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Run Like a Dog

Although we're not quite sure *exactly* how old little Bruno is, I think it's pretty safe to say that he has reached about 7 months.


This little guy is EXTREMELY energetic.  I remember when my dad first got him, all he did was chew a little and then look for a lap to sleep on, but soon, that evolved into running, jumping, tackling, and fetching.  I am VERY glad that he hasn't turned out to be as large as we had feared.  Seeing his kind of large paws when he came home at about 7-8 weeks old made us fear the worst.  But as you can see in this picture below (at 6 months), he isn't really too big at all.  Probably ~17 lbs at this point.


If he had been large (over 25 lb), I would have taken him running.  I see lots of people run around the park where I do my long runs with their dogs.  My leash time with Bruno is limited.  He has a harness so I don't pull on his neck (and doubles as a seatbelt mechanism for the car), but he is less interested in running in a straight line than I had hoped.


I am not pushing him too much to run with me, because I honestly don't know what his limits are.  I'm pretty sure his joints are a concern, and even though he is fraught with energy, I am not sure how long I can safely go.  We haven't done much more than maybe .75 of a mile at a time, and this is peppered with little stops to sniff things. 

I do not claim to be a good dog trainer by any means -- he knows how to come on command (somewhat reliably), sit and lay down on both verbal and hand signal commands, maybe give a few "handshakes" and roll over.  And for the most part, he's housebroken.  But I'd say that if it IS okay to run with him, that training is going to be another blah ordeal, perhaps to wait a few more months as he reaches his full size. 

I know little about dogs and their care and mainly got stuck with these responsibilities when my dad bought him.  I love dogs (my canine nephews are cute and fun), but I have decided that I would not be getting one of my own any darn time soon.  They are almost as much work as children -- speaking of which, yes, I'd hope my children would run with me.

Maybe for now, the cat will do it.... yes??

Comments

  1. Ooh, new puppy! How cute! Runners World recently had a feature on running with dogs - might help you?

    ReplyDelete

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