Running With Dogs (Not For The Impatient)

On this utterly perfect fall afternoon -- deep blue cloudless sky, achingly brilliant leaves, chilly fresh air -- I was out with just my foster dog Luke, giving him another end-of-the-day hike on a local path through the woods.  A young guy appeared down the path with his 5 month or so old Labby-houndy red-brown pup.  The guy was obviously trying to train the puppy to jog with him, on the paved recreation trail that runs for miles along Sligo Creek Park.

The pup caught sight of me and Luke, and hopeful curiosity perked up his floppy ears.  We were in the middle of a big grassy field and I was throwing Luke small bits of dog food, which he would have to run and sniff out of the grass.  Luke loves this game.  The guy kept jogging, his leash about 2 and a half feet long and held tightly in his right hand.  The pup kept looking back at Luke as his jogger-owner ran on down the path.

Luke and I cut through some woods on another path made by, no doubt, non-runners like me.  Luke sniffed a bunch of things:  holes in the ground, urine-marks made by other dogs, endless wildlife scents, who knows.  We made our way back to where the paved trail begins again.  As we started back to complete the curcuit on the paved path again, who showed up but the same jogger and puppy.  With the same determination, the runner was trying to keep his puppy running alongside him.  I have no way of knowing this, but he probably watches episode after episode of The Dog Whisperer and thinks this is what you do to become "the pack leader."  I trotted Luke off the trail a bit, him willing to follow; I'd been playing games with the treat-toss thing a lot on this walk, and he thought it was a pretty good deal for him.  So as not to torment the jogger-pup, I had Luke face me and sit and wait.  As the guy tried to pass us, his pup was so clearly yearning to sniff something, if not meet Luke, straining and looking, that his owner got annoyed and lightly kicked the back of his pup's butt, and said, "let's go."

The pup wasn't having any more, and started bucking and fighting against his tight leash.  The owner stopped and rubbed the sweat off his brow with his arm.

I couldn't help but say, "He looks like he's having such a great time."  This could have started a small battle of words, I realize.  Or it could have ended with the guy changing his technique.

The runner just looked at me.  Didn't say a word.  Gathered up his resolve, and started running again.

For anyone who would like to know a better way to begin running with a dog -- from a health standpoint (vets recommend that dogs should be at least 18 months before you start seriously running with them) to a behavior standpoint (puppies have more important agendas than jogging -- namely, exploring their environments and socializing), I highly recommend this wonderful article I found on the topic, just tonight.  It was an easy Google search.

Here it is:

http://www.dogsincanada.com/running-with-dogs-seven-steps-for-safe-jogging