# Jog on, Cockapoo



## weez74 (Feb 9, 2011)

After a little trial a few months ago, with a harness and a bungee cord, I had been content to leave Rosie until she was a year old before taking her out for a run with me, as that's what all the advice is. But this morning I was getting ready to go for a run and working out how to fit a walk in before the kids are done at pre-school, and I just thought, oh, for goodness' sake, I'll just take her with me. 

So we went to our local country park and did two laps and Rosie was brilliant! I am not a good runner, so I suspected that it actually wouldn't be anywhere near too much for her young legs and sure enough, she barely broke into a trot the whole way round! The first lap I kept her on the lead and she stayed near me and was really, really well behaved, but by the second lap, she seemed to be a bit bored so I let her off and she went racing off ahead of me and stopped, looked around and gave me a look as if to say "Come on, put some effort in!"

The only problem we had was when we got close to other dogs and she became a little unpredictable and nearly tripped me up! But, apart from that, she ran with me for 50 minutes, and when we got back to the car and I gave her some water, she had two or three big licks of water and the she was fine. We got home and she was still jumping about everywhere, like she hadn't been walked for ages!

Running with a poo bag in one hand was a bit tricky, too, as she chose a spot miles away from the nearest bin!

Oh, and my husband's comment was "you'd never manage to do that with two dogs". Oh, but I would! (and how excited am I that he has actually mentioned it himself? He must be cracking!!! Calm, calm, got to play the long game...)


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## oldmanmille (Jun 3, 2011)

Think I would have just sat there and watched the dog running 

Well done to both of you....


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## Sarette (Mar 21, 2011)

oldmanmille said:


> Think I would have just sat there and watched the dog running
> 
> Well done to both of you....


Lol John, I like your thinking!

Well done Louise and Rosie, I am most impressed!! xx


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## Dolly Parton (Jun 6, 2011)

Hi Louise, I take Dolly running with me most days and my vet said from 10 months was fine. I have found a running lead really useful, it ties around your waist and stops you from having to hold out your arm all the time! Like Rosie, Dolly hardly breaks into a sprint (I'm not that fast either!). She definitely pegs it more when we go over the fields. It will be interesting to see how running with 2 works out. I have limited time too as have to pick children up at 1pm. Maybe I just do a relay with the dogs, take them one after the other. That way I get fitter I suppose!


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## MillieDog (Jun 1, 2011)

Interesting. This is something I might try. However, my running is rubbish and I fear I will disappoint Millie by giving up too quickly


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## lady amanda (Nov 26, 2010)

that sounds awesome! good for you guys!


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## wilfiboy (Sep 18, 2010)

You put me to shame.... good for Rosie and Dolly, I bet its not much harder with two, you'll soon find out Clare x
Loiuse that hubbies going to bottle if you keep calm and play your cards right.... good strategy making him think like its his idea x


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## JulesB (Mar 6, 2011)

oh interesting as i've also not tried running with betty as i'm certain she is faster than me!!! i will have to give it a go sometime!


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## embee (Dec 27, 2010)

weez74 said:


> "you'd never manage to do that with two dogs". Oh, but I would! (and how excited am I that he has actually mentioned it himself? He must be cracking!!! Calm, calm, got to play the long game...)


That's a good sign just mentioning two dogs. Steady now, you're getting there. You just need to move him on to making suggestions. You could have asked "Ohhhh, that's a good point! Do you think it's possible to run with two? How could I do that?"


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## Dylansmum (Oct 29, 2010)

Wow, I'm really impressed! That is great for both of you. I'm far too old and decrepit for running, but I have been toying with the idea of doing a nordic walking introductory session and then doing that when I walk Dylan.


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## Cockapoodledoo (Feb 8, 2011)

Well I'm just getting over reading 50 minutes! Running for 50 minutes Louise?!! I can walk all day and have done a couple of walking marathons but I can't run to the end of the road without dying! Lol. 

I'd like to train myself to run. I've looked into it a bit and the slow and steady build up is the route for me......run for one minute; walk for two minutes; run for one minute ....etc etc. Though the second week you need to aim for five minutes of running in one go .......hmmmmn. Lol

My husband and daughter took Rufus out running with them last week and apparently he did really well. I like the idea of the hands free lead. Shall have to look into that. (Thank you Dolly Parton).

