Cheyenne Porter sped along the brick contours of the Deschutes River Trail on a recumbent tricycle powered by a Labrador mix and her pet pit bull, Gypsy.

“I love it! Instead of her pulling on (a leash) and irritating me, I’m traveling at the speed of Gypsy!” Porter said after coming to an easy, disc-brake-aided stop in First Street Rapids Park.

“It’s such a natural high,” she said.

Yet any stop on the recumbent tricycle is short-lived; the dogs began whimpering with anticipation, pawing at the ground, eager for more. When she released the brakes, Porter and the recumbent bolted forward, catalyzed by pure puppy power.

Gypsy is one of innumerable large, active dogs who have benefited from Mark Schuette’s dog-powered scooters and pulling systems, which he began custom making in 2006. The Bend resident said he has sold around 1,000 units. The pulling system consists of an outrigger bar that attaches to both sides of a harnessed dog via carabiners. This outrigger can be attached to a variety of scooters and recumbent bikes. The recumbent tricycle Porter rode is a store-bought model to which Schuette bolted two dog-pulling systems. Dogs, situated behind the front wheel, can only move forward.

“You have precision steering over the dogs,” said Schuette, 65, who pulled up on his own scooter, powered by his panting, tail-wagging dog named Crash.

Porter, who’s 18 and homeless, particularly appreciates Schuette’s scooters, one of which she borrowed on this day. When she first saw him whizzing through downtown Bend, she flagged him down.

“I said, ‘That’s frickin’ awesome, man!’” recalled Porter, who had previously let Gypsy pull her on Rollerblades. “‘I got a dog. I wanna do it!’”

Since then, Schuette and Porter have become friends. He exercises her 5-year-old pit bull for at least one day each weekend. Borrowing dogs has become Schuette’s modus operandi. He exercises seven or eight dogs around town for free, the result of his Craigslist postings and the interest he generates among the people he passes on his dog-powered scooter. Often he needs a couple extra dogs, since his scooter’s zippiness is directly linked to how many dogs’ energy he’s harnessing.

He sells his dog-pulling systems and scooters through his online store www.dogpoweredscooter.com, where he currently offers two different scooters. One is handmade by a metal fabricator in Eugene that sells for $750. A $400 model, which is made in Taiwan, is a cheaper option. Both prices come before the cost of the dog-pulling systems, which are $200 each. For a bit extra, Schuette can also custom-make a pulling system for most store-bought recumbent tricycles. He said he sells one or two items a week. He’s looking for an investor so he can ramp up production. Customers from all over the country, Europe and South Africa have ordered them, he said. Around Bend, Schuette often sees medium to large dogs, tugging their slow-moving owners along on their leashes, who look like they might enjoy some “urban mushing,” by which dog-powered scootering is more commonly known. Sometimes, dog owners give it a shot.

John Morphey, who lives in St. Charles, Illinois, had just adopted a German shepherd from the parents of a newborn child. On walks, Morphey, 50, soon noticed how the dog, Zeus, liked to trot at a pace much faster than his own. He began thinking about the possibility of dog-powered scooters — and wondered whether he’d stumbled on a new invention — when he encountered Schuette’s website. After five telephone consultations with Schuette, he bought a scooter last year. Together with his dog, he watched so many dog-powered scootering videos on YouTube that by the time their own scooter arrived, Zeus knew what was in store.

“Mark doesn’t believe this story, but it’s true: When I put the harness on my dog, he puked from excitement,” he said. “And my dog doesn’t really puke.”

Each day Zeus pulls him for 4 miles along a trail.

“There’s not an ounce of fat on that dog,” he said. A retired debt collector, Morphey said he has begun K9 Trotter, a dog-walking business that utilizes Schuette’s scooter. It caters to the owners of large, pent-up dogs that dog walkers typically don’t want to walk. Morphey said he likes to record pedestrians’ reactions with a backward-facing GoPro camera when he speeds past them on his dog-powered scooter.

“Their jaws just drop. And then they smile,” he said, marveling how these dog-powered scooters haven’t gone mainstream.

“They should be in every Walmart in the world,” Morphey said.

Inventive ingenuity

Schuette has a background in architectural design with a specialization in solar-powered homes. As for the dog-powered scooters, he started with the cheapest design he could think of — a kid’s scooter with 10-inch bicycle wheels. He since has reworked the design which resembles that of a bicycle but features an elongated skateboard-like platform in the middle that a person stands on. Bicycles aren’t ideal because of the higher center of gravity, he said. Dogs, clipped in on either side, serve as ballasts that stabilize the scooter. Springs cushion the tension on the carabiners, which minimizes jarring. A scooter can accommodate a single dog, but one on each side is ideal. Schuette’s scooter design can fit as many as six dogs. Most dogs take to the harness and learn to not be afraid of the nearby wheel. For drivers, Schuette said the learning curve is about on par with that of mountain biking. Fresh dogs at full sprint can propel the scooter faster than 20 mph, he said. Schuette’s favorite place to ride is along the Deschutes River Trail.

“We pass mountain bikers,” he said.

A break from tradition

But Schuette maintains he’s not trying to revolutionize dog mushing with his scooters.

“I just knew there was a better way than having the dog out in front and out of control,” said Schuette, referring to the harness and reign system of traditional mushing that arranges dogs in front of the driver and vehicle. That system does work better on the snow, he said, where the sled driver steers the dogs with voice commands, but it’s impractical and perhaps dangerous in an urban setting.

Rachael Scdoris, who co-owns Oregon Trail of Dreams, a local dog-sledding company and has completed two Iditarods, said she respects that people like Schuette have found their niche. That’s something her father did years ago with offering traditional sled dog rides at Mt. Bachelor. Asked whether dog-powered scootering resides alongside traditional dog mushing, Scdoris declined to comment.

Schuette doesn’t mind; he already knows urban mushing exists in its own realm.

“(Traditional dog mushers are) already doing their thing and they’re not particularly interested in something that’s radically different, even though this would allow them to do their sport right here in town without snow,” he said.

The 30-year Bendite has not patented his designs because protecting them would be cost-prohibitive. He said he knows of several people across the globe who have copied his designs. He questions the quality of those copies, however.

Instead of taking legal action, Schuette would rather perfect his designs, get word out and run more dogs. As for ideal scooter dogs, Schuette said herding and hunting types are best, but it’s less a matter of breed than it is about a particular dog’s inherent love of pulling.

“You have to have a dog that loves to run. (These scooters) are great for aggressive dogs. With an aggressive dog on a leash, you have to have the weight and strength to control the dog,” Schuette said, mentioning how some people are mismatched with their dogs if they aren’t outdoorsy. “I’m proving that these active dogs are still useful.”

— Reporter: 541-617-7816, pmadsen@bendbulletin.com