{"id":120,"date":"2007-08-08T12:15:41","date_gmt":"2007-08-08T19:15:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/daryllafferty.com\/blog\/?p=120"},"modified":"2007-09-27T19:08:21","modified_gmt":"2007-09-28T02:08:21","slug":"the-springer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/daryllafferty.com\/blog\/2007\/08\/08\/the-springer\/","title":{"rendered":"The Springer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A few weeks ago I tried to take Apollo for a run on my bicycle.  I had one hand holding the leash, and the other on the handlebars.<\/p>\n<p>Everything went fine until he saw a cat (or dog, or bird &#8212; I never knew what it was for sure).  He took off running, pulling me off flat onto the pavement.  I held on, but paid for it with a skinned knee, elbow, shoulder and hands.  It could have been worse, as my helmet bonked hard against the pavement, but the helmet absorbed the shock and my head wasn&#8217;t hurt at all.<\/p>\n<p>That ended the bike-with-leash-in-hand experiment.<\/p>\n<p>So I did some research on the web, and discovered &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/springerusa.com\">The Springer<\/a>&#8220;.  It&#8217;s an attachment that bolts on to the bicycle frame just below the seat.  The dog is harnessed to this through a strong spring.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/daryllafferty.com\/blog\/wp-images\/Springer 2.jpg\" alt=\"Apollo on the Springer\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The attachment below the center of mass of the bike-and-rider, and the spring to absorb shocks, gives the rider complete control.  I was quite surprised, but even if Apollo sees a dog or cat and lunges towards it, it&#8217;s just a gentle pull on the bike that I can easily control.  The assembly just next to the pedal means that he can&#8217;t bump into my foot.  He learned quickly to cooperate with me, and loves to go for a run.<\/p>\n<p>Watch the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=FTumMfS7KPI\">Springer promotional video.<\/a>  The first part is exactly what happened to me when I was trying to hold the leash in my hand.  The next part, where the German Shepard is lunging away from the calmly riding bike rider is accurate too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A few weeks ago I tried to take Apollo for a run on my bicycle. I had one hand holding the leash, and the other on the handlebars. Everything went fine until he saw a cat (or dog, or bird &#8212; I never knew what it was for sure). He took off running, pulling me [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-computers","category-family-updates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/daryllafferty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/daryllafferty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/daryllafferty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daryllafferty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daryllafferty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/daryllafferty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/daryllafferty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daryllafferty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daryllafferty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}