5 reasons not to run with your dog

everybody knows that i love toby. i love my dog. he's been great. he'll be three on april 1st. yeah. april 1st. so ultimately, i guess the joke is on me.

5) pee and poo breaks. one minute, you're going along at a nice clip and then *YOINK!* you're jerked back to a tree and have to break out the plastic bags. and if there's no trash can nearby, then you're carrying the bag one way or the other. ewwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

4) folks on the sidewalk... automatically think that you're sending your dog after them. you know, chase the weakest one in the herd so that the hunter has an easy target. this evening, i saw that toby and i were approaching an older lady who was walking her little dog. so, as i try to do as a courtesy to all walkers, i shorten toby's leash and have him run on the other side of me. as we pass this lady, she screams, "AGH! BIG DOG!" and yanks her 1 pound of a dog, throwing him on the sidewalk. apparently, "toby" is an alias for "cujo."

3) lack of dog-friendly places to run in the city. toby and i have run figure-eights in wyman park about a bazillion times, and he can practically run the path without me. he's probably not bored, but geez. even though it's barely a 20 minute run, i'm bored out of my mind. i'd rather not run him in the neighborhoods because, just like for people, the concrete and asphalt are hard on his joints.

2) lack of canine exhaustion. i'm finding that toby has a lot more endurance than i realized. we used to just do only a mile. but we've breached the 5K mark! and tonight, we did ~3 miles at a decent clip for him, and tonight, he's bouncing off the walls. what happened to long exercises tiring him out? making him a little docile? i have a feeling that he's the one exercising me...

1) sled dog without a sled. did i mention that toby can run? far? and almost tirelessly? while pulling me? it's a little helpful when he's dragging me up the hill, but it's a bitch when we're going downhill. dammit. i'm lucky that i have good balance and cannot be toppled as easily as toby would like...


but, i have to say... screw the reasons. my time running with toby gets me out there, makes running fun and brings it back to its simple roots. it's about enjoying movement and challenge and silent comraderie. my muscles are a little sore, and toby eventually gets tired. so on we'll go, heading out the door tomorrow and the next day and the day after that.




mush mush mush mush mush mush...