Sally w/Bandanna
Dogs are awesome. In case it wasn’t already clear, I am a huge dog person. Amy and I own a year and a half old black lab, husky, and cattle dog mix named Sally.
Yesterday, I spent almost all day inside looking for jobs and doing part time work for trueAnthem (a free music startup company I work for.) Finally at 6, I was feeling pretty gross and new I needed to go for a run. Unfortunately I had no motivation. Fortunately Sally did. She whined from our back patio indicating that we should go outside. Getting the hint, I asked her “Wanna go for a run?” To which she responded by coming over, putting her paws on my lap, and licking my face. It’s really hard to come up with excuses not to run with a cute dog starring at you.
I ended up taking Sally for a 2.5 mile run and then dropping her off at our apartment (much too her chagrin) and taking our downstairs neighbor’s dog for a 2 mile sprint. While Sally is still working on becoming a good runner, Chica, our downstairs neighbor’s dog is a great runner.
Chica
A couple days ago I took Chica on her first run ever. It wasn’t on purpose. I had just got back from a 4.5 mile loop around campus and was talking to Jenny, our downstairs neighbor, while she tried to take out Chica and talk on the phone at the same time. Chica was crazy excited to be outside after being stuck inside all day and was hoping around like Tigger from Winnie the Pooh (I really wish I had video to show you.) Anyways I took Chica to burn a little energy planning to sprint up and down the driveway (we live in an apartment complex with a 200m driveway.) Chica however had other ideas and was off to the races once she realized someone was running with her. We ended up doing my typically 2 mile Sally loop in record pace (sub 6:00).
After a long day of sedentariness, being motivated by two grateful dogs to get out and run was a blessing (for me and for them.) Reward your dog, go take them for a run. They’ll love you more for it.
