Jogging with Kyara

M

Meldor

Forums Enthusiast
I have not been posting in the last few months as I have been busy with the new house but have been reading up on all your sheltie adventures whenever I have the chance.:smile2: With all this being busy, I have not been exercising regularly and am really out of shape (without mentioning that I started doing agility again with Kyara and a single run as got me completely out of breath :lol:). I decided I want to start jogging again and since I only have time to job at 5h30am, I don't feel very secure running alone that early, therefore I want to bring Kyara as some form of company and protection.

I will start with 5 to 10 minute jogs for the first few weeks and I am hoping to build that up to at least 5 x 20 minute jogs per wk. I will jog on a running track 2 min from my house and have Kyara running in the grass right beside the track so it isn't too hard on her joints.

The problem is that whenever I start running (unless we are doing agility and I am handling in way that Kyara understands which obstacle to take), Kyara gets overly excited and will start doing the darn herding me thing a.k.a snapping at my heals or bouncing in my legs. I had tried jogging with her when she was 18 months and stopped bringing her as I was afraid that when she did that, she or I might get injured by me tripping over her or over the leash.

Now that she is almost 3 and a lot calmer, I am hoping I can train this behavior out of her. My plan is to bring my treat bag and clicker and treat her for staying on my side and adding a cue for doing it when she gets the hang of it. I thought that maybe someone else had experience with this and would have other tricks that might help. Did any of you manage to train your sheltie to jog with you? Or to stop doing the snapping at your heals things in other circumstances (agility/when your kids run/etc.)?

Thanks in advance!:smile2:
 
Lexi is like this too, but I can now easily snap her out of it by stopping and saying "unh-unh". I can also just pull the leash out to the side a bit (so she can't reach my feet/cut in front of me) and say "unh-unh" without stopping my motion and she stops.

Your plan sounds like a good one!
 
Honey did that when we first started. I think the biggest thing that helped is whenever she would start I would stop running and just walk. She was very motivated to run, so it was just simply horrible punishment for her :lol:

I think more or less, it's a matter of doing it, and they eventually get the idea that running forward is the job, not the herding.
 
Meldor said:
My plan is to bring my treat bag and clicker and treat her for staying on my side and adding a cue for doing it when she gets the hang of it.
Click to expand...

I did something similar with Jody and it worked grate. Because he's toy motivated, and if I give him a treat he'll go completely nuts, I used his tug-of-war rope (without the ball attached to it!). That toy doesn't get him to exited but still grabs his attention.
 
Hahahhahahha... I run so stinkin slow that Sally is usually out in front of me, but sometimes I catch her looking at me and getting all excited like it's time to herd mom so I give her an "uh uh" and a frown and she stops. It's easier to stop it right when they start to focus on it then after they are all excited about it.
 
Thanks everyone for the tips!

Now it's just a matter of finding my motivation to wake up early and run :lol:.
 
My dog would get excited and try to nip my ankles when we jogged. I redirected her to her leash. So now when she gets excited while running, she'll grab her leash and hold it in her mouth when she runs.
 
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