[Today’s run: 2 miles with the dog]
I’ve been running with the dog for the last three weeks.
We started out just going to the end of our road and back which is just a hair over one mile (by my estimate).
Twice now we have gone to the railroad tracks and back, just at two miles. Today we went even a little farther than that.
I had run with the dog a bit last winter but he did not like the gravel road that was my usual short route and I didn’t want to start over with shorter runs with him. But now we seem to be getting into a groove and getting along pretty well.
I have him on a rope that is about 15 feet long. When we first start out he wants to go much faster than I can go. By the time we have done 3/4ths of a mile we are more in sync. When he wants me to go faster he grabs the rope in his mouth and tries to pull me along. But that doesn’t work very well. Part of my job is to spool up and feed out the rope as necessary so that he doesn’t run over it.
Years ago we had a retired greyhound that I ran with quite a bit. It was just barely more than a trot for her. Then we had a great pyrenees and then a basset hound. Neither of those guys could do any running. This dog is a boxer. He has long legs and lots of energy. But he has a small head and I don’t think he does so well in the heat.
The good thing about running with the dog is that you are expected to get out there every day. If you don’t the dog will go wacko with too much energy around the house. That’s also the bad thing about running with a dog. If you don’t do it you will pay in other ways.
