Fun Adventures While Running With a Dog

I'm ready to run!

My typical morning these days is pretty routine: wake up (usually by the sound of Tucker being awake), do some dynamic stretching/strengthening, and take Tucker for his walk/run.  This is great, because it forces me outside, even when I don't feel like it.  Like for example, this morning, since I had played my 1st softball game since I've been able to run again and let's just say that I haven't used those muscles in a long time (ie I was very creaky when I stepped out of bed this morning).  But before I could even have a chance to talk myself out of it, I saw those big eyes staring at my, excited to sniff a new day's worth of grass (and other mysterious things).

I normally start off with a bit of walking to let him get out some of that overnight bladder pee, but then we get moving.  Sometimes though, I notice that he's not quite ready to run at our normal pace.  Usually, that means he's got to take care of some "other" business.  But the best trick for making that happen is to do a little bit of running (1 or 2 minutes).  By the time you stop, he's off in the grass and in a matter of a few seconds of cleanup on my part, we're ready to get back to running.  So that's the typical run/walk. 

Ok, so maybe he didn't look like this

Today was a bit different though.  After his usual business, we were about 4 minutes into our running while no less than 3 inches in front of us comes a squirrel across the trail.  For anyone who has a dog with hunting instincts, you know that squirrels are the nemesis of anyone walking a dog.  The squirrel was literally within range of his mouth as it scurried by.  At that point, we had to take a timeout from running to calm down and focus on not trying to eat the squirrel (easier said than done!).  But after some stern and forceful nudging away from the crime scene, we finally made our way headed toward home.

All said, we ended up with about 10 minutes of running, which for me is a new high since coming back, and a fun memory of the time a squirrel almost took its own life by crossing the trail in front of a hungry dog.  Not a bad way to start my day if I do say so myself :)