The Ultimate Guide to Running with Your Dog | Dos and Don’ts

that's it that's it Ralph hi I'm Anna and this is my dog Ralph so I love running and I love dogs so you can imagine my excitement when I bought Ralph home waited patiently until he could become my new running buddy so we have teamed up with dogfit who are going to put us through our Paces learning how to run together they're going to be giving us all the tips we need on what kit to use and how to run safely together so should we go meet them yeah okay come on so I've got loads of questions to ask you because it's my first time running with my dog I want to make sure that I get it right so I guess the first thing is other than like the lead and harness setup is there anything else in particular that I need to think about taking with me when I go for a run with Ralph when you're setting out you've obviously got to be considerate of the temperatures and where you're going to run as well so it might be that you know you take some extra water with you for the dog what sort of temperatures like what's too hot for a dog it is a sport for the cooler months and you would be mindful as the weather got warmer and that you're not going out when it's too hot because it's not sometimes about the rising temperature but it's about the humidity and also every dog is different so if you're running your dog consistently all the year round your dog is fit and you might decide that you do run a little bit through the summer months but during the summer you're actually running really early in the morning yeah or late in the evening so Ralph is 18 months old how old does a dog need to be to start doing Candy Crush well as a rule we say the dog should at least be 12 months of age and with a larger breeds you might well want to wait until the dog is 18 months old and this is because you know the Bones have not all developed properly and we get a lot of inquiries from people that you know the dogs are typically getting to nine months old full of energy and people are thinking oh I'm going to start Candy Crush because you know we're going to use up all that energy but really you you know you must wait until they're at least a year old and for that bone development to have all finished and the dog to be strong enough as an operator limit as long as your dog is is fit you know you've obviously had the go ahead from your vet as well as your dog gets older and sometimes you know that whole keeping active is is just brilliant for older dogs but if you are starting out with an older dog you really take things very very slowly and obviously starting walking candy trekking and then build up okay so how far can dogs run any distance yeah so but obviously just like us we really need to build them up to those longer distances yeah and I mean there are people candy Crossing kind of ultra marathon distances but those dogs literally have built up over a long period of time so it's about taking just as like we would do for ourselves you take things slowly you'd follow a program week by week you would add to that program yeah and it's great when you are doing that training because you've got your your best friend doing it with you yeah um that's so nice so what you're saying is Ralph needs to do his couch to 5K basically yeah but if you've done a really hard workout you've done a long distance you might have gone over you know lots of hills a rugged terrain you might you would give your dog an easy day and they're easy next few days for sure yeah so they recover just like we do yeah amazing do they need to have any special food or do they need to eat more or do we need to do anything with their diet at all for Candy Crush yeah I mean it's a consideration obviously when you're starting out there won't be any dramatic changes in the in the dog's appetite but you should monitor how you think your dog is feeling and with in terms of feeding your dog it's definitely important that you feed your dog two hours before you actually start the exercise and we often if we run early in the morning we wouldn't give breakfast before we go and obviously wait for a couple of hours afterwards before you feed them and then if you are doing those longer distances definitely monitoring the weight on your dog and how your dog's condition is looking to check that it's getting enough food so Candy Cross is it for everyone yes absolutely and and for every dog as well I think we've run with every breed every mixture of breeds yeah and sometimes those little ones where people say oh I haven't got a big dog they are real pocket rockets yeah and we've got friends that have run marathons with little tiny dogs okay so thinking about like what terrain dog should run on not all of us are lucky enough to have somewhere like this on our doorstep to be able to come and run with our dogs so if I were at home for example then there would be like Pavements that I'd need to run on potentially to get somewhere that was off-road like what sort of terrain do we have to take into consideration when it comes to running with dogs well obviously the sport of Candy Crush is off-road trail running with your dog yeah um and obviously in terms of considering the dog's ligaments joints and everything we do want to run on softer surfaces however for some people you have to run on the Pavements to get to the park and that's you know unavoidable you wouldn't plan to do long distances at all no but in that that scenario you would