Jogging with dogs
Okay, so everyone who jogs with their dog, share your method for having everyone hooked up and moving forward and not yanking you in all directions. I've been jogging with my dogs plenty of times, but today they were particularly annoying. On the plus side, I got an excellent upper body workout. On the downside... it was annoying as all hell. I had them wearing easywalk harnesses, attached to a coupler, and I held the leash in my hand. I know I need a better system than that, but I haven't decided exactly what to do. Tips?
@brada1878 - I know you jog with lots of dogs, how do you do it?
@brada1878 - I know you jog with lots of dogs, how do you do it?
Comments
Belts can be pricey, but in this situation you want to invest in quality.
All my dogs respond very well to a certain voice I use only when they are about to do something I don't like. It's a step down from the "You are in BIG trouble!" voice and is more of a "you'd better watch yourself" tone. If I for some reason decide to jog with any of the dogs, if they start doing something that'll throw me or one of the others off then I say that dog's name then say "Leave It." That almost always works and gets us right on track quickly.
As for the leads, I don't have a fancy attachment thing. I normally (if I've only got one dog with me) will hold the lead or run the loop through my belt. I almost always have a pack on and if I want to drop more than one lead I'll buckle those through some of the straps on the pack. That way they aren't in my way but are still very easily within reach so I can grab them all if I need to.
I don't use a coupler so that the dogs can maneuver around if they need to. Conker for example has a bad habit of crossing in front of me very quickly and closely and if I had the Girls attaches together I'd probably run into them as I tried to avoid smashing Conker.
I don't ever start out jogging right off the bat either. Walking normally then briskly then finally jogging if I'm going to do it so that the dogs don't flip out as soon as we leave the house.
Jen
Generally I only jog with Bella (Nola HATES running/jogging). And I just hold her leash in my hand. She very rarely pulls, especially once she realizes that we are not going to stop at every good smelling spot.
I have taught my girls the difference between business walks/runs and pleasure walks. They know that when we are on a mission, that they keep going, no matter how awesome that squirrel looks or how great that tree over there smells. They also both know the "lets go" command.
You may want to work on both Rakka and Sosuke separately. Get each of them used to jogging at a specific pace with you before you run with them together. And ditch the coupler. That just makes things so much more complicated, at least for me.
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@McYogi - I prefer them to jog in front of me, so that if they slow down, I can sort of come up the rear and nudge them to keep going. If they're beside me, I get yanked to the side.
My main issue is that they both want to be smelling the ground constantly. My other problem is that while Rakka likes to run out in front, Sosuke prefers to run right beside me. When I run on the paths in off-leash areas, Sosuke comes and runs beside me. If he's in front of me, he's constantly looking back. I really want them to run in front, though, because when Sosuke's old enough, I'd like to scooter with them together, and I've always felt that it would be much easier to train a dog to pull in canicross or canimarching (walking) than to start out with a rig because it teaches them to match your pace and keep the line tight rather than to just run like crazy. I found this article that says that, too. Naturally, I will be switching from easywalk harnesses to pulling harnesses, but I'll have to train them a "whoa" command before I hook them up with *just* a pulling harness, lest they pull me into oncoming traffic or some such horrible thing.
I should also note that my jogging is alternating between walking and jogging and it's pretty slow. I'm doing a couch to 5K thing, but really slowly because I'm also conditioning my feet for barefoot running, and I'm also building strength slowly to prevent ligament injury (I had some issues during my three pregnancies and I'm somewhat high risk for that). I started back in January and hit a snag immediately with I got plantar fasciitis right off the bat (which is why I switched to barefoot) so I'm having a really slow start. So, anyway, this is pretty slow-paced "jogging." I'm slow to begin with. That's why I played rugby (before all those concussions made it unsafe). I'm just good at pushing people over, I can't move very quickly, lol. (Off topic: I just realized that this is the longest I've gone without being pregnant since I got married. Better not jinx it...)
I think I will just train like canicross, since that's what I want and there are a lot of sites out there that go over canicross (and other mushing sports) training. I will have to take one dog at a time for a while, though, that's one thing I realized. If I want them to actually be trained and doing something specific, I have to put a little more effort into this, lol. I will work with Rakka first, since she's responsible for most of the yanking. I don't like to run Sosuke on the pavement too much anyway, because he's still just a pup, and I've decided to give Rakka and extended break from the dog run since our last visit, in which she was particularly bitchy. So, canicross with Rakka in the morning, dog run with Sosuke later on.
@brada1878 - anchor dog! That's a good idea. I don't suppose Noah will let me get a mastiff to help with jogging, lol.
And @hondru - YAY for barefoot running! Are you actually running barefoot, or with barefoot shoes? I started running after my surgery with Merrell's barefoot shoes (Pace Glove). And I LOVE it! I am not sure that I could go actual barefoot, though... The ground is gross. :-/
I've found that jogging barefoot is a lot easier than with shoes. With shoes I get all clunky and it's painful so that's why I never liked to do it. But barefoot I can jog all over the place and not crash my knees so I just might pick it up as an actual activity.
I hike barefoot too. That is a lot of fun but don't do what I did and go tromping through poison oak/ivy with no shoes on. I didn't react to it but I washed off real good so maybe that's what saved me.
I want to get a pair of barefoot shoes for around town and on pavement/asphalt since it tends to have nasty stuff on it but I haven't been able to find a retailer around me that sells them. I've got weird feet so I can't just order online. I need to try them on first.
One thing I really like, though, is walking with the kids to the playground and then running laps around the field while they play. The grass is nice to run on and we all get some nice outdoor time. The pups come along and run laps with me, so we all get the right amount of exercise, which is really tricky with adults, dogs, and children all together because they all have different exercise needs. I'm getting my kids into barefoot, too, because it really helps their feet develop good, sturdy muscles. Of course, it's not hard to talk them into it, they love being barefoot. Especially when Mommy's doing it.
My one big rule for going anywhere during the day with a dog is if it's too hot for my feet it's too hot for the dogs. I'd rather not have their pads get burnt because I was wearing shoes and didn't notice.
How do the dogs do if squirrels run past the dogs?
I may buy some "real" barefoot shoes some day, but I seem to have a pathological inability to buy anything I can MacGyver out of a bunch of junk. Although, I do tend to spend a lot of time with the trial-and-error of all this experimentation!
Speaking of that... I put together a jogging leash/belt thing. I had the belt from a treat bag I bought, which I always clip onto my pants, so I don't use the belt. I added to that the padding that came from my kurgo quantum leash, which I took off because I found it too cumbersome. Then, I attached a bungie I bought at Canadian Tire, which has a carabiner on each end, and to that I attached a coupler as an additional bit of leash. So, with that, I have a padded belt with shock-absorbing leash. Ta-da!