I’ve been thinking about starting to run with Rogue on a regular basis. I’m not sure about running through my town with her because of the crazy dogs that come out of their backyards and surprise you… but when I’m running the prairie path trail having her along would be nice for sure.
So on Monday I picked up a Gentle Leader harness. Rogue is notorious for pulling during the first mile on walks and I knew she would pull me when running – at least in the beginning of the run. I had also been considering a Gentle Leader head collar. I just couldn’t get my head wrapped around something holding her mouth shut when she’s panting (i.e. sweating). I know the product claims the dog can breathe and drink with it on but there is just something about it. I also didn’t like that it didn’t connect to her collar either. So I went with the harness.
The morning of the run, I took her with me to drop Dan off at school. Can you say excited? Oh she was thrilled to be going somewhere at that time. Even sat pretty in the backseat. lol!
Now, I already knew she could be a royal pain in the ass on walks – getting tangled in her leash, crossing in front of me, stopping in front of me to sniff something and having me trip over her, crapping right on the sidewalk about a half block from our front door after she just went right before we left the house, pulling me over to a bench to rest and my favorite… just plain stopping in the middle of the sidewalk and deciding she isn’t going to go any farther. She can really wimp out on longer walks (anything over 4 miles and sometimes not even is long for her).
But at the speed I run that’s really still a walk for her maybe a slow trot. There is no hard running. There is no fast running. Just an easy dog trot. She should be able to do a few miles, right?
Um… can you say candy ass?
Teasing aside, our run ended up working out better than I thought it would. With the harness, I was able to pull her back or to the side easily without breaking my stride. I was also able to keep her at a decent pace where she wasn’t too crazy running ahead – think first .5 mile. Holding the leash didn’t bother my hands or my arms either. Bonus!
The only problem I really had is she wanted to run on my left side and not my right. Every time I tried to put her on my right, she’d trot ahead of me, end up right in front of me and then drift off to the left of me. I found it easier for her to run on my left actually. But when I pass people (meaning people coming towards me not me actually passing anyone going in the same direction. LOL!) having her on my left could cause problems.
But for our first adventure, we only ran into three people – two were walking dogs and one was just a runner. When we passed the first dog person, Rogue still had energy to try and sniff towards the other dog. A gentle tug was all she needed to get moving forward again which was nice. No excessive pulling. But after that… well there was no more sniffing anything as she was more focused on just trying to keep moving forward.
Around 1.5 miles, I could tell she was starting to drift. She was no longer running a little ahead and to the left but now she was trotting along side of me. I started walking briefly to see if she would walk but she didn’t really. She kept up her slow trot so I just started running again. But at mile 2.8, Rogue was done. She was now running behind me. I didn’t even know that was possible.
I stopped and pulled her over to the side thinking she might just have to go which she did. After she peed she started trotting ahead of me again so I thought maybe we could run 4 miles. But once she saw that I started running again, she stopped cold in the middle of the path and looked up at me. “Um… what the hell do you think you’re doing?” was written all over her face. There would be no more running today. lol!
After 3 miles and a quick drink…Rogue was ready to go home.
And once we got home… it was time for an immediate nap.
After a bit of a rest, she was back to tell me how much she enjoyed our run together and can’t wait to do it again.
