Sometimes you just have to lace up your shoes, leash up your pup, and beat the crap out of yourself on a long run.

I've been thinking about volunteering to run a dog or two a few days a week from the animal shelter. It's been awhile since I've handled dogs and I'm new to running them. I want to learn how to do it right, how to keep me and the dog safe, hydrated, and how to come prepared? How do you know if the dog is up for the distance and when to turn around? Thankfully there's a 6 mile trail loop right next to the shelter so I wouldn't need to drive them or bring them in a car.

She ran 6 miles!!!! She crushed it!!

I use a harness + bungee leash + running belt combo with my dog at the moment and it works great however, sometimes I want more control since we run in an urban area. The bungee leash does not give me much control as it is so stretchy.

I was wondering if anyone has any recommendations on maybe another bungee leash that has a traffic handle built in if that exists? Maybe a grab tab on their collar?

I was thinking a collar grab tab would be annoying for her when we are running though.

I was going down the trail/park with my dogs and this woman comes down “jogging” with her off lead Doxies who ran straight up to my dogs as they were running. My GSD quickly corrected them without leaving as much as a tear on their collar and the Doxies freaked out and went back to their owner. The lady proceeded to call my GSD vicious and I yelled back saying that it was her fault and my dogs were minding their business. Thankfully there was an officer on patrol nearby who saw the incident and gave the lady a ticket, for having her dogs off lead and said mine didn’t do anything wrong, but the entitlement of that lady was crazy, especially considering I had to shave a mile off my run since I had to be logged in for work at a certain time. Running with your dogs around your local parks shouldn’t have to be so hard.

My husband and I have wanted a dog for a long time, but life finally feels settled enough to do it. I am a trail runner so having a running dog who can do at least some of my miles with me is important. The husband wants a low shedding dog. I stopped and talked to all of the cool dogos I meet on the trails. Our short list is whippet, any sight hound or mix, GSP, ridgeback, malinois (might shed too much). We live in Southern California where it’s warm a lot of the time. I had a Weimaraner 15 years ago. Such a good dog, but couldn’t handle the heat. I also temporarily took care of a husky mix and similarly he could not run if it was over 70. Besides cool mixes of assorted origins, the only dog breed I see running long distances is the ridgeback. They seem to be built for endurance, low shedding and heat tolerant. I would prefer a dog more medium sized but they are beautiful. I grew up with mastiffs so I can handle big but I always think if it got bit or injured, I could carry a whippet out. I’d struggle with a big ridgeback. My best hope is to find a mix of one of these breeds, but I’d love to hear opinions.

I have an Australian Shepard and I live in Canada. It gets cold here in the winter time and I’m looking at getting her a winter jacket but I don’t know what to get or if she even needs one. I’m training her to run a half Mary so we will be outside for a while.

I am so proud of this little girl!

I have an aussie shepherd/border collie mix who loves to run with me but I can't seem to get a good fit on harnesses. She's deep chested but slender so they have been either too small around the neck, ride up under her armpits, or are just too big. I've tried the Ruffwear Front Range which was okay but it moved a lot and I think she was getting really hot in it. It also seemed like she didn't like it, it looked kind of stiff if that makes sense. I also tried the Howling Dog Distance harness but anytime she wasn't pulling it kept falling to the side and would make her really uncomfortable. The small seemed too big but and XS would be too small.

She pulls for the first mile or so but then eventually falls beside me. The Howling Dog was great when she pulled, not so much when she wasn't. Every so often she might run ahead but not full on pulling. She does try to go after squirrels occasionally which is why I want to stick with a harness and not a collar so I can pull her back without her choking. I think she prefers ones that don't have the padding on the back like the Front Range or at least ones that aren't so big back there. Any suggestions?

I have recently made huge progress in running with my working line Labrador retriever. We used to run a bit here and there but never as often and as long as we do now. Which now led me to reconsider using the halti while running. We’re still just running 5 kilometers (3 miles) 3-4 times a week but I’d like to work on increasing the distance slowly. I don’t love using the halti but my sweet boy is also a difficult boy. I would love trying carni cross and using harnesses but for now it is safer for us to use a halti and do a structured heel while running.

