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Doggles Eye Protection: Goggles for the Motorcycling Dog
Filed Under (Ella the Hack Hound, Riding Apparel) by Anthony StClair on 03-03-2008
Link: Pet Supplies & Pet Products: Doggles : Goggles for Dogs
Over the past few days, Ella has been getting used to wearing her black Doggles Dog Goggles.
This hasn’t always been easy.
Just like us humans though, dogs need eye protection when barreling down the road in a glorified beer cooler strapped to the side of a 750cc lawn mower. Hence, Doggles. Now, Ella can watch the world whiz by while chilling out in the sidecar — bugs, UV rays and debris be damned.
Jodie and I first heard about Doggles through the various Ural message boards (see right column, under “Ural Discussion Boards”). The foilheads on there love taking their dogs in the hack, but Doggles were a must, and opinions were all favorable. We were also lucky enough to find a local source: Wags Dog Emporium (485 Coburg Rd., 541.338.8801). Jodie snagged up a pair of Doggles, size Medium, for about $20.
Training, or, really, you’ll learn to like them
For the first few days after getting Ella’s doggles, we’ve been gradually bribing getting Ella accustomed to wearing them for longer and longer periods of time. Here’s what we did:
For the first couple of days, we’d coincide doggles time with feeding time. Ella always has to obey commands before being given permission to eat, so we worked the Doggles into this routine. At first, we’d put the Doggles near Ella and say the word, “Doggles,” while speaking to Ella in the same tones we use when we’re letting her know she’s being a good dog. Jodie or I would then stand near her food and command Ella to sit. We’d say, “Ella, doggles!” and put the Doggles on Ella. This sometimes went a little, ahem, askew:
At first Ella would try to knock off the Doggles with her paw. When we got her to stop pawing them off, she understood… and went through a brief phase of dragging her face along the floor, so it was the floor knocking off the Doggles, not her. That couldn’t be a problem with us humans, right? After closing off that loophole, Ella did start to get use to her Doggles — in fact, she looks right smart:
Once we could leave the Doggles on her for a minute or so, we then gradually increased the time. When we took the Doggles off Ella (and not when she took them off herself) she’d get a piece of kibble and a “good doggles!”
Over time, she’s stopped trying to knock off the Doggles, and she knows that we call her a good dog when she wears them. We’ve also had her wear the Doggles for longer periods of time, with head pats and the occasional piece of kibble for reinforcement.
Now, after about a week of this, ahem, very intense training, Ella is ready to ride:
Good Doggles, Ella the Hack Hound!
More pics of Ella w/bike please and with out bike is great too. Would like to try more of our dogs in the hack but I think Jerri is afraid. Not sure of what or why.
We have 7 dogs and I’m hopin one of them will love to ride. Years ago I had a dog that loved to ride on the gas tank of a two wheeler. Dog learned to lean into turns and learned where to be on the tank when we did off road also.
The dog learned how to lean into turns? That’s awesome! Talk about a kodak moment
Will definitely have more pics of Ella. Especially as the weather gets nicer and we get all of us out on the bike more and more.
With Ella, using food and our stock of encouragement commands has been a big help. She’s even starting to get into the sidecar on her own now, whereas before I’d have to pick her up and set her inside.
The dogs may just need time to adjust. Something we did with Ella that helped, is that I would take her on walks, and we’d spend time literally just walking around the motorcycle. It helped her see that “Dad” was okay with this thing, so she could be too.