Walk your dog 101 miles (day 9)

There are some people out there who have never experienced a tired dog – not just a bored and lazy dog but a mentally and physically worn out dog. I know plenty of dogs that have been conditioned to lay around the house all day, because they have nothing better to do. My mutt will do the same thing. But on days we go for a 6-mile run, my mutt is a different dog.

Ace and I walked 2.25 miles yesterday and ran 5.99 miles today. Yeah, I was too lazy to walk another .01 miles to make it 6. Today was one of those mornings where I knew it was not going to be easy to run 6 miles. But because of my schedule over the next couple days, I knew today was the day to get 6 miles in. So Ace and I pushed on and completed the run. I wanted to do a timed run like Sunday, but as soon as I got out the door my only goal was to finish.

Ace has been much calmer in the past week and a half since I’ve been running more with him. He does not follow me around in the house. Instead he is content to lay around downstairs. Every day when we get home from our walk or run he goes directly to the back door and sleeps in the sun for at least two hours. Once the sunlight has moved from the window, Ace sleeps in front of the fireplace and then moves to his bed in the corner of the room until about 4:30 when he starts to expect dinner.

I come and go throughout the day and he just looks up at me when I walk in the door. “Oh, hi.”

When Ace has gotten a good run in, he does not whine or obsess over toys as much. Want to cure your dog’s ball obsession? Take him for an hour run every morning. Want to get rid of an annoying crying habit in the car or a barking habit? A run will take care of that, too. The value of exercising your dog is even greater than obedience training. It probably even takes less time.

Ace and I have gone more than double the miles in the first 10 days of April than we did in the first 10 days of March. The warmer weather has definitely made a huge difference. But the main difference is me disciplining myself to run or walk with Ace first thing every morning.

Weird thoughts pop into my mind when I’m running. Today I wondered what would happen if I just decided to strip down to nothing and continued running with my dog. Would anyone even say anything? I kind of doubt it.

On one corner a border collie was barking aggressively at us from its leash and part of me wanted it to chase us. I pictured myself tackling the collie and then holding it down by two fingers, Cesar Millan style as it tried to attack my dog. That never happened.

My thoughts drifted to how tiny changes in life are what make all the difference. Because I’ve had bad pain in my left ankle for the last year, I wondered if it has anything to do with running so many miles with Ace on my left side.

My left side is always in or towards the curb. My left hand is always dropped lower than my right, down by Ace’s collar. Could that make some kind of difference, causing my weight to lean to my left ankle?

I have no idea, but around the fifth mile, I switched it up and had Ace on my right with my right side towards the curb. So, we were running with traffic. Ace was confused by this and would slip back to my left whenever I made a turn. I guess that means I’ve trained him well to run on my left. Instead of telling him to heel on my right, I simply moved him to that side and he seemed to get it.

He’s a good boy.

Ace and I plan to run 3 miles in the morning and then take it easy over the next few days as we travel to the Lake Superior area for a mini vacation. Happy Easter everyone!

How many miles have you walked your dog this month?

April miles: 32.02