Started running between 1.5-3.5 miles with my dog recently and her paw pads seem to be wearing a bit not sure if it’s normal any advice is appreciated!

She loves the trails!

My sweet aussie and I went for a run today. She is fairly new to running but has picked it up extremely quickly. She follows what I say and has almost learned how to keep the flow going on a run instead of trying to stop every 3 feet. About a mile into our run today (through our neighborhood) I noticed a woman in a lawn chair sitting in her yard. As we ran past her house, I heard this loud growl and turn to see a big ass American bully looking dog running full speed towards my dog. My first instinct was to grab my dogs vest, throw her behind me, throw my arm out towards the dog and yell "STOP" very aggressively. I must have scared it because it stopped. This all happened within like 3 seconds. It took the woman nearly 15 to get her ass out of the chair and come down to the road where she nonchalantly said "come here" to the dog. She had to say it multiple times while I just stood there with my arm out, still on the defensive and in disbelief. After a few times, the dog turned around and walked back up to her. She also turned and just went back to sitting in her chair. I had a million thoughts fly through my mind on what I wanted to say but I was frozen. So, I just turned, and started walking away with my dog.

I'm still angry at myself I didn't say anything but I truly had a "fight" reaction to the dog and once the threat was gone I wanted to get the hell out of there.

Which leads me to my question, has anyone had something similar happen? And if so, how did you deter it for next time? Should I carry some type of pepper spray?

We live in a city with a medium to high energy dog and want to start taking him on runs with us as a way to exercise him and also instill some greater confidence as he is generally nervous of the loud city sounds. I'd like to bring a chew toy or something similar to engage him at street crossings when he tends to get nervous. Does anyone have a recommendation for a dog toy that is easy enough to carry on a run? Or any success doing something similar while running with your dog in the city?

Trail was mostly loose sand and I think that tired us both out more then we expected!

Anyone got recommendations for a hyper packable, small dog bowl that could fit in a pocket, like the one on the back of my handheld bottle?

A ziplock bag would work OK, but it'd spring a leak pretty fast and be wasteful.

Anyone else’s pup occasionally jump up while running and if paused or sees an open grassy area get zoomies?

I posted a few long weeks ago about my dog / running buddy having to have his toe amputated because of osteomyelitis. It's been a long road to recovery and Jimmy has not been happy during it.

I don't know if you know many poodles, but they're pretty set. He hates to be left home. Once, during his convalescence, I went running, came home and took him out to do his outside time and he literally ran away from home, up the road - in a cone - heavily bandaged. It was sad.

He's been bummed and full of energy and grumpy, but also a little limpy. Today I figured we would try and he was game. We made 5 miles and he's doing fine.

This is a huge relief for me because I was worried I was going to have to get a puppy to motivate him and I don't want a puppy.

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Anyone know what the silver fasteners are called (circled in red) and where I could find them?

Hello dog runners!

I have recently bought the best canicross arness and belt I've found for my GSP and started running with her. She's very high energy, loves to run, loves to pull, but when we reach an uphill (the moment I really need her to pull!) she sort of notice I'm going slower and start walking.

It doesn't seems like she's exhausted or anything. Maybe she thinks "okay he's going slow - guess it's walking time now" or something?

Anyone had this problem? Should I just imprint a stronger pull-command (she hasn't full grasped it yet I think) to use in those circumstances?

Julian California

Like the title says, what is the best canicross harness for standard poodles? I have a spoo who is somewhat hard to fit due to his lanky-but-deep-chested body type. His regular harness is the Petsafe 3 In 1 but I want to start training him to do canicross and don’t know which brands to try. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!

TLDR: my super athlete dog hates running with me and I don’t know how to make him like it.

My 5yo dog (boxer/lab mix) is about as athletic as they come. He competes in dock diving at the highest level, can play fetch non stop, runs faster than any dog I have seen other than greyhounds, is super lean, and muscular as hell. I used to take him on runs with me a few years ago and he never really loved it, just seemed to tolerate it. I recently got back into running, and thought it would be fun for us to train for a half marathon together. I’m only able to do about 2 miles at an 11/12 minute pace right now, so I thought we could work our mileage up together since i know sprinting doesn’t necessarily translate to long-distance endurance for him. I have gotten him to go on a couple runs with me, but sometimes he stops in the middle of the run or he refuses to even start running and sinks to the ground and drags me home. Sometimes he’s genuinely scared of a beeping noise or something (he’s a super anxious guy) and sometimes I swear he’s just faking so he doesn’t have to run with me. For a dog that needs as much exercise as he does, I really think this could be a great way for us both to get exercise in together. I always make sure it’s cool outside so he doesn’t overheat.

I’m not sure if he hates running as slow as me or what, but he really just isn’t into it. He also hates going on walks most of the time because he doesn’t like being on a leash, so maybe that has something to do with it. He’s off leash trained and really the only thing he wants to do is go to the park to play fetch or swim. I’ll only run with him off-leash in remote areas, which I’m not in often since I live in a big city, so I haven’t tested that recently. He pulls me quite a lot when he does run with me (which is awesome because my pace is great when he does that) so I was thinking of getting him a canicross harness, but I don’t want to invest in that if he’s still going to not like running.

Any tips? I don’t want to force him to do something he just doesn’t like, but it’s so hard to give up the idea of having him as my running buddy - he’s the perfect running dog! I’ve tried running him directly to parks where we play fetch and that seems to help, but there’s only so many parks and I don’t think that’s a sustainable solution for upping mileage later. He’s not food motivated in the slightest so that’s also not going to be a solution.

Hi all! I am in the process of deciding what breed to get (will get a dog in a year or so, I hope), but I am struggling to find the «right breed».

I had a Golden Retriever before but he was very lazy. He had that behavior from when we got him. He didnt like runs and he wasnt eager to fetch either.

For my new dog, I would like a breed that is active. I am a frequent runner, both alone and with friends, and would like to bring my furry friend along. I also tend to spend a lot of time outside the house, being active. I would live in an apartment, but with enough space inside and outside for activities (I have the forest right outside). I want a breed that is medium/large sized, friendly towards others, soft coat, active and I wouldnt mind someone vocal.

Previously, I have been looking at Australian Shepherd or Boarder Collie, but I am afraid they would need too much training (mental and physical). Keep in mind I will be working 8 hours a day, both at work and from home.

I am aware I have some difficult requirements, but I open for suggestions, insight and experiences!

Thanks!!

Spring is finally here and ny best friend was so happy that she can finally go on a run again with me (instead of running away from me haha). We took it easy and she still had tons of energy left.

I have a 6 month malamute gsd mix. I've been doing some light interval jogging with him a couple of days a week. Can anyone tell me the best age to increase to full on jogging? We are currently jogging for a couple of minutes and then walking for twice the amount we ran and during this time I allow him to sniff. I just don't want to push him too hard and cause issues for him.