have to do that but where you can seek those trails and and discover the the outside because you know I've had wonderful experiences discovering new places I didn't even knew existed because I'm there with my dog having a great time so yeah so nice so is there anything in particular that you need to protect dogs Paws when you go running well for Candy Crush we don't normally have them in booties definitely in the UK and I think you do need to consider if the temperatures are really extreme yeah and you are running um in extreme places I think you would it would be a consideration yeah as a general rule dogs are designed to run Barefoot and the more that you're training up with them you know the pause um are used to that terrain yeah but I think if you were as I said in a really cold environment you might want to consider that um but obviously the dogs need the grip you know the claws are designed to give them stability as well their four-wheel drive after all so they need that and if you're putting boots on that you're you're stopping that so yeah and definitely consider where you're running yeah so no Alpha flies for Ralphie no no so Connie cross is obviously running with your dog so let's not forget the fundamentals and the basics of running um just because you're clipping your dog on so you're still going to do warm-ups and cool Downs same for your dog yeah absolutely I think the two of you together you know when you start off you would start off on a walk to start warming yourself up you might want to stop um you know after you've warmed up five five minutes ten minutes or so and and do some stretching yeah um and you know obviously you're not your dog's not going to start stretching with you yeah you definitely want to do some of that Dynamic stretching then go for your run and just as important at the end of your run as well um to do some stretching and give your dog a chance to cool down for his heart rate to come down as well yeah if it's been a little bit warm for him to cool down rather than putting him straight in the car and you know especially if the car's a little bit warm as well yeah definitely um consider all of those things at the end of your run perfect so we need to have a look at what kit Ralph needs to be kicked up in in order to run so you should take a look at someone's harnesses absolutely great so Gail the kit for me is something that I've found really sort of hard to get my head around because you know you can go on Amazon or like just Google whatever and just buy whatever but how do you know that it's the right thing for your dog I don't know so that's why you're here to help me so some people think incorrectly that it's okay to just run your dog in an ordinary walking harness yeah but there is a massive difference so this has been specially designed for Candy Crush so it's a sports harness smoke so there's nothing getting in the way of the shoulder joints it doesn't dig into the ribs it's super comfortable if it gets wet that's okay it's lightweight and then there's two other bits that you obviously need as well you need the bit for you and the bit to connect to you right yes so the belts are important too so from the person's perspective just like the dog harness it needs to be you know good fit and it needs to be comfortable for running yeah but most importantly which you'll see when you put it on in a moment the pull comes through the hips right it sits deliberately this main padded bit here this main section sits on the top of your bottom oh okay rather than around your waist because when you get the pull from the dog it's pulling through your hips and you don't get that jarring in your back yeah so um so this is that's the belt well just as important we need to attach the two of you together the bungee line that comes with it but the whole point is when the dog pools this absorbs a lot of that shock and then pull through you know the tension through the line it gets absorbed by the bungee yeah so it's more of a steady pull rather than a jarring pool but it's just three items that you need to get started yeah great literally we just put this over his head like a good boy and then if you just pull that through between his legs yeah and then you clip on both sides okay great oh well thank you so much for all of that advice like it's definitely put my mind at ease and I feel like I can go out and run with him so hopefully you found that super helpful as much as I have and you know feel very unrearing to go with Ralphie but if you do have any other questions when it comes to running with your dog please leave them in the comments below the guys at dogfit will answer them for you and also um maybe you actually already go out running with your dog and if you do let me know some wonderful experiences that you have with your dog because I'm going to have some with mine soon and we'll see you for the next episode of running with your dog on the running Channel

Channel: The Running Channel

Views: 61,467

Keywords: How to run, running, running tips, training for beginners, how to start running, running training, training advice, 5k run, 10k run, half marathon, couch to 5k, fitness, running challenge, best running videos, running with your dog, how to run with your dog, running safely, running in parks, running rules with dogs, the running channel anna, running with anna

Id: WWpWVMr0fMs

Length: 9min 49sec (589 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 06 2022