CockersOnline Forum
Cocker Activities => Other Activities => Topic started by: JackieT on January 10, 2015, 12:01:21 PM
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Do lots of people on here run with their dogs?
I've just started running with Ziggy and it is brilliant. Today I ran with him and my 10 year old daughter. We would never have gone out running before we had Ziggy - one of the reasons for getting him was encouraging us all to enjoy the beautiful countryside around us and it is really working. I'm so pleased. Yet another reason why getting Ziggy is the best family decision we've ever made.
Ziggy really seems to enjoy it too. We are running on traills in our local woods off lead. Is there anything I ought to be aware of or are we ok as long as we stick to the guidelines for how long to walk him? (To be honest, there seems zero chance of our runs even tiring him out, he's far, far better than us, and he probably runs twice the distance!)
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Hi there. How old is Ziggy? We have just started running with Maggie, she is almost one and just loves it! She gets so excited (even more so than for her walk) when she sees the running gear on.
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Hi there. How old is Ziggy? We have just started running with Maggie, she is almost one and just loves it! She gets so excited (even more so than for her walk) when she sees the running gear on.
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I would be very wary of running with Ziggy at his age, even if you stick to the 5 minutes exercise per month of age. Puppy exercise shouldn't be relentless or flat out, but should give him the chance to run if he wants to (not just to keep up with your running) and just lollop about and sniff and play and be a puppy. Puppies don't have an off switch and will keep going far longer than is safe for their developing bodies. Ziggy's growth plates won't have closed yet and you risk damaging them and his joints.
A year or so ago I used to regularly meet a woman out jogging with her young working Cocker puppy. Now she jogs on her own and walks the Cocker separately and sedately. I don't know her and haven't asked, but I can see the Cocker doesn't move completely soundly.
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Thanks Elaine. I'll bear that in mind.
I do stick to the 5 minutes rule when we run, and he gets lots of stops at the moment because I'm not a good runner and I've not really run properly for more than a year, so I need to stop a lot. Plus I'm trying to do it with my daughter and she's only 10 and a complete novice, so I'm more worried its not a good enough walk for him really. He's a worker and he's very fast, so more often than not he sprints off ahead, then has a sniff around while he waits for us to catch him :005: :005:
I'm hoping to improve though, and thought we could build up as he gets older, so I will keep an eye on the breaks he gets if I do get better. I kind of see it as a slower run that I could do just running on my own because there are always going to be wee/poo/play to other dogs stops anyway, but he does seem to enjoy it. He's a w05:
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I started jogging with Loki when he was a little older than Ziggy is, and now he runs up to 5km with me (just over 1 year old) once a week at parkrun, and maybe once or twice upto 2.5km during the week. He loves it and recognises the running belt and lead when he sees them.
Watch him carefully as he is very young and could easily overdo it.
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Ziggy is off lead when we are running. He tends to sprint a bit then stop/sniff/side track a bit while he waits for me to catch him, then runs again, pretty much the same as he does when I'm walking, except he doesn't veer off as far into the woods on either side of the track because I am moving faster, if that makes sense.
I hope it's ok - would imagine running on a road where he was on a lead and had to run at a constant pace for the whole time would be worse because it would be a harder surface and because he wouldn't get to stop when he wanted to (see some dogs doing that locally).
I appreciate that he will keep going longer than he should given half the chance though so I will make sure I keep a really close eye on what we are doing.
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I tried running with my two off lead the other day, kiwi is fine and will run alongside sensibly, but Lilly tries to run under my feet! ??? no better on lead! I need to teach Lilly some spacial awareness! :005: