Alex Harris | Inline Skate World

I hope it goes without saying that you need to know how to rollerblade before inviting your dog along for the ride… You have to be comfortable on your skates, know how to stop really well, and how to turn. Otherwise the advice would just be: put on rollerblades, find your dog, leave the house. And though that might work in the broadest sense, you’ll probably end up getting run over by a motorbike. How do you rollerblade with your dog? Have a good foundation with your dog obeying commands like ‘stop’, and take the process slowly, first by showing the dog the skates by letting them smell and get used to the moving wheels so they’re not scared (maybe wear them around the home first), find a good location, choose the right leash, take it slow with them to the side of your body. How to inline skate with your dog Of course, you could just go for the aforementioned “put on rollerblades”, “totally wing it”, and see what happens… If you’d like a bit of guidance on the best possible way to do it though, to try to make it a fun experience for your dog and avoid the emergency room, here’s the complete guide, starting with a little summary of the top tips: Inline Skating With Your Dog - Without It All Going Horribly Wrong Make sure you can skate well. Not the “I used to skate when I was a kid so I should be fine” level, but the “I have just been out on my skates and I’m super comfortable going at a good speed, stopping effectively, spinning and turning, and I also look cool” level. Got to that point? Okay good. The next step is to realise you don’t need to rush into this thing. Unless of course there’s a skating with your dog competition tomorrow at your local high school and you just have to win it to impress the boy/girl/teacher of your dreams… In which case you might need some montage music. But, taking it slow means ensuring first off that your dog is at least to some extent well trained. That they’re not the type that uncontrollably runs after scooters, or attacks every skateboarder they see. Obeying stop commands is a good start. Next step after ensuring your dog is not a runaway lunatic 100% of the time, is to get your dog used to the skates. For some reason only a talking dog could tell us, lots of dogs are scared of skates. They are new, threatening objects. They could I suppose be weird animals waiting to attack them. Small dogs especially can be a little afraid. So this is the process of introducing your skates by letting the dog smell them, get comfortable with them. It may take a short time for this to happen. You could wear them around the house if you wanted to commit to this. You don’t want your dog turning on your skates while you’re out. The next step is to know where you’re going, in an ideal world. You could combine the “learning to skate again” (if you haven’t in a while) with your reconnaissance. The best places will not be busy, will have a nice smooth surface for you. If it was at all possible it would be nice to have a bit of grass along one side for your dog to use so it’s easier on their paws. But it’s fine if it doesn’t. You don’t want to have cyclists everywhere either. Now you're all ready to begin, follow these precautionary steps: When you are starting out with skates with a dog you want them to one side of you, and this is where they stay. Because they’re not going to know not to cross over in front of you and trip you up. If they try to cross over you stop them with your hand. You want to create a boundary with the lead so you can pull back with a little snap. You’ll need to pay attention to when your dog needs to pee or poo as they may stop quickly, obviously. (I’m hoping you’re at least a little familiar with this dog anyway). Slow pace is easier to maintain and it might not be a good idea to start out using your dog to pull you along, especially if you’re in a built up area. And when you do go in for that sort of stuff you have to make sure you’re dog is not overheating, bring water along with you, do it in the evening maybe when the ground isn’t so hot. The closer you can do this to your home the easier it will be to build it up as a habit. If you keep an eye on training your dog for this specific activity, the whole thing should get better over time. What About Your Dog’s Enjoyment When Skating? Top Tips This isn’t all about you, you know? You need to make sure your dog enjoys the activity as well, and it’s a great activity to allow them to go a bit faster than usual on the leash. But there’s a few things you should check: Make sure your dog’s feet are in good condition Make sure you bring water with you so they have plenty of water, they’re going to be expending more energy Give them lots of encouragement (at the right points, of course). Consider starting off with a short amount of time, like 10 minutes, then building up to more later Consider an evening ride when the pavement is cooler If there’s some grass along the side that’s great for the dog as it’s less wear and tear What leash or harness should I use? Well, this is down to you and you don’t want anything that’s going to hurt your dog but multiple options can technically work. Slip leash can work as long as you know how to use it correctly. But can be a bit dodgy if you don’t. With slip leash there’s a correct way to use it, you shouldn’t be putting it in a position that’s too low where your dog can pull you, or in the middle of the neck when it can choke them, and it should go near the jawline while you are holding it above them. Here’s a video. But if you don’t know that already you need to get familiar with using a slip leash correctly before you go out skating with your dog on one. A popular option may be a harness. This can give you a bit more control over your dog. What To Bring When You Skate With Your Dog A sense of adventure…? You might want to bring a backpack with some shoes in. Just in case… Maybe a friend to help? A sense of resilience – basically don’t get discouraged if you fall over. Depending on your skill level, and maybe even if you’re great, wear protection. Wrist guards and a helmet. Perhaps some elbow and knee pads. Your rollerblades: hopefully this much is quite obvious, but to skate with your dog you need to put rollerblades on your own feet. Don’t put them on your dogs feet, unless you have this dog. The skates you need don’t need to be pro, but this is up to you. A standard entry-level pair of recreational skates might be good because really if you’re new to this you don’t want to be going super fast anyway, and skates with amazing bearings or huge wheels will go fast… You’ll probably want to have your wits about you so not wearing your headphones is possibly quite important, you need to hear everything that’s going around you, such as random strangers shouting “watch out”… What If My Dog Is Scared Of Skateboarding And Skating? Well, this might be more difficult. And you have to follow the getting them used to the skates steps a bit longer. You have to project your calmness completely, do not react to the dog’s moods. This is where your training foundation comes in. It’s worth noting though, that if they have this fear, actually introducing them to skates and taking them out skating can be a really great way to get them over that fear. What About Skating Past Other Dogs? When skating past a dog, give her space if she’s antsy in a way. In fact, in general just allow them space. Dogs have a couple of behavioural options open to them: Fight, flight, avoidance or acceptance. So, fight might make him go towards your skates. You’ve got to keep an eye out for other dogs. If they could be getting ready to hunt, like looking forward at you in a hunting position stay away. Don’t get nervous and tense though, remain confident and calm. As you may be moving faster than usual, it could also be quicker to move on past them. But giving them plenty of space is the best advice here. Will Skating Be Suitable For My Dog? Well, probably yes. But you know your dog better than a random person on the internet. Most dogs with the right training foundation, and gradual introduction to the skates, will be absolutely fine to skate with. You do need a dog with enough energy, but they don’t need an excessive amount because you can always go along at a very slow pace as well. It will also be down to your own skills on the skates, not just the temperament of the dog. The more skilled and comfortable you are on skates, the wider the range of dog personalities you can handle. Training Tips For Rollerblading With Your Dog: Same as all the other training advice you get: Clarity and consistency. It may be good if the dog can walk loose leash first, here’s a video about that. You want your dog to be calm around you wearing skates. Here’s one set of rules you could follow: 1. Train all the commands before without skates With a short leash, walking up and down somewhere in a quiet environment without distractions, every few steps test out the commands you’ll need. So these may be stop, sit, stay, heel, leave it. 2. Introduce the dog to the rollerblades You can do this at home, and again when you go out. You want the dog to be used to the rollerblades and to be calm around them. 3. Put your skates on, do the commands in a quiet place for a few minutes first Repeat activity 1 in a quiet place, training your dog how to respond. 4. Practice, taking one session at a time Keep doing step 3, building up the time spent with the dog, and the amount of distractions from none to a few. Learn how to react in the different distracting scenarios. And by react I don’t mean “react”, because being calm is the name of the game as the dog should sometimes follow your lead on emotional energy. 5. Loose leash Finally after you’ve gone through the first four steps – which could take a few sessions to get it right – you can graduate to letting your dog run alongside you. By this point you should be confident that you're dog obeys commands and you know how to stop effectively. Related Questions Where can I get landroller skates? As worn by the Dog Whisperer himself Cesar Milan, you can buy them here and here but they are quite rare and hard to come by. Roller skates for pets? Uhmm. Hmmm. Well, these might be quite difficult to come by. You might have to get a custom pair built. They’re not exactly widespread. Rollerblading with a husky? Go for it. Follow the advice above. This guys going a bit crazy. But he looks like he knows what he’s doing... watch the full video here. Image Credits: Main Image: https://unsplash.com/@nxn White Dog staring at camera: https://www.flickr.com/photos/120866016@N08 Black dog staring at the camera: https://unsplash.com/@charlesdeluvio