[nagdu] Jogging with my dog

Tamara Smith-Kinney tamara.8024 at comcast.net
Sat May 28 15:07:23 UTC 2011


Hey, Ally.

I do some jogging with Mitzi, and it's pretty fun.  I try to pick places
with nice soft ground since taking a header onto cement or pavement is not
my idea of a good time.  /smile/  Since our road of certain doom has gotten
even busier and more dangerous, I haven't been able to get to the park
regularly, so I am considering whether I want to try it over here on
pavement...  I'm feeling kind of chicken about that, though.

When she was a pup, I would practice jogging a bit on the nice turf at the
park while she was playing.  She thought that was pretty cool and would run
ahead of me excitedly.  /smile/  So I could laugh and praise her for that.
I could also use her for orientation by listening to her bell.  So as she
grew up, we got better at it, and she will zig zag in front of me, keeping
me on course by sound.  If she has her squeaky ball, she will give a squeak
as she crosses my line of travel to keep me oriented or to get me straight
again if I start to veer.  She takes great delight in doing this and it
works well for me.  /smile/  Also, she can get her wild energy out by
running like a maniac while I do my little old scaredy lady jog and laugh at
her antics.  So this is my preferred method of jogging with her when I have
a place to do that.

I then taught her to leash guide while I jogged, using a Halti to keep a
rein on the wildness.  At first she thought this cramped her style horribly,
but now she has great fun pulling ahead of me and guiding me around stuff,
so I usually do that from the parking lot to the dog park area when I get a
ride across the street to the park.  It's very exhilarating running behind
her with my dog park cane waving in the air, since there are obstacles for
her to lead me around.  She's very good at it, though.

So when I was ready to start jogging with her in harness, all I had to do
was pick up my feet in places where her natural go was motivating her
anyway, and we learned to jog together that way.  I use my sport harness for
that, since it has a lot of freedom of movement while giving good
communication.  I haven't tried it yet in the newer Laveau style harness,
since that's my Sunday go ta meetin' harness and I don't want to get it all
grubby at the park.

Anyway, I don't know if any of that is helpful for you to teach your dog to
jog with you when he's in harness.  I like using exposure to new activities
with Mitzi by doing it with my cane when she's along and developing a
command set for it and using the clicker to capture the behaviors I want
from her when I'm doing whatever it is.  It seems to work well with her.

Good luck.  Eight miles would take a long time at a walk.  Also, it would do
me in.  You're a fitter woman than I, that's for sure!  /grin/

Tami Smith-Kinney

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Ally Matt
Sent: Friday, May 27, 2011 4:01 PM
To: nagdu at nfbnet.org
Subject: [nagdu] Jogging with my dog

Hi Everyone,

I am wondering if anyone jogs/runs with their guide dog? I walk a ton with
my dog, in fact, we walked 8 miles recently. It took a long time to walk
that far, so I have been thinking about trying to start jogging, but my dog
seems to have one pace. He walks very fast, but I have a hard time
encouraging him to jog with me. He seems to be hesitant to do that in
harness. Does anyone have experience with this and have any tips?

Thanks,

Ally and Allstar

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