Some backstory as to why I use the halti: my dog was very difficult to handle until 6 months ago. He was fear reactive towards strangers who interacted with him, nervous around bigger dogs and pulled like crazy constantly. (He’s almost half my body weight) I spent thousands on trainers and vet bills trying to figure out what’s the problem but barely made any behavioral progress. 6 months ago he was finally diagnosed with hypersexuality, a massively enlarged prostate which caused near constant pain. He is neutered now and he is a completely different dog. He is much easier to handle and no longer reactive. But some insecurity and confidence issues remain which we are working on. There have been times where he got spooked and has taken me down, which caused me massive anxiety in handling him which is why I only really feel safe running with him using the halti / gentle leader. We also run in a pretty busy park in a city as i don’t have car atm. Now that we have increased the distance and duration of running intervals I fear the halti does not give him enough room to pant. (He does not pull during running and it’s in a perfect heel so it doesn’t harm him besides my worries about enough room to pant) - our runs used to not be long enough (we took many breaks) for him to need to pant properly) but now that we are running more I’d like to change the tool used. The distance (and temperature) we run now seems still okay for him as I have observed he only really opens his mouth to pant during the last 5 minutes on our run and then I just slow down.

But my worry is (due to his previous behavioral issues) that running with a harness isn’t safe as I cannot just avoid people and dogs in the park. I have had situations where an off leash dog charged us during a run and he jumped forward to get away. Without the halti he could have taken me down and I could have been injured, which scares me.

I am obviously working on training (well without other people/ dogs causing us issues he is always in a heel so training isnt really the issue) and I cannot change where we run at the moment since I’m currently in the process of getting my drivers license. Which leads me to being a bit lost on what to do now. I love running with him and I love how much progress we have made recently. I don’t want to stop running but I am worried a harness isn’t safe enough in the environment I have to run in.

Has anyone struggled with something similar or has some advice? My dog’s well being is the absolute most important thing for me and I would never do anything I felt would compromised his well being even if that meant not running with him. I also only use positive training methods and would not use aversive tools such as prong collars. They are actually illegal where I live.

We've finally cracked the code to settling our lab/husky Margot down!

Violet is a springer, she’s almost 1 year old. I read a while back that 18 months to 2 years is when you really want to start running with a dog. My question is, my easy run pace is around 9:40 ish per mile. Given that she is barely even trotting at that speed, would it be fine for her to join me for like a mile or two before dropping her back off at the house and finishing up, or should I wait another 6-7 months?

Today was Esme’s first training run with me as she hits a year old tomorrow. I did my normal 10K first, then picked her up and did a run with her. We started off moderately and she was at a canter beside me, then she understood the assignment and was, as Gandalf said, “showing me the meaning of haste”.

I’m over the moon at how well she took to it and I can’t wait to take her out again.

Hi! I am an ex runner and I want to get back into it and run with my 13 month old Doberman Kenai. We are separately working on his reactivity (not aggression, just wants to play and doesn’t realize how big and scary he is to others lol) since he is always on guard, does anyone have experience running with a reactive dog? I’m hoping a new form of exercise (running to run, not running to play) will stimulate him to the point where he isn’t fixating on a pedestrian or another dog.

I’m wondering if he’s too young to run longer periods continuously or if we should nail down his reactivity?

Mile ten of fifteen. We’re both just trying to ignore the political signs 😂😂

I hurt my back about 6 weeks ago so this is our first run in a while and it was so fun! Now that Aggie is almost 1yo I want to get her a Non Stop line harness so she's more comfortable

Would like to start running with my dog and compete in cannicross. She is about to turn one. Are there any recommendations for a workout? She will be new to running.

We adopted Esme here from a rescue charity when she was 8 weeks old and I’ve been patiently waiting for her to hit the 1 year mark so that she can start doing little runs with me. Her birthday is this week so on Tuesday we’ll be doing a little 500-750 metres on the lead and I CANNOT WAIT!

I run a ton and when we were considering dogs one of the boxes I hoped to tick was to find one that could come running with me. I think she’s going to love it!

I’ve got a belt and elasticated lead ready to go which we’ve used on a few walks to get her used to, but I’m sure there’ll still be a period of adaptation for us both.