Go Dog Go!

Penny and I just returned from our third jog around the block together in two weeks.  For those who do not know Penny, she is our beloved lab/shepherd/possible Chow mix whom I recently deemed to be significantly out of shape.  I mean really, she lies around all day and when we open the back door for her she runs in circles for all of thirty seconds and then plops down in the grass, panting and drooling.  She's too young for that!  Time to get moving. 

I decided that since I was trying to get myself back into running after nursing an injured foot for almost two months, what better way to jump start my efforts than to have a nice, furry running buddy?  I could kill two birds with one stone - get my body used to running again and get my hefty canine friend into shape.

I'm pretty slow right now due to the fact that I'm trying desperately not to reinjure myself.  I can tell that Penny would like to go faster (at least during the first five minutes of the run) but she seems content to trot along beside me.  I discovered this morning that a lot of people walk their dogs at that time of day because Penny was very distracted by all the dogs we encountered.  At one point there was a little black dog yapping at her from the opposite side of the street and then almost simultaneously a little white ball of fluff began barking excitedly from a house on the right - poor Penny didn't know which way to turn and ended up zigzagging left to right in a frenzied state, during which I firmly instructed her to "Keep going!  Keep going!" 

With the yapping dogs, the many smells and the occasional cat or squirrel that crosses our path - keeping a steady pace becomes a bit problematic.  I'm thankful for the magic harness we purchased when we first got Penny that keeps her from pulling my arm out of the socket.  Otherwise our first run would have been our last. 

Today we made it up both big hills without stopping - way to go, Penny!  Of course, at the top of the first hill she made one of her "I think I might lie down in this nice patch of grass" moves but I encouraged her to keep going (this means I pulled on her leash until she gave up and came with me). 

On our way up the second big hill she decided that this was a perfect opportunity to take a dump.  Great.  The downside of running with a dog is that the jostling motion tends to have a stimulating effect on her intestinal system, thus resulting in a messy bowel movement every time we've gone for a run together.  I won't go into detail, but let's just say it's not easy picking this stuff up with a flimsy plastic bag.  Fortunately she waited until the end of the run to defecate instead of doing it at the beginning, which is what she did last time.  I ended up having to carry a bag of dog feces for the rest of the time, oh joy! Wasn't it Jerry Seinfeld who once said that if aliens looked down on our planet they would assume that the dogs were in charge since we humans follow them and pick up their poop for them? 

Anyway - Penny and I are now able to run (trot!) for about 20 minutes together - probably about a mile and a half, give or take.  All the extra stops for peeing, pooping and sniffing stuff adds onto the time, but that's ok.  Penny is a great running (trotting!) partner and I'm looking forward to many more laps around the neighborhood with my favorite canine, even if it means holding a bag of dog crap while I'm doing it.