Exercise My Dog

Run Spot Run - Jogging with Your Dog

You run regularly - or are about to start running again - and you have a fairly active dog. The combination is obvious - run with your dog!

And a great combination it is. You get your workout on. Your dog gets to work off energy and see the sights. You and Rover are spending quality time together. But before you just take off with dog in tow, please, consider the weather! I saw a jogger the other day with a long-hair dog in 84+ degree heat. I swear if they were running next to a puddle, I would have been really temped to drive through it. But seriously, dogs love to run and should but we have to remember that they are not the same as us!

You really shouldn’t run your dog in very warm weather.

• Either run her very early in the day or leave her at home.
• Dogs do not get rid of heat the way we do. Sweat cools our skin–for the most part, dog do not sweat. They have a few sweat glands in their feet, but mostly they dissipate heat through their paws and mouths. This means that dogs do not dissipate heat as fast as we can either.
• And don’t think, “well, he’s willing to run, he must be OK with the heat”. No! Many dogs will run themselves, even to the point of collapse, while they are having fun. Many just don’t know when to stop. Dogs can die from heat stroke.
• Lastly, searing hot asphalt is no good for your dogs paws.

See a lot more about running with your dog including breeds, age, and starting a routine.

On a side note, you should consider running with your pooch. Here are my “undocumented” benefits to running with the dog, especially in warmer weather.

• He is my excuse for running through every sprinkler on the way there and back.

DaBronx is quite a game dog and a tugger (I don’t claim to be the world’s best trainer, exercise is our thing), so I get an upper body workout while running. I run faster. No I don’t let the dog lead me. Not on purpose, but I always find myself shaving a few minutes off the run. You just look cooler. Maybe because you have a running partner, maybe because this makes you a good owner, maybe because I run with a Pit Bull Terrier I don’t worry too much…I don’t know what it is, but I look cooler (in my mind at least).

Bronx and I on our twice weekly run. (Three times a week would ruin my rotator cuff.)