Lily shreds tailside.
November 20, 2011 10:23 PM   Subscribe

 
Oh man, seeing a tiny dog take a double jump was pretty impressive, though the whole time I was thinking of how many close calls there was in just that short video, I can't imagine the dog hasn't been run over a bunch of times by accident.
posted by mathowie at 10:30 PM on November 20, 2011 [6 favorites]


In the comments the rider mentions they've spent some training time teaching the dog to keep some distance. I love watching dogs do stuff they love. So joyous!
posted by dog food sugar at 10:36 PM on November 20, 2011 [1 favorite]


I stumbled across this yesterday, and have watched it 5 times.

That is all.
posted by lazaruslong at 10:40 PM on November 20, 2011 [1 favorite]


I heard they went through like 5 dogs making that video...

KIDDING!!! Cool/fun video and amazing doggie!
posted by LordSludge at 10:48 PM on November 20, 2011


Perfect for a late lazy Sunday night.
posted by mannequito at 10:53 PM on November 20, 2011


They did this with a cat, too, but with a heating duct instead of a mountain bike.
posted by jimmythefish at 10:55 PM on November 20, 2011 [12 favorites]


Very cool. Love her air over the double.
They need to mount a GoPro on the handle of her harness!
Cool/weird to see pinkbike on the blue (and the front page of reddit I gather)
posted by Jazz.bot at 11:01 PM on November 20, 2011


Plus truly impressive rock carry by Lily at the end...
posted by Cocodrillo at 11:04 PM on November 20, 2011 [3 favorites]


Running!!!!!
posted by wemayfreeze at 11:15 PM on November 20, 2011


All hail hero dog Lily! She must have a little nuclear reactor in there to keep her going so fast for that long.
posted by Kevin Street at 11:50 PM on November 20, 2011


I wish I could do that with my dog but I feel like he'd get distracted and run off to chase a deer.
posted by littlesq at 12:01 AM on November 21, 2011


Also, this video made me go to Amazon and buy the The Naked And Famous album. So thanks (saying this non sarcastically).
posted by littlesq at 12:04 AM on November 21, 2011 [1 favorite]


I was going to comment on this Lily's intelligence, but I see Lily made her own comment at the end of the video when she was wrestling with a rock.
posted by Brent Parker at 12:33 AM on November 21, 2011 [2 favorites]


I was thinking of how many close calls there was in just that short video, I can't imagine the dog hasn't been run over a bunch of times by accident.

I'm not so sure. Short of him slamming on the brakes directly in front of her, which is going to require something highly unusual, is she really very likely to come in contact with the bike? The braking capability of a dog is pretty astonishing (ever seen one run into a cat around a corner? Fried gold) and it's going to be massively better than that of a guy falling off his bike. I don't think the video ever looks like she's about to run under the wheels. The claim that she is trained to avoid the bike seems pretty convincing to me.

The video is a great example of the differing capabilities of different species. Lily is so much better adapted to the task in every respect, and it's quite awe inspiring to see. On the other hand, the slow clumsy apes have produced a device that essentially eliminates all of that huge evolutionary edge. It's an old observation, but this is a wonderful new illustration of it.
posted by howfar at 1:59 AM on November 21, 2011 [5 favorites]


I don't think Lily has a plan for when she catches the bike, though.
posted by ooga_booga at 2:44 AM on November 21, 2011 [3 favorites]


I am filled with joy + wondering how I can get my awesome-but-lazy lapdog to try this...
posted by mochapickle at 2:48 AM on November 21, 2011


Cool vid. Could scarcely see the string at all.
posted by flabdablet at 3:31 AM on November 21, 2011 [3 favorites]


I tried this once with one of my wolfhounds. It didn't end well. He was bigger than me, faster than me and got distracted by a rabbit. He side swiped the bike, I ate dirt and broke a couple of ribs.

Pro-tip: If you're going to get a dog to chase you, make sure it's either a very small one or a very smart one. Large and dumb isn't a good combo.
posted by tim_in_oz at 3:50 AM on November 21, 2011 [16 favorites]


Some dogs are really f-ing good at this. They have some kind of weird sixth sense about avoiding the bike. It always freaks me out to ride with them, especially when you're hauling ass through trees and they are flying back and forth across the trail, but you have to somehow blot them out of your mind and ride normally.

My dogs: not so much.
posted by unSane at 4:36 AM on November 21, 2011 [1 favorite]


Yeah. I was a little nervous about what was going to happen in the first half of the video, but the dog seemed to know how to hang with the bike without getting too close. Looks like the rider gets run off the high side of the ramp at 1:50 in the video, though I'm not sure whether or not it was because he was trying to maintain distance from the dog.
posted by ardgedee at 4:54 AM on November 21, 2011


I bet he saves a bundle never having to have Lily's toenails clipped.
posted by digsrus at 4:59 AM on November 21, 2011 [2 favorites]


Awesome but I couldn't take the music so about 40 seconds in I substituted what you say, which worked perfectly imagining the rider as Dre and Eminem as Lily.
posted by cashman at 5:50 AM on November 21, 2011


littlesq: "I wish I could do that with my dog but I feel like he'd get distracted and run off to chase a deer"

Chase a deer, you say?
posted by benzo8 at 5:51 AM on November 21, 2011 [12 favorites]


It's amazing how true the Wadsworth Constant is.
posted by CarlRossi at 6:23 AM on November 21, 2011 [4 favorites]


Now that's how I like to start my day -- with some pure doggie cuteness and biking! Thanks, allkindsoftime.
posted by LuckySeven~ at 6:31 AM on November 21, 2011


Chase a deer, you say?

