Canicross Social Run

It’s 6.15am on a Saturday and my mam is out of bed. Really, what is going on?!? Even the fish tank lights haven’t turned on yet. Maybe she is ill? Hang on a minute, she appears to be putting her running clothes on. Ah, she is most definitely ill or has lost her mind as she only runs in the evening. I’d better just prance around and get in her way and see what she is up to.

She’s had her breakfast and looks ready and is now looking for a harness, but not the walking ones. Hang on a minute, could this mean what I think it means? Oh yes, she has my special green harness that I wear for running. Ooh, ooh, am I going out with her? But why am I going in the van? We run from home when I have my special green harness on. Oh well, this must be a trick but I’ll go along with it and get in the van and pretend to be surprised when we get there.

The van has stopped and we are at Watergate Forest Park, where I’ve been before with some of my Saturday friends. But I don’t recognise this dog and they have a new human with them. And there’s another dog and their human as well. Now I’m really confused but excited.

Then mam explains we are here to have a run with the North of Tyne canicross group to see what it is like. Ah, it all makes sense now.

Canicross Woody

There is a bit of a back story to running with my mam. We both started last year and we went out together quite a few times. We never really got the hang of running together and then mam was ill and then injured herself and we stopped running. She decided to start again a few weeks ago but she didn’t take me with her. She wanted to see if she could enjoy it again and get a bit of fitness back before she started with me, as I’m a rather large dog and can make mam run a bit too fast at times. Now she is enjoying running again she is going to start taking me out more regularly so I can learn how to run with her in my harness. I have a special job to do as I get to pull her along (but I cheat on the hills and trot along beside her and watch her struggle when she could really do with a pull-along).

We both enjoyed our run today and I enjoyed the water stops as I really like to get wet. It was handy having so many places to get a quick drink to keep me cool and help mam on her run. I picked up a few pointers on how to run properly with mam and she told me she is going to keep us both right and see how we go. I’m going to go out on her shorter runs with her running app so we can learn together and she is going to do the longer run/walk by herself, as it may be a bit much for me at the moment.

You will also notice that I have a new haircut. After the disaster a few weeks ago when I had all my hair clipped off, mam is trying her best to sort my top knot out so I’m not ‘naked’ again. I like my hair shorter as it keeps me cooler in the summer and mam likes it shorter as it is easier to keep me a bit cleaner after I have been in every bog I can find on our walks. It definitely makes running easier so she sorted my hair out just in time.

Well, that’s enough from me, as I’m off to lounge on the sofa after all that running.

Bye for now.

Woody Poodle xx