Running with DOG: How to start? (Read 174 times)

I think it's pretty cool that you have opened your home to this animal.  Not that it matters but where do you live?  Nevermind..  Holland.

I'm not a dog trainer.  I've been training my own retriever.  He's not old enough for distance but should be this coming summer.  You have your work cut out for you.  You both will likely need to work on mutual trust and quite a bit of leash work since she's never been on one.  Just be patient, consistent, and don't rush anything.

You might try a muzzle harness / leash.  Dog's don't especially like it, but it does make them easy to control no matter their size.  It also saves your arm from jerking the chain really hard to get their attention.

Just make sure you set the tone early on.  For the first few months assert your will and make the dog run at your side -- looking for cues from you -- rather than pulling from the front.  If you invest in the beginning you can have a really pleasant running partner.  If you just let him pull, it's always going to be a struggle.

If you do have an incorrigible puller, you can often just sprint to exhaust the dog early in the run to make them more pliable later.  Depending on the dog, this might be a short 400m sprint in 60sec, before they get the "RUNNING IS MY FAVORITE THING!" out of their mind.  Of course, a few miles later you might end up pulling him.

And yes, hope he's food-motivated.

Good luck.  Oh, and why from Holland get a dog from Croatia?  What's wrong with Dutch dogs?

A basic obedience class would be helpful. It would work to establish a relationship with the dog and give him some confidence.

I just bought a gentle gentle leader for our puppy. I put it on him for meals to get him used to it. I haven't used it for walking yet. I have used them on other dogs with some success. My older dog hated it and wouldn't even walk with it on.

Good luck

You’ve got great advice already. I particularly agree with Niko on starting slow with backyard walks, to learn what your dog reacts to, and what she tolerates.

I run with my dog, who’s a 25kg Labrador/pit bull/border collie? mix, also a rescue. When I first started running with him, I took it really slow and easy - basically built him up on a sort of doggie Couch-to-5k plan. He’d been in shelters for a couple of months, so I figured he hadn’t been getting a lot of exercise in that time. He lost about 3kg over the first 6 months we had him, but has now been steady for the last year.

My dog turned out to be a natural at distance running, so I can’t help you much on training advice. He was actually much better on the leash on a run than he was on a walk. Really, this is a training issue on my part – we’ve just fallen in to a pattern when he and I treat neighborhood walks as times he can dart about and stop and sniff and pee on everything, but he’s much more all business on runs. Without any actual training on my part, he caught on very quickly to anticipating my line, and he can just trot trot trot forever. We did ~25k yesterday. I use a leash that attaches around my waist, which I find very convenient, but it’s certainly not necessary. I do use a harness that attaches the leash on his back. If nothing else, I find it’s less likely to get tangled in his legs. The first kind of harness I had caused some chafing on him (he’s quite short-haired on his belly), but no problems at all with the one we’ve got now. So, you might have some trial and error to find one that works for you.

We do our runs first thing in the morning, and I don’t feed him breakfast until we get back, so he’s running on an empty stomach (I’ve actually heard it can be dangerous for dogs to run on full stomachs, but don’t know if this is true). I occasionally bring treats on very long runs, or on off-leash trail runs, but they’re rewards and motivators, not for calories. Water – well, it doesn’t get hot here, particularly at 6 in the morning, so my practice is probably quite specific to my climate, but I don’t really think about it until about 9 miles or so. Many city parks here have water fountains with a lower dog bowl, so usually we just use those – plus, I’ve learned all the stores and restaurants that have dog bowls out. I’ve also got a little collapsible bowl, so if my route doesn’t go past known dog bowls, I’ll take that on a long run and fill it from water fountains or my water bottle. Or on trail runs he’ll drink from creeks.

(MTA: in the pic in my profile, he’s wearing a cargo vest that I use occasionally for some long runs. Mostly, this is for runs when I know I’m not going to be anywhere near a garbage can – with the cargo vest, he can carry his own poop bags. Highly recommended!)

My dog sucks at tempo runs. I’ve barely done any since I’ve got him. I’m really just a plodder, but the few times I’ve tried to run faster with him have resulted in me basically dragging him. And he thinks hill repeats are crazy, resulting in the rare times I’ve believed he might actually be part border collie, when, after the third or so time up the hill, he starts running in front of me and trying to herd me back down. But just jogging along? He can go forever, and it makes him so happy.

We typically run on sidewalks ...which are full of distractions.  When we can, we run out in the street away from the side and it seems to help.  However I would like to work with her and get back to the sidewalks.

 

Anyone work thru a similar issue with their dog?

Fortunately, I run at 5:30 or 6 in the morning, and at that hour in my area, I can just run on the street.  On sections we do have to get on the sidewalk, our experience is similar to yours. Honestly, his sidewalk distractability is big argument for our early morning runs.  What I do is watch closely for when he's headed for something - I don't always catch it in advance, but more often than not, I can - and firmly say "Leave it," then a "Yes!" (which is our version of a clicker) as he gets back on track.  I combine "Leave it" with "Let's go" if I've missed it and he's already stopped.

I concur with not running your dog on a full stomach. My dog and I run 6 miles starting around 4:45 AM during the work week - no food for either of us before hand. Before our long run I feed her 1/2 her normal serving of food, wait 30-45 minutes then head out to the running trail (30 min away). I don't feed her during our long run no matter how long it is....but I also don't eat anything during my long runs either. I feed her remaining food + some extra food based on how far we've run when we get back home.

I've also taught her some verbal commands to use when we run. She knows

• left
• right
• straight
• cross (cross the street)
• Water (to make her drink water)
• stretch (basically a bow and her natural stretch motion I have her do a few times before and after the run. Probably doesn't do A LOT for her but I feel better about having her do it)
• Leave It ( THE most important command she knows)
• Turbo (Run as fast as the human can until she quits)
• Walk (for those occasional walk breaks)
• Run (Resume running)
• Merge (Move back over to the right hand side of the trail after we've run around someone or something).

Regarding the sidewalk vs road question - interesting. My thought has been that I will only run with her on the sidewalk. I'm hoping that if she every gets loose she would think sidewalks are the place to wander as opposed to wandering in the street and MAYBE it'll help save her from getting hit by a car. I definitely think she knows the difference between the sidewalk and the street. Sometimes I run off the sidewalk and into the street to avoid running into someone (or something) and she's very anxious to get back up on the sidewalk. Oh yes, and 2 more running related commands she knows - detour (get off the sidewalk and get on the side of the street) and Up (get back on the sidewalk).

Hi Everybody, thank you all for the advice!!

stadjak: This is a small country and fortunately dogs from the local shelters are usually reserved very quickly. We asked for a few ones but they were all taken. We have a lot of volunteer organisations here that rescue dogs from poor or dog-unfriendly countries such as Spain, Romania or Croatia.

NikoRosa: Thanks for all the great advice! Regarding water, the weather here is extremely humid, I never carry water even on 26 milers, but I wasn't sure about the canine physiology (hmm, that's something I will have to study). For now I will take it easy. 

I am currently doing a lot of homework in order to have everything prepared for her when she arrives and I will also have to train her to walk on the leash, but the foster has told us that she is extremely intelligent and even recommended to take her to agility so that I think that she will be extremely happy here, we have plenty of dog-friendly zones were we can run and even swim: the channels in this part of the country aren't more than knee deep and in the summer all the local dogs love to jump straight into them and cover themselves in a pile of mud... kinda local doggy tradition

Now I have to wait until 1 February for picking her up from her temporary fosters here in Holland...

I can't wait