RUN WITH YOUR DOG | CANICROSS Q&A WITH BEN ROBINSON

hey everyone welcome back to the channel thank you so much for tuning in [Music] this week's Vlog is super exciting as you can probably tell very professional filming going on today and that is because I have met up with an incredible Runner but also an incredible can acrosser to talk about cannacross and before we get going I just want to read you out some of his PBS so you know how serious this guy is here are his phoebees and I'm reading them out because they seem almost unbelievable but let me tell you how quick this guy is so his PBS are one kilometer 204 5 kilometers 1209 and to give you some contacts without 5K time Joshua chapter guy is about half a minute slower than that the 10K is 27.41 so I'm going to be talking to Ben Robinson today about all things can across he's going to be answering your guys questions that you sent in and then we're gonna head out for a beautiful run in Lee Woods let's get going hey thank you so much for joining us here it's great to have you here um for the benefit of people who might not have heard of you can you introduce yourself of course yeah so my name is Ben Robinson and I'm the eight-time British four-time European and three-time World Champion in Candy Cross that's a pretty great intro I wish I could say that so um for anyone who's not heard of Canada cross can you explain a little bit what it is and what sort of dogs might be suitable for it yeah of course so Candy Cross is in effect just running with your dog um specifically it's running attached to your dog via VIA a line but that can still take the form of just running alongside you um recreationally or at a low level right through to how I do the sport which obviously is a competitive uh competitive sport where the dog will be encouraged to pull you and actually assist and speed up your running so any breed of dog can do it as I've sort of touched on there from your basic beginner or pet dogs through to what we have which are purpose bred dogs that are ready for the for the sport at a higher level nice so from a dog nerd point of view I really want to know about your type of dog what are the purpose bred Sports dogs so my dogs are turned European sled dog or some people within the sport we'll call them gracers or european hounds that gets all a little bit technical between the breeders of the exact breed mix but fundamentally there a pointer Greyhound and Alaskan husky cross which all the breeds were picked for their individual traits and strengths so you've sort of got the the pointer for their their head and the strength and size of the dog the Greyhound was to to add speed um and the Alaskan again for kind of driving and distance and an ability to cool down as well amazing so um if someone's looking to get started with whatever dog they have as small as a Chihuahua to your graysters what would you recommend like how do people get started yeah so the best way to get started let's say is just increase what you do with your dog so you could start from increasing walks with your dog General activity with your dog obviously some people will jog a little bit or even swim with the dog you can take your dog along just free running with you so if you run and if it's safe to do so and your dog's good good recall good off lead you can do more of that and then you can start so I actually helped put together with non-stop couch to 5K program so you may have seen them in uh you know running themselves but we've done one specific to Candy Crush that you can do with your dog and then you can build up from point of just being walking with your dog all the way through to running your first 5k together amazing so I okay so that's great so the dogs fit now when you're looking at things like commands what sort of commands have you taught your dogs what do you think is important for other people to know yeah so uh obviously go to start a lot of people will start with with a line out I've had mixed success with that some of my dogs will do it some won't what does the lineup mean sorry this will be at the start so people when you're waiting to start so particularly if you're going to go on to do events you can teach the dog to effectively stay so some people will use the word line out so go to the end of the the line stand and and wait I didn't personally have a great deal of success that with some of my dogs so some will do it some won't but if that is an important factor for you then obviously giving time to that element of training is important um of course then the go for them to start the Run left and right when you're on the trail was that will be much easier for you to be able to call that rather than getting to the turn and then having to sort of pull the dog can be very awkward and and not necessarily the best thing for the dog as well so if they'll take that left and right and I'll start teaching that just on walks so literally as I walk even from a puppy this is a good thing you can start the training with a with a younger dog or an unfit dog if you're not quite at the stage of running you can do that left left when you get to a left turn and then a slight pull left right right right and pull right and so on and they'll learn that quite quickly that's most of the commands some people use like a like an on by which is kind of like a you know just go past and again then keep right keep left I'll say to my dog so if I'm coming up on somebody and I pick the side I'm going to overtake on then it will be keep right keep left and then I'll say that to him a couple of times just to reinforce that as we go by and for anyone doing some hilly Trails so what Ben here does is a lot more of the like super fast like go go you're sprinting the whole way 5Ks 10ks yeah mostly 5K in the racing I've ran some 10K trail with the dog but the majority of the Candy Crush races are up to about 5k okay so it's really do like super duper fast what I do a little bit more of is like the longer stuff a lot more ploddy a little trotting along nothing too crazy but we do do a lot of hills and one command that we have found super useful is the behind command so when you're going down a hill your dog is not pulling your head first down the hill you actually get them to go behind you and run right behind you so that they're not gonna make you fall over so what Ben here does he goes head first down the hills and he goes very fast and I think it looks terrifying what I do is I kind of get here to go behind me so that she doesn't kill me yeah so I'll use a steady to attempt to do the same sort of thing but as you said they won't you know it's not something I prioritize um as generally I try and make up some time on the downhill as well in the races you kind of for 5K Sprint can't afford to do it but yeah absolutely as you said you could use it behind if you really wanted to enforce that and if I did do it I'd teach it in the same way on the walk you know you can you can do that and if you need to walk that hill and you can obviously reinforce or reward it um while they're learning but that's what I love about this as well is that there's so much that you can do when they're still a puppy so from what I understand you shouldn't really start running a dog until they're minimum a year old I think for bigger dogs 18 months is kind of more the time when you start building up their Fitness a little bit more and getting them to pull because I think the pulling puts a lot more pressure on their like muscular skeletal system but you can start training the commands really early on and what we did with tier again like with the lefts and rights so you don't get wrapped around a tree but also with the behind what I would do is I would get a treat and I would put it behind me and tear would move to behind me me and basically just Trot along which has meant that because we're just in that a walk when she was calm now when we get really excited and she's on a run and and just really wanting to go go she at least does have a kind of switch to say okay no more pulling anymore because Flora might fall over um so let's just go behind and calm down and starting it from a younger age I think has been really beneficial and like um probably most people who want to start running with a dog or who actually get a dog to be able to run with want to be able to do it from as early as possible but it doesn't mean that you can't do anything before the age of one because you can still do all that training yep yeah yeah exactly that that's what we do with our young dogs so we'll start doing those things as I say literally on walks you can still be on the trails that you're going to run in time and just start reinforcing that early train then it makes everything so much easier when it does then come to building the running with them you can you can just build that physical element of their training in quickly nice so I got asked a lot about how do you teach the dog a difference the difference between walking to heal pulling can across style so I'd love to hear your answer I have my own answers for this but I mean your dogs are bred to do counter cross specifically so do you actually bother trying to teach them a loose lead heel or do you just kind of they have a go setting and that's it no again I don't hugely because a little bit like the same way with the downhill I actually use their their walks the the time I spend with the dogs I'm still using that as training so I kind of view their walks as like their strength work if you like like we maybe would do resistance work I view their walk as kind of like their max strength their free running as kind of their max speed and then obviously the harness work is kind of where we bring the two together and we put that that power out really with them um but they still do recognize the difference I mean they'll still know um I mean if I walk them on the course of a race of a trail it is like you know arched back like really trying to go for it if I walk them around the estate at home they'll pull but it's more of a controlled pull um you know rather than trying to break into a run if you like they'll still see the difference and that's probably kit you know once they're really in tune with running they'll notice the difference of care the harness if they're wearing the harness you know those things they pick up on okay so we'll talk about Kit in one second because that's probably one of the most important things but just very quickly what I tend to do in terms of teaching the difference between a loose lead heel walk and can across and this is something we really struggled with because when we first got here and she's a rescue dog we got her age five months she obviously did not know what heel walking was so we spent months and months teaching her to do a loose lead heel and then we put her in the can across harness and then we were like pull and she was like I thought I was supposed to walk to your heel and I was like no pull and it took her a long time to figure out the difference between a loose lead walk and pulling on the harness but now she knows that once she's in that can across harness that's pull setting and when she's in her other harness with it attached at the front on her chest that's a heel and then she has commands for both as well to just to reinforce that so it's very possible and the dogs do know the difference between the equipment that they have as well and the difference between a road walk for example and a trail run where they might be pulling for the entire way so to talk about Kit um can you explain what sort of hit someone should be using if they're just getting started with can across yeah so the Kit's really simple it's really free part so and it's just to connect us to the dogs so the first part will be a belt so a waste belt for us which will obviously literally go around the waist and that's on on us then it's a line to a bungee line a standard length is about two meters for for most Candy Crush races but if you are doing it recreationally on sort of technical trails and you know you can get shorter lines if you want kind of closer control of the dog when you're out on Trails or if they're busy and so on and then it's a harness for the dog most people run dogs in like a full length harness and then the bungee can literally connect the two so that you know you are you're one with the dog so non-stop offer all that kit we use all non-stop kit for free from mechanics belt the bungee line and the free motion harness would be our go-to and they also offer that within a within a starter pack so Candy Crush start pack yeah so we got the starter set when we first started out and it made such a big difference because Tia can pull so much more when she's in the the free motion harness versus when she's in her normal everyday dog walking harness and I think people don't really realize how important it is to have the right kit we spend so much time thinking about our own kit I think it's only fair that we also remember that the dogs also need to remain injury-free and if they're doing this much running for us and with us then we need to invest in their kit as well yeah absolutely it's exactly the same for the dog as is for us so we have to consider those things um to keep the dog kind of fit healthy and injury-free but even just getting extra power from the dog so when you're running them as well having the right kit will allow them to trans transient more of their power through that line and that connection uh to us and one of the biggest mistakes we see in the wrong harness is being bought people think they've got a running harness but if it comes across the front of the the dog's chest we can restrict a lot of the shoulder movement and again then that's both of those things you know you restrict power and you risk injury so okay so let's get on to training how far do you you know it's run each week so it'll vary massively um particularly for the dogs depending on the Time of the Season there'll be free running all year where I can you know early mornings if it's if it's warmer of course but all through the year um but I don't massively track the dog's distance you know free running they're just out for the hour or two and they're just playing um they will run a lot because obviously they're driven and being a a group together they're obviously chasing each other racing around the field together sometimes I'll run a few miles with them there but it's not something I hugely track then obviously they'll they'll walk a little bit so as I said earlier I use some of their walks as strength training so they'll do obviously less distance but kind of intense that way and then in terms of like our harness work we're probably trying to get two to three sessions in a week certainly during sort of season or approaching the races we look two to three even up to sort of four maximum and that will be about Race distance so they're not doing high mileage it's not crazy crazy distances you know three to four times 5K would be that absolute Max in in harness that that my guys would do um shorter in the in the summer obviously for my own running um I train mainly as like a middle distance kind of guy on track in the summer and then up to kind of 5 10K um and cross country in the winter so I'm probably averaging about 60 miles a week amazing that's pretty good that's quite a lot um and in terms of terrain that you run on and the dogs run on what is suitable for a dog yeah so my own I do across all terrains so I'll do Road Track and cross-country work but with the dogs obviously we're primarily running on trail so softer surfaces uh grass or you know Woodland Trail and why is that bad for that pause back for joints um as even for us you know I prefer to do a lot of my work off-road so if it's not specific to like kind of track or Road sessions I'll just get off-road I just like the soft surfaces and obviously for the dogs it's also just a better environment I mean it is a better surface but more fun more defined Trail um and they just like being you know in that environment rather than kind of running on the roadside so for us because we do a little bit of longer stuff we tend to run undercover like we're going to be doing today uh in the woods somewhere a little bit Shady um also running really early in the morning as it gets hotter like it is today I think this is like the warmest day of the year but it's still relatively early I'm freezing personally so I think it'll be good for the dogs um all will go places that have rivers lakes places where the dogs can kind of paddle cool down and have a drink as well so speaking of temperature how hot is too hot for running with a dog yeah it's a really difficult question to answer um because I find it's a really individual thing to consider so you've got to think about the breed um any of their individual kind of characteristics how fit they are and especially how acclimatized they are to heat so I wouldn't like to necessarily put a temperature on it um for for me and my dogs I just watch them individually and I make sure well ahead of time you know we've done some work um at that time of year or at those temperatures um but I would say the other big thing to consider is humidity so with dogs humidity is a big factor so a dry heat and a very humidity you know humid heat will be a lot worse for a dog so just taking those things into consideration as well so final couple of questions from my followers and subscribers thanks guys also for sending them in this is um this is great I hope I'm answering all of your questions or not me actually Ben is answering all your questions in terms of maybe slightly more reactive dog or a dog fat is really interested super friendly in saying hi to other dogs how do you get your dog to just be super focused on the trails not zigzagging all over the place wanting to say hi to dogs or chasing squirrels okay uh so the best thing to do really to answer in a way all of those uh issues um is probably training around other experienced dogs