Maybe we should start up an 'I love my Cockapoo' Running Club? I'm sure there's some old handers out there willing to give advice and a running programme?!

Karen and Rufus xx


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## embee (Dec 27, 2010)

Don't talk to me about running...... I've been taking Flo to agility for 10 weeks now and it's taken me 10 sessions to get 'fit' enough to sprint from one end of the dog walk to the other without pulling a thigh muscle...


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## Cockapoodledoo (Feb 8, 2011)

embee said:


> Don't talk to me about running...... I've been taking Flo to agility for 10 weeks now and it's taken me 10 sessions to get 'fit' enough to sprint from one end of the dog walk to the other without pulling a thigh muscle...


Lol, well if Flo is anything like Rufus she'll have done four jumps before you've turned around to release her! I have to work Rufus mostly from behind as I can't keep up with him. If only he could read numbers - we'd be a winning team. We are jumping large due to Rufus' size but he flies over the jumps. I think he's got the potential to be very good ......if I could just get him to wait!!

Karen and Rufus x


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## embee (Dec 27, 2010)

Cockapoodledoo said:


> Lol, well if Flo is anything like Rufus she'll have done four jumps before you've turned around to release her! I have to work Rufus mostly from behind as I can't keep up with him. If only he could read numbers - we'd be a winning team. We are jumping large due to Rufus' size but he flies over the jumps. I think he's got the potential to be very good ......if I could just get him to wait!!
> 
> Karen and Rufus x


Oh my word, that's exactly what Flo is like, no 'wait' at all so I now have to get ready to run as I release her. At one session she was going 4th and when it was her turn she went the minute I let go - jump, jump, tunnel, jump, jump - then ran back to me and sat down - I hadn't even managed to take a step. She had just watched the dogs in front then copied them  Everyone fell about laughing and said I should just go and sit in the car.

Here she is in action and she also flies over the jumps...


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## Cockapoodledoo (Feb 8, 2011)

embee said:


> Oh my word, that's exactly what Flo is like, no 'wait' at all so I now have to get ready to run as I release her. At one session she was going 4th and when it was her turn she went the minute I let go - jump, jump, tunnel, jump, jump - then ran back to me and sat down - I hadn't even managed to take a step. She had just watched the dogs in front then copied them  Everyone fell about laughing and said I should just go and sit in the car.
> 
> Here she is in action and she also flies over the jumps...


Oh bless her. Look at those ears! Lol. I've got hardly any photos of Rufus doing agility. Will have to take someone with me one day. Problem is I train 8 - 9pm so it's only high summer that it's light enough. It won't be long before the floodlights are back on.

Karen and Rufus x


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## embee (Dec 27, 2010)

Cockapoodledoo said:


> Oh bless her. Look at those ears! Lol. I've got hardly any photos of Rufus doing agility. Will have to take someone with me one day. Problem is I train 8 - 9pm so it's only high summer that it's light enough. It won't be long before the floodlights are back on.
> 
> Karen and Rufus x


Oh I'd love to see movies of him if you can persuade someone to go with you. Does he bark a lot like Flo? She is quite well behaved but barks quite a bit as soon as I take her lead off and she knows her turn is coming.

Her favourite thing is the A frame. Last week she sprinted up it and literally did a flying jump over the top but is always really happy tp pause on the contact point waiting for her treat as she is such a greedy guts.

A couple of weeks ago she was supposed to do 2 jumps and come round to the A frame. John had already put a treat at the end of the A frame and when I let her go she turned round went and grabbed the treat then came back and did the whole thing in the right order.

John has said she is potentially a good agility dog but I think he thinks she is held back by her owner who is not potentially a good agility handler


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## Cockapoodledoo (Feb 8, 2011)

Goodness me Mandy, our dogs sound identical! Rufus gets really over excited when it is his go and barks like mad. I've had to start using a jiff lemon filled with water which I spray at him if he barks too much. It may sound cruel but it works a treat. I'm reaching the point now where I just show him the squeezie jiff lemon and he stops! 

It really takes a while to get the handling right. It's the thinking ahead to the next obstacle that gets me. Straight lines are a dream!

I'll see what I can do over August about getting at least some pics if not a movie.

Karen and Rufus x


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## weez74 (Feb 9, 2011)

Thanks everyone - we had lots of fun. I had looked into all the kit (Cani-X is a proper sport and so you can buy lots of kit for running with dogs) but it was so expensive (a really basic kit was over £20 and it looked really cheap and horrible - the good stuff was about £100!) and I thought there was a chance that Rosie might not like it and it would be a waste. 

Luckily, when we first got Rosie I bought a Halti lead, that is really versatile and you can clip it a number of different ways, and I found I can actually clip it round my waist. Then I bought a normal halter for her (which cost about £6 and which I also use on her, with a seatbelt clip, when she travels in my Mini), and finally, found a bungee on ebay that has carabiners on each end (about £2.50 for two, I think), so that went in between the two, to absorb the shock of her stopping to wee/chasing birds, or me falling over!

It worked really well! I thought that if we kept going, I would invest in the proper stuff, but to be honest, this works so well that I'm not sure I'll bother. Cani-X is about getting your dog to pull you along, rather than jog along beside you, which is why they have padded harnesses and heavyweight leads, but I'm not interested in that type of running, so my equipment will do fine!

I love the agility pics, Mandy - Flo is so good! I'm definitely interested in doing that with Rosie, but that looks much more high-impact than running, so I think I should definitely wait until she's older.


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## weez74 (Feb 9, 2011)

Cockapoodledoo said:


> Well I'm just getting over reading 50 minutes! Running for 50 minutes Louise?!! I can walk all day and have done a couple of walking marathons but I can't run to the end of the road without dying! Lol.
> 
> I'd like to train myself to run. I've looked into it a bit and the slow and steady build up is the route for me......run for one minute; walk for two minutes; run for one minute ....etc etc. Though the second week you need to aim for five minutes of running in one go .......hmmmmn. Lol
> 
> ...


A cockapoo running club woudl be good, but I fear I would be the slowest! If it helps, I tried the run/walk thing for years and never got further than running for about three minutes! Then I started a new job and got persuaded to run at lunchtimes with some women who told me they were really slow. One of them took me under her wing and told me to just not stop. We ran for 2.5 miles, some of which was at a slower speed than if I had stopped to walk, but because I kept 'running', my heart rate didn't drop down and my muscles didn't cool down, and so I didn't have the struggle to start back up again! I was so amazed. I'm still definitely NOT a runner, but I have a place in the GNR in September, so I have to keep going!


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## Sezra (May 20, 2011)

This might be a bit nicer than running with a poo bag! 

http://www.dickybag.com/

Not sure how you would attach it to yourself  but might be worth a look!


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## Cockapoodledoo (Feb 8, 2011)

Louise, that's interesting about just keeping going - however slowly. I'm still only in the 'thinking about it' stage though! Lol

I started agility with Rufus at 6 months. It was a beginners class and everything was on the ground i.e. the jump poles were laying on the grass etc. We built up really slowly so that the dogs were a year old before they were doing really high impact stuff. Any good agility club will be able to guide you on ages etc. Some clubs may not take dogs until they are a year old; it just happens that the club I attend also run puppy classes. It might be worth making enquiries as there is often a waiting list.

Karen and Rufus xx


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## JulesB (Mar 6, 2011)

Well i eventually got round to taking Betty out for a run with me today, it's taken me til now as i have been lazy about running but as I'm doing a half marathon again next year i need to get out running. Well Betty was really good! We did a 3.5 mile loop i often run and she wasn't panting at all when we got home and seemed quite happy trotting along beside me. I did stop to let her have a sniff a couple of times and luckily she poo'd near a bin but i will defo take her out running again!!


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## ali-s.j. (Jun 6, 2011)

Oh, I got so excited, I thought Karen (Wilfiboy) and Louise were back! Then realised my date is on American format 

Is anyone in touch with them? Would love to know how they all are.


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## JulesB (Mar 6, 2011)

i know i wondered where they had got to as well!


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