Running With Dogs

We own a couple of pretty neurotic hyper dogs.  We know that exercise will help them behave better.  We talk about it all the time.  “We really need to get a pass to the dog park.” “We should really start walking them more.” “We should try running with them.”  Yet every week passes and we do none of those things.

They have really been atrocious the last few weeks.  They try to “protect” us from everything that goes by the front window, including other dogs, cats, squirrels, and the occasional piece of trash floating by (you know how dangerous trash can be).  As Spring nears and the temperature rises, we again discussed getting them outside.

Pete loves to walk.  He prances around with this big grin on his face.  Maggie, on the other hand, is so embarrassing.  She barks the entire time, but not normal barking.  Oh, no. That would be too easy.  No, she uses her high-pitched, shrill, “everyone look, my mommy is killing me” bark.  I know that it must echo for a five block radius.  She walks on her back legs.  She dives at the ground and rolls around to try to get the Gentle Leader off her face.  And she foams at the mouth.  That’s right.  It looks like she has rabies (or what I imagine a dog who has rabies to look like).  When we get home, her eyes are all bloodshot from tugging so hard, even though the Leader goes around her nose.

She’s such an anxious dog, she just doesn’t enjoy walking.  But we feel bad leaving her home if we take Pete.  We’ve talked about running with Pete ever since we got him.  He’s fast, and he’s strong.  We figured he could handle a few miles.  Maggie, maybe not so much. She’s also fast (not as fast as he is), but she always acts like she is dying after a mile long walk.  We get home and she huffs and puffs and lays around for the rest of the evening.  That is, after she drinks too much water too quickly and vomits everywhere.

We talked about it last night and decided we would just go for it this morning.  We were only running 4 miles and we could drop them off after two.  There is no excuse for us not getting them out.  I mean, how selfish are we that we run 20-30 miles a week but can’t take the dogs out?  We are bad dog parents.

We got up this morning and got ourselves ready.  There was no real game plan.  I decided I would take Maggie, even though the last time we ran together (over two years ago), she knocked me over and I fell flat on my face.  Since Pete is faster, I figured he would be a better fit with my husband.  We got them all harnessed up and we were ready to go.

We’d barely left the driveway and Maggie was already weaving back and forth in front of me.  I finally got her situated on my left side.  Pete took off like he always does, ears flapping in the wind, huge grin on his face. (For those of you who don’t think dogs smile, I can assure you that they do).  Maggie was yipping like she normally does, but not as loudly.  She decided to run along the sidewalk while I stayed in the street.  We hadn’t even made it two blocks when we came upon a dog in a yard.  He sort of growled at us. Oh, no, I thought.  Here we go.

Maggie did not even notice him.  No acknowledgement.  She just kept right on running.  I was stunned.  If we had been walking, she would have lunged at the dog, choked herself, and barked for the next three blocks.  I was beginning to think this just might work.

Around a half a mile, Pete and my husband were pulling ahead of us.  Maggie looked up and saw them and tried to speed ahead.  It was really pretty cute.  Unfortunately, I could not run that fast.  It already seemed like we were sprinting.  We took a short walking break around a mile.  We couldn’t believe how well everyone was doing.  Except for the humans, anyway.  The dogs were running about 20-30 seconds per mile faster than we usually run.  It was a good thing we planned to drop them off after only 2 miles.

At about a mile and half, Pete saw some squirrels he really wanted to go after.  Maggie saw him, and decided she better go after the squirrels too.  We made it past without anyone getting hurt (me included). When we were almost home, Maggie decided it was now time to dive into vegetation and try to get the Leader off.  We had a couple of instances were she ran on one side of a post and I ran on the other, and we bounced back at the end of the leash.  Again, everyone stayed upright.

As we neared our street, I tried to pick up the pace so Maggie and Pete could finish together.  I was pretty impressed with their athletic skills.  We dropped them off and headed back out for the last two miles, discussing how well that went considering what our walks are usually like.  Maggie didn’t have time to be anxious, and may have actually enjoyed herself.  There was never a question about Pete.  Now we have no excuses for not exercising them.  They can come with us on our runs, and I think as time goes by, they will be able to go farther.  Which will be a good thing, considering they weren’t even tired the rest of the day! (What we were hoping for, but did not achieve) ————–>