Coast to Coast

~As submitted to the Dew Claw by Gabrielle LaRoche & Sonia Thompson

Pacific Northwest Briards were well represented at a Draft Clinic in Stanwood Washington, hosted by the Bernese Mountain Dog Club of Greater Seattle. The instructor was Canadian carting judge, Bernadette van Klaveren of British Columbia. Am/Can CH Déjà Vu Back Seat Driver RA, BN, CD, PT “Nash” attended the intermediate level class which was geared for those dog/human teams that are preparing to trial. Teams at the intermediate level were required to bring there own carts and harnesses. The class covered harnessing, hitching, tight turns, change of pace, back-up, halt, ignoring distractions and negotiating the narrows. The Meggitt's Heartsong Durango -"Ranger" attended the beginner level where the teams were introduced to the harness and cart for the first time. Sarah Kephart’s “Muse” audited the clinic as Sarah hopes to try carting with her when she is old enough to begin load bearing. The Bernese folks were great hosts and encouraged all of us to continue – remarking on the enviable drive and motivation exhibited by all the Briards. (If you are interested in learning about Drafting/Carting and a proposal to develop a program for the BCA, please contact ad hoc committee Chair, Gabrielle LaRoche at seabries@olypen.com.)

The Pacific Northwest has atleast 4 young Briards out charming everyone they meet. “ Zoe” goes everywhere with Louise & Mike Mueller from Bothell; she has been to puppy classes, has passed her Herding Instinct Test and goes to Rally classes. “Dominique”, originally from Sweden, also lives in the area north of Seattle, with Maria Soderquist. He goes to work everyday at a children's Special Education Center and has tried Rally, as well. “Muse” from Carol Wolfram's recent “Tessa” x “”Bono” litter joined Sarah Kephart's eclectic pack in Smokey Point. “Muse” is going to puppy classes and conformation training, as well as trying out rally. Keeping it all in the family, Sarah’s aunt Colleen McDaniel has a Briard too - a Deja Vu pup “Tag”.

And from the confirmation rings, Judy Meggitt's Heartsong Durango -"Ranger" went Best of Breed over Ch Briardale's Camille Lebec – “Elle” on Saturday at the March Seattle K.C. show. On Sunday, “Elle” beat “Ranger”.

So You Think You Might Like Carting....

Ever since I first read about briards carting in Diane McLeroth's book, The Briard, I have been captivated by the idea. As I recall, there is a charming picture of black briard pulling a cart much like this antique farm cart (top left) that I found while searching Craig's list for a cart for Nash. This cart dates to the end of the last century and comes from France. Carts like this were pulled by large dogs and tranported children and groceries to and from the market along county roads.

During my earlier briarding years I lived in Alaska where both weather and road conditions disuaded me from pursuing carting. For those years I had to be content with skijoring - a sport where the dog is in a sled pulling harness that is clipped to a hip belt on the cross-county skier.

In November, a new trail was opened that runs along an old railroad grade for 6 miles into downtown Port Townsend. It took only one walk on this trail to re-kindle my interest in carting. Since then I have been researching carting club rules - the Bouvier des Flandres Club, the American Rottweiler Club and the Bernese Mountain Dog Club, to name a few - (BCA doesn't offer a carting test) and the various rigs. As with just about everything there is are several email groups you can join. The two that have been most helpful are Carting-L and chariotsofthedogs. There is also a local list seattledraftdogs but is is not active. We also have several briarders that have patiently answered all my questions, most notably Peggi Weymouth (above left in her RJWalsh sulky), Mary Weir and Caren Landis (her rig at right). There is also a book: Travel at the Speed of Dog by Darlette Ratschan available from her website. This book has a description of a variety of sulkies and their features.

I have narrowed my decision to one of the two dorsal hitch sulkies on the market: the Chalo sulky or the RJWalsh sulky. From the research that I have done, the dorsal hitch sulky is easier on the dog, easier to train and easier to manuever than the traditional carts and sulkies with two side shafts. Dorsal hitch sulkies are balanced so that the driver's weight slightly lifts the dog in its harness. Because a dog with less weight on its paws pulls more easily, dogs are able to cart in a dorsal hitch rig more often and less strenuously than they can in other carts.

Caren decided on the RJWalsh Springtail (above left) with brakes "because it was light, it had breaks and for our purposes, I did not see the issue of spending more money for a heavier model. I can toss this one in my expedition without issue, I can take it easily on my boat when we go away in the summer. I would break it down so as not to have it damage anything while underway." Peggi was lucky enough to find an RJWalsh Millenium Mini on the used market.

Chalo sulkies are made in Federal Way WA. RJWalsh sulkies are made in Australia. The positives about Chalo are that they are local and all the parts are mountain bike parts, so they are easy to find and replace....but then owners report that, "RJWalsh sulkies generally just don't break...and he is very good about standing behind his products." With the Aussie dollar what it is, even with shipping they are competitive in price.

For training and entry level work, many folks have recommended Wilczek Woodworks. They offer a starter kit and lots of information on their website. They do not, however, offer any single dorsal hitch rigs. If one were to start out with one of these rigs and then switch to a dorsal hitch rig, it would mean investing in two types of harnesses, which at $150 -200 for a dorsal is not an insignificant amount.

We are still conducting research and hoping to find a sulky on the used market. Click here to view Nash with a Chalo sulky. We'll be ring stewards at the Hurricane Ridge Kennel Club Carting Test April 4-5 and hope to know more after that. We'll let you know when we finalize our decision.