Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Can a dog be too old to train?


Not that I think 5 is too old .......... So, I have decided that for some of my running one of my dogs needs to come too. While we live in a great house on a great street, when you have to run many miles per week this means that you may need to run somewhere not right near your house. And I'm always weary of people and what they are doing. So, I figure that if I take a dog with me I'll be safer ... smart thinking? Never mind that she's a golden retriever. Who cares about the part where if someone tries to get us, she'll just lick them to death.

Anyway, when we got our dogs, we stupidly never taught them to heel. People in their early 20's should realize that eventually you will need your dogs to behave. So when G (short for Georgia) and I go running, she is sniffing this, checking out that and quite frequently cutting in front of me, nearly causing a butt on collision between her butt and one of my knees. This is a major obstacle to how much we can get done, mostly because of my frustration level.

I recently had the idea to buy one of the super short leashes in an attempt to overcome this "training" hurdle for the both of us. Well on Sunday, we gave the new short leash a shot. G was not a big fan of it for probably about a mile. She kept jumping around, biting it, etc. Again with the frustration level. Eventually she got the drift and realized that if we were to keep going she was going to need to stay right beside me and pretty much just deal with it. I have to say that once she settled in, she was a real trooper. We put in three miles in about 18 degrees. I am proud to say that I am the more fit of the two as I had to prod her along through the second half of the run. I'm going with the fact that this is new to her as to why she slowed up. It couldn't possibly be her age for in dog years her and I are very similar in age....... What a great time to train for a half-marathon together. :)

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