Running with Dogs

My husband the Half IM guru and I lost our Kelpie over a year ago, so we did a bit of research and we decided that a Dalmation would suit us as they are short coated (I am allergic to dogs), a good size for our fences (or so we thought) and would be able to go on long runs with us. The thought of going on a long run and having a dog as a training companion appeals to both of us.

So, we kept an eye out and we ended up with a giveaway 3yo dalmation called "Natti", we know now that she was named because she is scatty! She has been given away twice... Hence we knew that she must have behavioural problems, but we are brave souls. When we went to take a look at her she just about bowled us over and we hadn't even got out the back door! She was very pushy and bargy - certainly not the sort of dog you would have around toddlers! However, she was so friendly and lovely we decided to take her. Craig went to lead her out to the car and I must admit feeling a tad frightened - this dog was strong and she could PULL! She also managed to chew through one of our seat belts on the trip home, so she's a chewer too huh!

Some intensive training has taken place and she is now able to not jump all over us, her licking has stopped (did I mention the licking!). She is still a complete handful if you take her anywhere, but she is cerainly getting better. She has demolished every pair of thongs that were ever left outside our house, escaped from our fences too many times to mention, but overall she is a great dog who is becoming a loyal friend.

Our dream of having a running partner was realised this morning! I took her with me on my 45min easy run and she was an absolute dream. She ran with me at my right heel the whole way, she ran past other dogs and cars and cows and pigs and horses without causing me to fall flat on my face. Amazing! I was able to loop her lead rope end onto my arm and rest it in the crook of my elbow so it didn't interfere with my running technique and it offered her enough rope to run and not get yanked or tangled up. There were a couple of times where I talked to her to get her attention back if she was looking at a dog and running off course, etc, but overall she was brilliant. Being the fabulous dog trainer that I am I created a new command that we hadn't practiced - "move over" when a car is coming up so that she moves off the road and onto the grass. The first few times this happened I walked a few steps to make sure she was off the road and then we started running again, the last couple we were able to continue at the same pace with her moving over to our new found command, so she is picking it up really well. I could see her watching me the whole time and concentrating on where she should be, she really was doing great. She had a smile on her face for a long time afterwards.

My run was pretty good, HR around 150 the whole way. It was a very slow run, I'm not sure what pace it was but I expect it would have been 6:30min/kms or even perhaps a bit slower than that.