More Sidecar Training for the Service Dog

The training today was short and sweet. I don’t want to rush my new girl too much, and I always want to end the lesson on a positive note. She gets positive reinforcement with praise and treats, but more than anything I want her to relate to the hack as being a fun adventure.

Since it’s pollen season right now, I decided that the rig needed washing. You could probably plant taters in the layer of gunk all over the outside of this thing. I decided we’d roll on down to the local car wash.

Ryland seated and waiting for her doggles

I strapped her leash to the frame inside the floorboard of the hack for safety purposes. I have yet to do the modifications I want to do, such as a full harness and extra leashes to cross tie her in like doggy style seat belts — but I wanted to see if she would even ride, before shelling out the cash.

Leash on the dog

Leash on the frame

I adjusted the length of the leash to give her just a little movement without her feeling tied down. In case she decided to freak out and bail, she wasn’t going anywhere except the floorboard of the hack. Some dogs can be skittish of open air moving objects — and even stock Harley exhausts can rumble a little and spook the pooch.

Ryland and her doggles

She sits perfectly still when putting on her “doggles”. The command is “Dress” and she pokes her nose forward into the straps and waits for me to adjust their position. Eye pro is important for dogs riding in a hack. All it takes is a piece of gravel kicked up from the road, or a June beetle at 65 mph and she’ll be blinded. I dang sure don’t want that to happen.

Sitting patiently waiting to be unloaded

We arrived at the car wash a short few miles from home. I purposely kept the trip fairly short because I didn’t want to wear her out in the event she developed a case of the nerves. Throughout the ordeal she sat and waited quietly for me to get off the tug, secure my brain bucket, and get everything squared away.

Waiting for the command “Release”

The one thing I am happy about is that Ryland doesn’t just lunge and launch herself like a fur missile at anything. She sits patiently and waits for the command “Release” before she hops out of the sidecar. Of course it helps that the entire hatch opens forward like a clamshell to give her plenty of room to move.

This second Harley was purchased exclusively for my previous dog to be able to ride with me. The hack was second hand as well from some great friends down in Kentucky. It was quite the adventure getting it home to Maine, getting it painted to match the Electra Glide, and getting it mounted. That is a story for another time, though. The tug it’s attached to is a bone stock 1998 Electra Glide, 80 cubic inch motor. Rust and all, nothing has been done to modify it in any way. The hack is a 2001 Champion Escort single seat sidecar with a convertible cabriolet top that snaps on.

The entire rig is old and somewhat crusty, but I don’t really care. I don’t think the dog does either. We’re not into show pieces and shiny chrome. We ride merely because the road exists, and we have gasoline to burn. It gets us reliably to where we want to go and that’s all that counts. We ain’t fast, but we arrive with a certain panache. Nothing like an old dude and his dog on a dusty old Hawg.