so you know they will pick up on the drive from from an experienced dog and also if they're very good at ignoring you know if you've got a dog that you know is really solid it's not going to react uh back he's not going to mind a little bit of attention and that's an important fact you know knowing that that person you're training with is happy that your dog is inexperienced so you don't alter you know their run or affect their run but they should then pick up on that they should learn there's you know nothing happens when I go across to this dog it's not worth doing I might as well just get on with running next to them racing them and so on and in time they may even lose that kind of drive to go after Wildlife it might always be there a little bit but I find certainly with with my guys you know the more driven they are even if they'll have that little reaction you can call them back on to running hard very very quickly it's not like they're going to go looking for the squirrel and where it's gone it might be they have a glance and then you can call them on and you're just back to running so I think get around driven dogs and just more of the same just more training more experience and most of those things should come good amazing so yeah we found a pretty similar thing so we've been running with Tia for about a year now a proper can across and what we found helped massively because when she first started she wasn't that interested in running when she was on the lead super interested in running when she was off the lead because she could go and Hunt things but she is a really prey driven dog and she's also not always that friendly towards other dogs but as soon as we're in a group of other dogs who are running around a trail she was really focused on keeping up with them in fact she wanted to overtake all of them and run at the front always and that has driven her to be a lot better at Canna Cross because now when we go past dogs she's on a mission she just ignores them and she goes straight past which is so much better than she used to be and it does take time I think people forget that you know these are different habits for a dog to build and it takes time to build them and once they get it then they get it and it makes such a big difference and when we go past squirrels or the smell of deer or sheep now Tia tends to just pull harder forwards rather than zigzagging around she gets excited but she just diverts that to just going forwards rather than sideways which is great yeah I think it's the number one thing you know for me the hardest dog to train was the first dog you know and then and then each time the next ones come you know they've been able to pick up strengths from the previous dog and then you can do more training with them reinforce you know and try to make improvements around how they run and how driven they are but the first dog I did a lot to to travel around to go to people with groups and go to other people with dogs that were experience in the sport and and keep working with them I'm really now my guys can train each other amazing well thank you so much we're going to head out on a little run now around Lee Woods where we are at the moment this is my usual dog running spot I absolutely love it it is just beautiful um so I guess without further Ado let's get going someone asked how you know a dog's excited here are two examples foreign as far she's just trying to pretend to be as good as a purpose Brad can across dog good girl baby okay we're trotting dog down try and speak over my trying to breathe at the same time so do you ever run with your dogs at a trot or do you uh keep under the Galloping um yeah nice tea is already chotting having a good time it is warm today so just gonna do a short one now let me tell you this running is not compatible with my low heart rate training but it is a lot more fun [Music] oh down below us we have the Avon River path um and then over the river we've got the portway and then even Gorge all down there in that direction [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] so what's your favorite season to run it uh with the dogs yeah it's going to be winter I think we can just do so much more with them so we don't have to worry about the distance or anything the conditions actually for them are genuinely better as well like it's off the ground yeah I can just run with them without without the worry so yeah I just I love that and what what about by yourself um I probably switch it up and say summer and then forget about all the same worries of getting yeah and I can just enjoy sometimes you know it's nice because you get like you get fun all times of year it's lovely because in Winter sometimes it's hard to motivate yourself out but when you've got a dog you know they always want to go out so you don't have to you don't have to have a bad time of year they say winter miles make for summer smiles yeah exactly it's always something to look forward to so just use one season to crash yeah I love that good positive attitude so I haven't actually asked you this yet I know the answer but for the benefit of my subscribers how many dogs do you have so I have seven dogs and then uh my my dad has uh two that have lived with my mum's Dad so we have nine in total wow that's a lot of dogs tears and off work as is how much good girl yes Portia has never run this fast in her life for more than one kilometer oh dear uh we'll stop them here and get some water or two might have some water break one day today so making sure to stop plenty nice little place how are you feeling good it's a bit short and slow for you I reckon 3.84k just going to do a little Loop down here before heading back I reckon I am like tomato colored to match my top it's all part of the matchy matchy I am attaching myself to a proper can across dog okay are we ready off we go oh God oh God dear you're going the wrong way oh she's so good she's a lot smoother than tears because she's bigger okay oh this is fun come on tape go go go go