Carting requires a mellow dog. By this I mean that the dog must not startle easily. Carting may look easy, but it is scary for a dog to have a noisy hard thing attached to him. It doesn't allow him to spin around or jump. He must be slowly introduced to it with much positive reinforcement. Once Gally got used to it behind him he didn't mind it much. He loves the attention and treats it gets him.

The cart should also not be overloaded. For a short distance the dog can probably pull his own weight (and that includes the weight of the cart itself). In these pictures the thermos is empty. For a long distance, like a parade, the dog should be pulling much less weight. When Gally is in a parade the only thing in his cart is a dressed up teddy bear. He is a strong athletic dog, but after a parade you can see that he is tired. Don't expect more from your dog than he is capable of.

The cart and harness were made by Dog Works.

Here are some links to good carting sites: