In early 2009, I pitched and sold a magazine feature article about Van and Bobaji (the sidecar dog), whom we “met” when I first posted photos of Lilly in a motorcycle sidecar back in October 2008. I’ve posted a couple of their videos before. You can see many of them on YouTube, just search on “vanschannel”. Well, the article on them was originally slated to run in May 2009, then in July 2009, but it finally ran in the current issue of Fido Friendly (Sept-Oct 2009). Savvy readers will understand what took some of the shine off my excitement with a quick glimpse of the cover.
I seriously almost threw up when I saw He Who Shall Not Be Named smiling at me from my mailbox. Still … the article got through editing with only a few cuts for space reasons. Isn’t Bo just the cutest thing in his sidecar?
So that the edited parts do not go to waste, I thought you would be interested in how exactly Van got Bo to ride well in the sidecar and a few other details.
DOG SIDECAR SAFETY
Frederick modified the sidecar specifically for Bo. He took out the human seat and added a layer of cushions so that Bo sits lower inside the sidecar. He built aninternal, padded structure for Bo to lean against. Bo does wear goggles to protect his eyes for high-speed travel and sometimes wears a coat if it’s chilly, but he does not wear a seatbelt, which worries American Humane Association’s Animal Protection Services. “We do applaud the human-animal bond side of what he is doing, but we also have definite concerns,” says Elaine Wood, recommending a combination of stay training and safety restraint.
“If you can’t get your animal in the sidecar without restraint,” counters Frederick, “then you shouldn’t be on the road with that animal in a sidecar. In a collision, the instinct of the dog is to get out ofthe way, and that’s what he needs to do. He needs to get clear. That’s true forpeople too. That’s why they don’t have restraints to keep motorcyclists in the seat.”
For safety’s sake, Frederick rarely takes major highways because other drivers do crazy things trying to get photos of this big, happy dog motoring along.
ROAD STORIES
Traffic is not always easy going. One time, it took them an hour and a half to go one block in NYC. But, Bo never tires, never worries. “He’s a work dog … ,” Fredericksays. “To this dog activity is life. It could be jumping as high as he can to catch a Frisbee because he likes to show off or sitting next to me in the sidecar being filmed all day because he wants to be doing what I’m doing.”
Having Bo around helps Frederick’s stress-level too. Once, the truck that pulls their RV broke down on Exit 14A of the New Jersey turnpike, headed toward the Holland Tunnel. “I spent six hours trying to figureout what was wrong,” Frederick says. “It was a nonstop nightmare, and people were looking at me mighty strange when Bo and I set out with the sidecar.”
“Bo was a trooper,” Frederick says. “He’s a seasoned traveler. He’s seen a lot of road. Nothing bothers him.”
MEAL TIME
The only drawback comes at mealtime since few restaurants allow dogs, even on patios. Bo has a rock-solid stay and would never leave the sidecar without Frederick or go with a stranger, so Frederick can go inside to grab a meal. He always parks where he keep an eye. “Nothing bad has ever happened,” he says, “but I worry about it all the time.”
My husband can NOT see this. Seriously, he would have our dog in a sidecar within a day.
We just returned from our 18-day vacation. I found in my email a note from Van about Bobaji’s passing…how very sad for Van, but I’m happy your article came out and maybe it will help Van heal from the loss of his really special friend.
I’ll be catching up with all your posts I missed while we were gone.
Please pardon any weirdness in the formatting of the post. I pasted some of the feature’s text into my blog software, and Word + Blog can mean messy paragraph breaks, word breaks, etc.