At first I wasn't going to write about the dog-powered scooter that inventor Mark Schuette e-mailed me about. Technically, it ain't a bicycle.
Mark's contraption does have two wheels, but the similarity to a bicycle pretty much ends there. The scooter is powered by a dog, the rider doesn't get a whole lot of exercise except for balancing and steering.
But as I read through the Dog-Powered Scooter website, I started seeing some advantages for bicyclists, especially those who take to multi-use bicycle paths where people like to walk or run their dogs.
Advantages
One of the first things that caught my eye was about the steering. The human, not the dog, steers the scooter. Because of the dog's harness location, about the only thing he can do is run straight ahead.
How many times have you gotten behind someone walking a dog on a leash on a trail, and the dog runs across the trail from one side to the other? It's not going to happen with the scooter, plus the harness is set up on the right side, so the scooter should be between the dog and a passing cyclist.
Second, I don't think the dog will be interested in chasing your wheels if he's mushing his own. The dog is basically pushing his owner along; how much power does he have under the hood. Plus, the scooter has brakes.
Third, and this is the most important because it happens between rides, it makes the dog buy into the whole idea of two-wheeled transportation. If he's part of the system, he won't be interested in yanking it down. Anyway, he might be too pooped to chase.
As Mark wrote in his e-mail, “It's much safer than anything associated with a dog and a bicycle.”
Dogs
Some advantages of the scooter are that it allows the dog to get some good exercise, although he can only go where the rider allows. The dog — any size can fit — can stop and sit of lie down while still hooked in, and rubber straps and springs on the harness cushion sudden accelerations.
Mark is an architectural draftsman/designer in Bend, Oregon, specializing in passive solar systems who has invented, among other things, a bicycle carrier for motorcycles. He got the idea for the dog scooter from just observing some unsafe ways people have of exercising their dogs and, “How we need a better way to tap into dog power.”
Mark says he started making the scooters about three years ago and is selling one or two a week. He says the dogs are in better shape and better socialized.
Check out his website if you're interested in a dog-powered scooter. He also posted a photo gallery and videos of the scooter in action.
As for other matters relating to dog-cyclist relations, here's a post I wrote a couple of years ago.
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