Taking the dog for a decent walk with a toddler

[BitzerMaloneNotSkinnyOrBoney]

Can it be done?
At the moment our lovely lurcher gets a quick run before dd (nearly 2) gets up and usually another one after she's gone to bed. At the weekend I take him for a decent walk whilst dh looks after dd.
I'd love to be able to take him for a good length walk with dd but nowhere close by is particularly buggy friendly and she's not keen to be confined for long anyway.
I used to carry her in a sling or backcarrier but now she wants to be up and down all the time and it's a pain getting her in and out.

Any good tips?

Well, the good news is that we abandoned the pushchair at 2.2yrs - ds didn't use it after that. You do have to be prepared for walks that used to take an hour now lasting 2.5 - but our dog just did more sniffing around happily.

We also found a balance bike really useful - ds soon learned to go at a more reasonable pace than the children I've seen with stabilisers on small bikes (and the transition to a 'proper' bike without stabilisers was blissfully easy too). Get the right balance bike that's not too heavy and you can easily carry it up any hills. They don't need absolute flat either - ds coped with reasonably bumpy.

Mind you, our buggy went practically everywhere and through everything - including 6" mud and 18" long grass - perhaps you might be able to find a 2nd hand one like that for a few months?

If you go to the park, will your lurcher run for a ball etc? Just wondering if you can get your dog a bit of excercise without having to walk too much. Those ball launcher things can be used by even small children with some success.

Not so good if you have no lovely flat/ parkland near you, though.

Yes, we do the ball thing on a bit of field nearby and dd will potter around picking up sticks and dandelions etc. They are both happy with that but miss 'proper' walks iyswim.

Balance bike sounds interesting- could be worth a try and yes, I think we'll just have to take our time. I can't wait to ditch the buggy but Dd was a late walker and isn't as competent as others her age but I guess that will come with practice.

Sorry, that should say I miss proper walks!

God, I still stick dd in her buggy and just give her stuff to do/eat for an hour ish a day. She is 3.3 and would rather not, but I tell her it is important for the doggie (and me) to have a long walk.

Am I a crap mum?

Oh no, I just seem to have a knack of making things hard for myself! Plus a dd who whinges and moans for England in her buggy after 20 minutes-snacks or no snacks! Not much fun after I've dragged it up and down 10 millions steps(maybe slight exaggeration) just to get to the woods

Clearly not the right buggy then - by that stage I was simply pointing the buggy down the steps and letting it bounce down, just controlling speed - Ds loved it!

I'd second the balance bike. It might take her a few weeks to get the hang of it but they are brilliant. We don't have a dog but walk with GPs and their dog regularly and its the only way to both maintain a bit of momentum and to walk a good distance.

(get into good habits - get a helment and cycle gloves at the start - you'll feel really stupid to start with, but when your 2.5yo starts powering down the hill quicker than you can run and you see them fall off with their head inches from a big fence post, you'll be really thankful!)

sounds fun mistlethrush (both the buggy bumping and the balance biking down the hill!)
I will look into one-would you recommend the balance bike over one of those little scooters with 2 wheels at the front?

Ds2 (3 years old next week) has a scooter with two wheels at the back. He found it quite tough at first, but now speeds along on it. It's less useful for really rough ground, but for that we still use a trike for him (he's tiny for his age and too small for a bike with stabilisets). His trike has inflatable tyres and is great for walks. when he gets tired it is easy enough to push him too.

The benefit of the balance bike is that they're sitting down on it - and also that they get the hang of balancing properly - so that they have inbuilt stability when they get onto a 'proper' bike - they use their feet as stabilisers. I've actually see a child on a bike with stabilisers topple over and hit the ground when they were on a slope.... Yes, OK, ds has toppled over every now and then but he knows that it was because he pushed the bike over rather than blaming the bike for it!

Balance bikes come in a smaller size than bikes with stabilisers - so you can use them earlier. The trick is to get them to sit down but still walk along with their feet - takes a little bit of getting used to - ds started when he was only 18mo and it was quite slow going to start with - but he took off at about 2yo and it really sped the whole walking pace up. Ds also found it really helpful to watch another older child on their balance bike and copy them - but I don't think that that's essential.

Balance bikes also keep up a much better pace once the child gets the hang of it - and they seem to be able to tackle shallow slopes reasonably well compared to bikes with stabilisers

Oh - and the other thing, once they've got the hang of the balancing, its possible to push the child uphill by pushing their back - rather than having to lean down to the bike saddle which seems the only effective option with the stabilisers. Ds sometimes still gets a bit of a push up steeper hills now even though he has a decent bike now

Scooters are good - but we find our scooter is significantly less able to cope with the conditions in the park compared to the balance bike - even things that the bike was finding easily achievable, the scooter was struggling with. Even Ds has agreed that its not worth taking his scooter to the park with the dog - its either bike or walk now.

I found a balance bike to be an absolute godsend with DS - he started on it at 2 and is still using it (often in preference to his big-boy bike) at 4.2, and it makes it vastly easier to cover a decent amount of ground with the dogs. We've also recently started geocaching and he's much more enthusiastic about long walks in the woods or wherever if there's the prospect of treasure to be found! Plus it's helped us to discover loads of new walks we never knew existed!

So, just to update: we got dd a lovely little balance bike from decathlon (only £30) and the poor thing is so small for her age that her toes only just touch the ground even on the very lowest saddle setting!
Me thinks it will be a few months before we'll she'll get any use out of it