go go go yes oh this is fun Sprint Sprint okay oh baby thank you wow so see what a real kind of cross dog does steady pulling pretty strong how heavy did you say she was uh she's probably about 27 kilos 27 so for reference deer is chunky but only about 22. which is perfect for me because I'm obviously small but uh get a bit more power with this no offense tea you're great too love you baby final Hill up it's always a killer because I'm forever I swear oh dog's still having fun though [Music] [Applause] oh 5.8k done well I've worn them sweltering definitely wasn't low heart rate training that is for sure but it was great fun dogs loved it oh Gia who is it is it Roxy oh look at that good girl baby I know she's so happy after a run look at that face oh maybe hey well done sir well done tea very good all round so I'm back home which means that that is it for this week's Vlog I had so much fun out there I'm definitely not nearly as fit as Ben is which was evident in the pace that he was trying to go with his very impressive dog and the pace Tierra and I usually plod along at a very casual Trot but we had so much fun and Ben is such a lovely guy and I really appreciate him coming all the way down to Bristol to come and tell us you guys and me all about Canna Cross and how more people can get into running with their dog because I have to say like I did not expect it to be as rewarding as it has been just the the situation of like being with a member of your family but a member of your family who was always excited to go for a run and will just take you out no matter what and that is just so lovely to have and this last week has been so much easier fitting in the mileage that I need to fit in because I've been running with the dogs so much and that's really lovely I mean four out of my seven runs or something six runs or whatever it was of the week have been with the dog and those miles feel like three miles they don't actually feel like I'm training that hard of course they still count when it comes to training so that's a win-win I don't feel psychologically exhausted from doing all of that and physically I'm still getting all the benefits of that sort of training so it's really nice it's lovely to do and also means I don't have to double up with the running coming back then going out for a dog walk and then coming back home again and being completely knackered as I have been basically up to the point that I started running regularly with Tia there was one more question that some of you guys asked which was about feeding I think it's suggested that you don't feed uh right before a run and that you can go out if you're going out for an early morning run you can go out without feeding your dog and then feed them a little bit after getting back home again and that's what I do with here every Saturday sometimes I'll throw her a handful of kibble in the morning when I get up and I'm having my breakfast and stuff and then then by the time we get there it'll be like 45 minutes later and she can run and she gets treats around the run as well because I think it's only fair I feed myself I feed her um but basically there are a lot of issues with Twisted stomachs especially with bigger dogs if you feed them shortly before or shortly after I think as well you go out running so it's really important to have a read-up of that figure out what works for you and your dog if you think about wolves in the wild they would run to be able to eat they wouldn't eat and then go for a run that is the hunting part of how they get food they can't and then they eat so it's not going to be difficult for them to go for a run it's not like it's not like some people who literally can't go for a round without eating first like me so yeah don't feel like you're being really mean to them it's much much much safer to not feed them right before going for a run and instead feed them afterwards so that's what we do and it's been working really well up to this point she never seems tired or hungry on well she kind of always seems hungry but she never seems tired on a run because of lack of food which is great for any of you who have got to this point in the Vlog I have some exciting news so two of you can win a Non-Stop dog wear can across starter kit that is the free motion harness the bungee lead and the can across belt from non-stop dog wear all you have to do is like this video subscribe and comment down below who your running buddy is and any more information about the dog I am A-Okay with I just absolutely love dogs so yeah just tell me about your pet and whether you already run with them whether you're planning on going out running with them and of course any questions that you might have I will try and answer as well and within the next couple of weeks I will choose two lucky winners and be sending out those kits directly to you guys I believe that this is open worldwide so get commenting down below don't forget to like And subscribe as well and feel free to send this to your friends as well so that they can be in with a chance of winning thanks again to non-stop dog wear for this video and for connecting us up with Ben Robinson he was such a delight and a great guy to go and run with I will be getting fitter before I ever run with him again um I hope you enjoyed this video if you did enjoy it don't forget to hit the thumbs up button and the Subscribe button I'll be back next week with some very very fun videos kind right your way thanks again for watching bye

Channel: Flora Beverley

Views: 16,177

Keywords: foodfitnessflora, food fitness flora, gracefituk, grace fit uk, fitness, vegan, plant based, what i eat in a day, full day of eating, runner, running, marathon training, fitness model, grace beverley, Natacha oceane, running tips, marathon, trail running, ultramarathon, ultra marathons, canicross, run with dog, trail dog, adventure dog, nonstop dogwear, canix, ben robinson

Id: hiajCz2r1s8

Length: 30min 32sec (1832 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 21 2023