Benson! Benson! Benson!
Oh, JESUS CHRIST.

Hang on. Was it benzo? Is somebody a dog?
posted by likeso at 6:44 AM on November 21, 2011 [1 favorite]


The claim that she is trained to avoid the bike seems pretty convincing to me.

Granted, they aren't born able to not run into objects... but that is something they tend to pick up on their own.

So, not so much "trained" as "acquainted with the dangers of".
posted by IAmBroom at 7:01 AM on November 21, 2011


benzo8. the best part of that is the fervor with which the man chases his dog, as if he stood a chance of keeping up.

The dog will run until tired. No amount of angry shouting is going to subvert 100 ky of neogeny selection in domesticated wolves.

Ironically, humans can outwalk dogs (it's the one thing we do better than almost every other species on earth: nonstop, terrestrial, self-powered motion). He will overcome his dog, if he keeps after it. But not by running.
posted by IAmBroom at 7:11 AM on November 21, 2011 [1 favorite]


It's been just about a year since my parents had to put Corky down, who (like Lily looks to be) was a rat terrier. Coincidentally his ashes are about ten miles from where this video was filmed, in his prime squirrel-hunting and snowmobiler-barking territory. Thanks for this - a nice reminder of what he was like in his younger days, when he could really just TEAR SHIT UP ALL RAT TERRIER STYLE.
posted by amy lecteur at 7:13 AM on November 21, 2011 [5 favorites]


The dog is of course awesome, incredible, adorable and hilarious - but man, the camera work was superb. Mostly still shots, but the depth of field and screen composition were totally sweet. And the closing shot, with Lily trotting along, looking up at the cyclist, really, really cool.
posted by Xoebe at 7:18 AM on November 21, 2011 [1 favorite]


Sweet. Very appreciated after reading the morning's news.
posted by doctornemo at 7:18 AM on November 21, 2011


The best part is surely how exhausted and naptime-ready Lily is when she gets home. Little bitty prancey delighted dogs are hard work to tucker out every day.
posted by elizardbits at 7:21 AM on November 21, 2011 [2 favorites]


She looks very similar to our Dali. And now I want a mountain bike.
posted by supercres at 7:31 AM on November 21, 2011


You said tailside!
posted by heyho at 8:06 AM on November 21, 2011


We have log haired whippets, live in Boise and ride with them daily. Being zipped by a knobbie teaches them to respect the bike quickly. Other than that, it isn't much different than running with a pack of dogs.
posted by rotifer at 8:32 AM on November 21, 2011


Super cool. And super adorable dog. Looked like some pretty ride-able sections that guy was walking, though. :/
posted by HighTechUnderpants at 8:33 AM on November 21, 2011


She must have a little nuclear reactor in there to keep her going so fast for that long.

The comments say she is a Jack Russell, but she has a build almost identical to my rat terrier, and I can assure you, nuclear power has nothing on the Terrier Zoom.

It's an amazing thing to witness; the first time I saw my dog do it was about the third time we had taken him to the dog park. Up until then he had just trotted and "ran" with our friends great dane. Then, one day, he saw another terrier, and they started chasing one another, and his running took on a whole new aspect. His body seemed to drop a couple of inches closer to the ground and there was a noticeable blurring to his movement (which I naturally attributed to him breaking the sound barrier). Their sprint took a slow left hand turn and eventually the parabolic arc of movement was pointed directly back at us, and all I remember seeing was his face, ears all akimbo, tongue flapping wildly, as his little body moved at me like a small furry grinning missile.

Fortunately, he passed me by a few feet. Because I'm pretty sure if he'd hit me, it would have gone straight through like a warhead.

Terriers are filled with manic energy, and seem happiest somewhere between Mach 1 and 2.
posted by quin at 8:56 AM on November 21, 2011 [13 favorites]


> Looked like some pretty ride-able sections that guy was walking, though. :/

The insane terrier energy would not have been as dramatic without opening shots of the dog trot-circling the bike as it was walked down a path.
posted by komara at 9:02 AM on November 21, 2011


I had a little runt of a mutant "smooth haired" rat terrier growing up.

That dog might have only been 10 inches tall but man was she fast. She had the same running style as Lily, somewhere between a mad scramble and hypersonic ground hugging cruise missile.

Besides a complete inability to play fetch - she would go get a ball that you threw, but would then just run around with it and never give it back - my greatest disappointment was that she wasn't big enough to tow me on a skateboard.

Though, considering she got hit twice by cars (and survived) after getting out and chasing them that's probably for the best.

