Running with Dogs | How Maggie & I Saved a Bulldog

Yesterday was day two of running with the dogs.  I was a little nervous about how it would go because it was fairly warm.  Maggie, like her mama, doesn’t do well in heat.  But I am determined to get them exercising on a regular basis, so off we went.

We started out the same as Sunday.  Pete and Maggie were both weaving back and forth.  It took them a while to get into the swing of it.  Of course, the boys pulled ahead in no time.  I could tell that Maggie was taking it a little slower.  She also had a lot more slobber this time.  I mean, to the point that she shook her head and the slimy foam went flying everywhere ala Hooch. (You know, as in Turner and Hooch.  Please tell me you know Turner and Hooch.)

We were a couple of blocks from home and there was a barking dog in its back yard.  Maggie started flipping around and yipping at it.  Just as we made it past that house, I heard some shouting.  “No!”  “Moses, no!” “MOSES!” I did not know who Moses was, but I recognized the tone in the voice.  Panic rising to the level of hysteria.  Moses was a dog, he was loose, and he was heading for the busy street.

I slowed my pace and shouted at my husband to stop.  I looked behind me in the direction of the yells, and sure enough, here was this big, white bulldog barreling straight towards us.  Of course, we were on the opposite side of the street.  Luckily there were no cars close by, but two were approaching.

I got a tight grip on Maggie’s leash and ran out into the street, waving my arms like a crazy person to make sure that the drivers saw us.  The one time I’m not wearing bright, reflective clothing is obviously the one time I’m going to have to run into the middle of the street.  Moses ran to us to say hello.  All I could do was hope that Maggie didn’t freak out on him.  She’s so squirrely around other dogs, and you never know how she might react.  She does not take kindly to other dogs’ noses near her butt.  At a very minimum, I expected barking.

As Moses greeted Maggie, I grabbed his collar.  That was my first priority – stop him from going anywhere else.  My second priority was to try to keep them separated, or at least avoid a fight.  Man, was he strong and solid.  He really wanted to sniff her, and there wasn’t much I could do to keep them apart.  I tried walking them over to the sidewalk, but we didn’t get very far.  I can just imagine what we looked like!  Me bent halfway over with my right hand on his collar, while I had my left hand raised up to tighten the leash and keep Maggie away from him.

All of this took place in a matter of seconds.  I doubt we were even standing there for thirty seconds.  His owner ran over, thanked us, put a leash on him, and we all made it safely to the other sidewalk.  As Moses walked off, I looked down at Maggie, amazed.  She was still just sitting there quietly.  I don’t know if it was the exercise, or whether she could tell another canine was in trouble and needed help, but I was very proud of how she responded.  We waited for the cars to pass and took off to catch up with the boys.

Pete was in top form again, running way too fast for me to stay up with them.  Maggie and I just took our time.  We even got to the point where there was some slack in the leash.  That never happens.  We made it the rest of the way without incident…well, except for Pete slamming on the brakes to take a pee right on the sidewalk.  We even made it past a very crowded Waffle Cone Wednesday with no crazy barks from Maggie.  There was even a small dog that started barking at us, but she just looked in that direction for a split second and paid no mind.

We went back out tonight, and it was totally uneventful.  That is, except for Pete unexpectedly lunging for a squirrel and nearly flying head over heels.  I looked up just as his butt was coming back down out of the air.

In case you’re keeping track, that’s three successful runs, and one successful bulldog rescue.  I’d say that’s a pretty good record so far.

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) ————–>

Border Collie + Beagle = Crazy

 I thought I would start a series of posts that provide a little more insight into who I am and what I do outside of blogging.  I figured I would start by introducing you to my dog, Maggie.  That’s her to the left.  I know the title gave it away, but she’s a border collie beagle mix.  She’s insane.  Sometimes she looks and acts exactly like a border collie.  Other times she looks and acts exactly like a beagle.

When I first got Maggie, I also had two cats.  I thought everyone would get along swimmingly.  The cats had been around dogs before and basically ignored them.  I realized about 2 minutes after bringing Maggie home that the reason for that is because the dogs basically ignored them.  Maggie – not so much.  Her border collie herding instinct immediately kicked in.  This little puppy, barely bigger than one of my cats, immediately thought they belonged on top of the kitchen cabinets.  From that day forward, the cats basically lived on top of those kitchen cabinets (although I can just imagine how they tormented Maggie when she was in her cage during the day).  Any time one of them moved, Maggie would race over to the cabinets, leap at them, and bite at their tails if they were close enough.

The cats now live with my mom (not entirely because of Maggie’s behavior towards them), but that doesn’t stop her from going crazy.  These days, Maggie thinks her job is protecting our house from people, dogs, squirrels and cats.  If you are one of those creatures, don’t even think about walking by our house.  Maggie will show you all kinds of crazy.  She barks non-stop.  She runs from the sunroom, up to a bedroom, and back down again.  She throws her body at the windows.  She will not stop until the “threat” is out of her sight.  You don’t even want to know how she behaves on a walk.

We are trying to do our best to break her of this habit, but it’s slow going.  I know all of our neighbors think she’s nuts.  She has the ability to learn because we have been able to teach her all sorts of tricks.  Unfortunately she wants nothing to do with “stop” or “quiet.”  We need help.  It would be great if we could get on “It’s Me Or The Dog.”  We could definitely use Victoria’s help.

Despite all of the crazy, she is very sweet.  (See right).  She loves to lay with us and keep us warm.  She is very pretty and soft.  Sometimes she will sing with us.  She hates to have her picture taken.  She hears whenever I take the cap off the camera lens and will immediately change positions or stop doing what ever cute thing she was doing.  It’s very strange.

There’s your introduction to Maggie.  She may very well be the subject of future posts because sometimes she does the strangest things that make for good comedy.