Is It Illegal To Walk Your Dog While Riding A Bike?

[plowter]

Saw a bloke in town yesterday. He was walking a husky-type dog on a lead while he (the bloke) was riding a bike. It was a busy city road, he was going quite fast and the dog was trotting rather than walking.

Has any offence been committed? Is this a normal way to train huskies?

[friedgreentomato]

No its not illegal, stupid but not illegal.

I have seen several Husky owners doing the same but they are on country roads.

[frugalfred]

Dog sees e.g. cat, lunges at it, man pulled off bike, gets run over by vehicle.
Daft.

[woofgang]

well the law says that you have to be in full control of a bike and also of a dog, so I guess the answer is "maybe"

[Frank97]

I never even considered that it might be illegal when I used to take my dog out for a run, was only on country lanes though, I wouldn't want to do it in town or on a main road.

[Frank97]

A similar thing happened to me, Fred, that's when I stopped doing it.

[plowter]

They train huskies with sleds in some of the forests over in Fife. Have nearly been run down a few times because they go down the trails pretty fast. The sleds have sleigh bells so you hear a rumble and some tinkling - sounds like you're being chased by a 20 stone pixie.

[mum2b]

probably not illegal but definitely not sensible.

the risks involved in doing this in such a busy area are numerous, a nice open field/park would have been better.

huskies by breed are capable of pulling heavy loads at speed, but this is usually as part of a pack and over snow. With that in mind, they do need a lot of exercise and should be taken out for a run/walk more than once a day

[Baldric]

A few years ago, one of our local Landlords used to do it with a large GSD,
it stopped after GSD 'took off' after something and Landlord landed on the tarmac face first.
GSD is long gone, the Scars haven't.

[wolf63]

Plowter - did this happen in Fife? Weird things are known to happen in Fife!

[plowter]

No wolf, it was Edinburgh. It's festival time so this didn't even register on the August scale of oddness.

I was always told that Fife is fine - so long as you stay within sight of the sea.

[FredPuli43]

If you are daft enough to do it with any breed, the husky, in its various forms, is it. It'll keep going longer than you will. Don't think it can be classified as cruel to do it with one, given that the animal has running like that for hours built into it, unless, of course, it is very young.

Not aware of any particular offence of failing to keep proper control of a pedal bike, but there may be one. There's Victorian legislation which has been held to cover bike riders ("riding furiously" comes to mind) which could conceivably cover it.

[ludwig]

It's probably illegal to try it with a cat.

[andrew1707]

@Plowter
I like
"I was always told that Fife is fine - so long as you stay within sight of the sea."

...so true!

[wolf63]

ludwig - no human is either that brave or that stupid.

[Baldric]

Depends which one is riding the Bike!

[weecalf]

I thought cyclists are now the owners of the road so why not bring the dog with you .

[EvianBaby]

I'm surprised you've never seen that before. Perhaps he's the sort of sensible pet owner who's actually got a well trained pet.

[EDDIE51]

I see a lady on a mobility scooter most days , she often has the dog on a lead trotting along beside her. In her case the only way the dog will get a walk.

[lankeela]

Not illegal provided you are in control - which in itself is a moot point. These have been used for many years and I know a lot of GSD people who use them. The husky people often exercise their dogs this way too, particularly the racing dogs. And just to correct something someone said above - huskies are not bred to pull heavy weights, they are the sprinters of the sled world whereas the heavier built Malamutes are the weight pulling breed. http://www.springeramerica.com/

[Butterbun]

Don't know about training huskies, but my neighbour takes his dog out for a run in the same way.