Carting & harnesses

[ruby55]

Carting & harnesses

Thinking of getting into carting. Anyone else have a cart & harness? If so is it large enough to hold another large dog? Also is your harness leather or some other material? Thanks for any response.

 

[Aplatitsin]

Like weight pulling wise

 

[ruthcatrin]

Re: Carting & harnesses

Hmm, no carting as such. Some Weight pull though. And in theory the harness used for weight pull can be used for carting, though its not ideal unless working heavy loads. Note, the other way around doesn't work, carting harness should not be used for weight pull. The weight pull harness is 2inch poly webbing lined with fleece (think 'Polar' fleece, not sheeps wool fleece) for padding on the chest and shoulders.

Most of the actual carting harness I've seen are usually leather, though I don't see why webbing wouldn't be fine.

 

[ruby55]

Re: Carting & harnesses

Like weight pulling wise

No; more like this:

 

[ruby55]

Re: Carting & harnesses

Or this:

 

[Aplatitsin]

Never heard of it sorry

 

[Duetsche_Doggen]

Re: Carting & harnesses

I don't know either Ruby I thought about getting Thor into carting, but I need one less reason for people to call him a horse.

 

[ruthcatrin]

Re: Carting & harnesses

We keep saying we ought to with Apollo, he's certinally strong enough, but I also don't feel like butting heads with him over it, we had enough problems trying to get him to pull the weight cart. He'd do it, mostly, but he clearly didn't understand it, and since he's not food motivated it was hard to work him into it. I'd be interested in seeing your experience though.

 

[ruby55]

Re: Carting & harnesses

I'm pretty sure Sunny & Ruby would enjoy it, & have the temperament for it. I just want to make sure we're getting harnesses & gear that would be comfortable & fit them well, since the carts themselves are very expensive. I don't want to get into it only to have them spooked by the cart, or the harness be uncomfortable, or whatever. Years ago we made a cart for Sunny's grandfather Sumo out of a Radio Flyer wagon, and then we modified his weight pulling harness. He would pull our friend's decrepit 18 year old mutt around the property. But it never worked quite the way we wanted, so I'd rather just get the appropriate equipment. We bought a bunch of tickets for a handmade cart in the Bullmastiff Assoc raffle; it would be awesome if we won it. The carts alone are a few hundred dollars.

 

[ruthcatrin]

Re: Carting & harnesses

For weight pull, home training is often done with a plastic childs snow sled in place of a cart or the like. I've also seen instructions online on how to convert a small yard cart for dog pulling, I think I saved the link, I'll see if I can dig it up. Something like that would be cheaper than a full blown cart and still let you get them used to pulling something. Not ideal no, but it would let you find out if they'd tolerate it while spending a bit less.

 

[ruby55]

Re: Carting & harnesses

For weight pull, home training is often done with a plastic childs snow sled in place of a cart or the like. I've also seen instructions online on how to convert a small yard cart for dog pulling, I think I saved the link, I'll see if I can dig it up. Something like that would be cheaper than a full blown cart and still let you get them used to pulling something. Not ideal no, but it would let you find out if they'd tolerate it while spending a bit less.

Thanks Ruth!

 

[dpenning]

Re: Carting & harnesses

Look at newf sites, they do lots of carting with them.

 

[ruthcatrin]

Re: Carting & harnesses

Guess I didn't save the link, darnit, thought I did. I did find this: http://www.cartingwithyourdog.com/cwagonconvert.html and the instructions are very similer except that the one I saw before suggested using 3/4" PVC (and elbows and what not) instead of trying to bend metal.

 

[chuckorlando]

Re: Carting & harnesses

Thats electrical conduit. Real cheap and light weight. The bender needed is also very cheap. Bout 40 bucks and your off and running.

heres the bender http://www.lowes.com/pd_75160-12704-74-046_0__?productId=3129679&Ntt=bender&pl=1&currentURL=%2Fpl__0__s%3FNtt%3Dbender&facetInfo=

Looks to me like you will bend 2 90* bends spaced apart far enough for the dog. Then just remove the wagon handle and use U bolts to go over the conduit and through the wagons handle mounting plate.

PVC would work fine if no weight is back there. If some weight instead of glue, I would drill holes and add nuts and bolts to all joints

---------- Post added at 06:54 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:48 AM ----------

You aint to far. Not sure what carts cost, but I can make that. as wide, long and tall as you might want. Material would probly be around the 100 buck mark I'm guessing.

 

[chuckorlando]

Re: Carting & harnesses

You aint to far. Not sure what carts cost, but I can make that. as wide, long and tall as you might want. Material would probly be around the 100 buck mark I'm guessing.

 

[ruthcatrin]

Re: Carting & harnesses

Chuck, I think the instructions I saw did suggest putting in bolts on most of the joints, it was a couple years ago, they also suggested additional bends in the side bars to raise them up to the level of the dog's shoulders. I swear I saved the instructions dammit, cause we were thinking it might be fun with Apollo....

 

[ruby55]

Re: Carting & harnesses

You guys are great! I'm going to print these up, & Chuck I'll keep you in mind. I'd love to have a reason to come & pick up the cart, & oh by the way say hello to Miss Kona!

 

[chuckorlando]

Re: Carting & harnesses

It would'nt take very much steel. Piece of rod for the wheels and som wheels. But pvc would be way faster and likely spend more on wheels than everything else.

If you do pvc get you a small hand held torch or maybe even few min in the oven. Heat up th pvc and bend it into shape. You could get fancy and make a jig.

To do so take a piece of 2x2 plywood or what ever just flat and will hold a screw.

Crew through the bottom of a coffee can right to the center of the wood.

Now take a water hose and lay it on the wood in the shape you want the handle using the coffee can for the bend shape.

now take 2 nails or screws and install them on either side of the one end. So it holds the shape. Do the same to the other end. You could add a few in the middle for good measure.

Now take the heated pvc and shape it to fit inside the nails and around the can.

This will make sure both handles carry the same shape. Steel, well it aint that easy. hahahahaha

 

[OdeMX]

I have seen @ lowes gardening area some carts that can surely hold a little more weight than a RadioFlyer cart, also have way better tires.

 

[northernmastiff]

Re: Carting & harnesses

I found this site where they have plans for cheap dog carts available. http://www.make-and-build-dog-stuff.com/dog-carting.html. Looks like some of them would be good. A guy down the street from my friends house builds carts for horses and has made a few for dogs so I am going to get one from him to start Daisy on. If you lived closer, I could hook you up through him but I think the shipping would be too much.