC pipe.

You can also attach something like a chain to a leash that is attached to the harness. This will get your dog used to noise following him. Some carts make a lot of noise so this is good noise training.


Cindy Scarpa
Caesar Danes
Great Dane Club of Oxford CT, Member
Great Dane Club of America, Member
St. Hubert Kennel Club, Member
New England Drafting & Driving Club, President
www.neddc.org
caesardanes@snet.net