Tangential: my local bike shop has a giant doofus of a rottweiler that occasionally spazzes out and suddenly starts attacking any slow rolling bicycle tires in the vicinity. It's kind of hard to ride when you've got a 100 pound dog chewing on your front tire and shaking it like a chew toy.
posted by loquacious at 9:37 AM on November 21, 2011 [2 favorites]


Wonderful video.

I've got something of a mental block when it comes to riding with our standard poodle. My wife does it and has no problems, but I keep having flashes of running him over. I should really try to get over it, maybe do some reading on strategies.

Luckily we get to go hiking, which he also loves. :)
posted by Celsius1414 at 9:47 AM on November 21, 2011


If the filming process for that video is similar to that of Survivorman, each stationary shot was traversed at least three times: one to put the camera in position, one for filming, and one last pass to retrieve the camera (depending on whether you are filming an approaching shot or retreating shot, the order varies but it's always three passes).

Not sure whether Lily waited or did extra laps while the camera was being set up, though.
posted by ceribus peribus at 10:13 AM on November 21, 2011


Yeah yeah, cute dog. Sadly all it does is remind me of the nimwitted idiots who let their dogs off leash in ON LEASH trail areas though. Let me assure you that the average dog is waaaay worse at keeping the hell out of the way of a moving bike than Lily here.
posted by Go Banana at 10:14 AM on November 21, 2011


Very fun!
posted by OmieWise at 10:18 AM on November 21, 2011


I used to do this with our Bichon when I was about 12. We lived literally across the street from a farm and I would ride my bike up and down the dirt tractor roads with this prissy little lap dog outpacing me every step of the way. She would run inches from my left side, race forward, swing around the front of the bike, and then run along the right side. She absolutely loved running with the bike and would bark and scratch at the window if we left on the bike without her.
posted by backseatpilot at 10:40 AM on November 21, 2011 [1 favorite]


I love rat terriers and riding bikes. This video is awesome.

My rat terrier is the progeny of a bonded pair that my uncle keeps outside in a few acres dedicated to raising free range chicken and goats. The dogs ignore their crate and live in a hole they dug in the ground. They rule the place, they will run at Mach 3 looking for rats, and the will leap over big ass goats like they had solid rocket bosters on their hind legs. Every morning they present my uncle with 4 or 10 rats killed that night. These are the happiest dogs i know.
posted by Ayn Rand and God at 10:43 AM on November 21, 2011 [6 favorites]


>If the filming process for that video is similar to that of Survivorman, each stationary shot was traversed at least three times: one to put the camera in position, one for filming, and one last pass to retrieve the camera (depending on whether you are filming an approaching shot or retreating shot, the order varies but it's always three passes).<

I’m a biker (an old slow one) and I can’t really watch biking videos people make without thinking about that. You’re not really watching a ride at all, it’s a series of set shots edited together. It’s a movie depicting a ride, not film of a ride. Unless there were a ton of cameras and crew out there.
posted by bongo_x at 11:07 AM on November 21, 2011


Can someone do a "Cat looks disdainfully at a mountain bike, casually licks a paw, and then saunters off for a kip"?

That'd be far funnier.
posted by Decani at 11:45 AM on November 21, 2011


It’s a movie depicting a ride, not film of a ride.

I've done a few of these multi-angle MTB videos (example shot from about five angles) and the way I did it was to ride the trail over and over again, swapping angles each time. Where you have stationary shots involved it gets a bit more complicated, and it's much easier when you have lift assist, but the end result does give you a pretty accurate (if idealized) idea of what riding the trail is like.
posted by unSane at 12:07 PM on November 21, 2011


Loved Lily catching air at 1:55! :D
posted by darkstar at 12:33 PM on November 21, 2011


>but the end result does give you a pretty accurate (if idealized) idea of what riding the trail is like<

Absolutely, and it’s great for educational purposes and I enjoy them on that level. I’m always put off though by the guys who post "check out my ride I did Saturday". I’m thinking "you didn’t do a ride, you spent Saturday making a movie about bikes".
posted by bongo_x at 1:44 PM on November 21, 2011 [1 favorite]


Most of my videos are single take helmet cam like this one from Fruita which are absolutely the ride.
posted by unSane at 3:09 PM on November 21, 2011 [1 favorite]


That was awesome. I have the ski equivalent of this dog (also: 1,2,3). She's mostly good about staying away from skis, but has caught an edge once or twice.
posted by bumpkin at 10:02 PM on November 21, 2011 [1 favorite]


likeso: "Hang on. Was it benzo? Is somebody a dog?"

On the Internet, no-one knows you're a dog.
posted by benzo8 at 12:48 AM on November 22, 2011


"Wait for me, you fucker. I just want a ride!"
posted by stormpooper at 3:52 AM on November 22, 2011 [1 favorite]


Run, Lily, run!

That was cool.
posted by puddinghead at 4:04 PM on November 22, 2011


Many hands make light work
posted by homunculus at 11:16 AM on November 25, 2011 [2 favorites]


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