RUNNING WITH DOGS

I have two lovely dogs, named Daphne and Daisy.

Daphne is two, hyper as a kid on sugar, and fit as an Olympic athlete.
Daisy is almost 10, mildly arthritic, and was just diagnosed with kidney disease.
I started running with Daphne to make her less annoying to Daisy. My attempt to burn off Daphne's excess energy is only slightly successful. My husband now claims that she's overly fit and impossible to wear out.

He might have a point.

Up until this fall, Daphne would play ball until your arm fell off, but only lasted 4 miles while running with me. I couldn't understand it.

But then her new best buddy, Ruby, came into the picture.

These two LOVE to go running!

Daphne and Ruby became running partners over the winter. Now Daphne can do 12 miles without breaking a sweat (literally, because dogs don't sweat like we do, which is why you have to watch out for overheating, which wasn't much of a threat this winter here in MN).

Isn't Daphne's snow beard beautiful?

For more safety tips for running with dogs, please check out this weekend's article in the Post Bulletin newspaper (which I also wrote):  http://www.postbulletin.com/life/lifestyles/pet-vet-a-dog-can-be-a-good-running-partner/article_789f1b8d-b1b5-5325-9789-16676634511a.html?mode=story

And I finally discovered that it IS possible to wear Daphne out running, but not until we hit 10-12 miles.

Here's photographic proof:

SO TIRED...

FIGHTING IT...

OUT FOR THE COUNT...

Daphne is a great running buddy. Her eyes light up as I tie on my running shoes. She's as happy as I am to hit the road or trails (and sweet, old Daisy is more than happy to nap in our absence).