Trial and Error

I'm a huge fan of The Dog Whisperer, and even though I'm a pretty experienced dog owner/handler/trainer I learn something new in every episode.

One thing he's demonstrated more than once is exercising big energetic dogs by running them beside you on a bike. I was initially really nervous about it because when I'm walking/running Kona the Crack Monster he's kind of all over the place, but Cesar explained that if you get them going fast enough (i.e. Siren doesn't run that fast), they get into what's essentially a 'traveling with the pack' mode and can't focus on anything but moving with you.

Today was so beautiful and Kona had such a raging case of spring fever I decided today was the day. My comfy hybrid bike is easy to ride and is completely upright with no shoulder pressure, so I felt justified in breaking the "no bike" rule.

Wonderful Husband tagged along on his bike just in case, but Kona took to it instantly and was clearly have a blast. Within about block he was galloping along looking happier than I've ever seen him.

We decided to keep it short, both in deference to his paws and the fact that he hasn't gotten too much cardio over the winter. He seemed to enjoy every minute, and we gave all the neighbors out enjoying the lovely spring evening something to laugh about.

Unfortunately, I got carried away and my version of keeping it short wasn't short enough. We rode less than 2 miles - and he's walked twice that with me in the past. But since running is much harder on the paws it wasn't nearly short enough and when we came into the house we quickly noticed his poor little feet were bleeding all over the place. I found about half a dozen raw spots on 3 paws. He was a great sport and stayed pretty still for us while we cleaned them up and taped tube socks onto them. They don't seem to bother him at all.

Ironically, had we not just run him 2 miles there's no way we'd have gotten him to sit still for the foot treatment. At least I knew what to do from my old vet tech days.

He doesn't seem to mind the socks at all and hasn't even tried to pull them off. He looks so silly sliding around the wood floor with the socks on his feet I can't stop laughing. Wonderful Husband isn't so amused, but since Kona's basically fine I consider it a lesson learned, and once he gets healed up I'll start building his paws up with short, slow outings so we can do this right. I also learned about some rubber doggy boots that are supposed to work well when the pavement's hot in the summer.

Even with the minor complication, I'm thrilled to have learned that a post-run Kona behaves like the sweet, wonderful dog I knew he was capable of being. Definitely motivation to get his feet in condition to keep running with the bike, because that's going to be the key to permanently separating Kona from his inner Crack Monster.