Free running: an integral part of training

Dogs are social animals and, like any other social animal, they need time to play and blow off steam.  As the warm hues of a mild April evening close over the kennel, I throw on my boots and head outside for our daily free running session.

"I'm heading out the run the beasts!" I yell to my family as I hit the back deck.

When the dogs see me coming, they erupt into a chorus of excited yips, barks and howls. Next to dinner time, this is their favorite time of day: free run time.

I unhook the boys in front first, Miles, Perry, Tosh and Kerouac. Between the ages of 9 months and 2 years, they are the most pent up of the group and are eager to be free to run, full throttle around our "puppy paths" - the paths carved out along the perimeter of our seven acres where we run the dogs nightly. As the four wheeler roars to life, the boys are already zooming off around the puppy paths, and I have shifted into second gear by the time I catch them.

Perry is turning into quite a great sled dog already

Free running plays such an important role in my training program, and I free run the dogs every day - even in the hot days of summer. It gives the dogs a chance to play, but more than that, it gives them a chance to interact with each other in a more relaxed atmosphere, without the intensity of being hooked up on the gangline. This way they might have an opportunity to figure out where they are within the pack dynamic.

Free running also keeps the dogs in shape during the off season.  Sitting around in a kennel all summer is akin to creating doggy couch potatoes.

Finally, free running strengthens other muscles not used during pulling and running. For example, the dogs often chase each other at top speed, only to turn on a dime and dart off in the other direction. This helps keep them agile and to use all of those muscles and ligaments.

The dogs are enjoying these mild days of spring - cool enough for them to be comfortable yet warm enough for them to begin throwing their straw out of their houses.

Yeti lounges in the sunshine of a cool April day

Perry's dad, Yeti, is perfectly content lounging in the sunshine.

Freya never stops moving, even in the off season

Happy Easter from the Ranch, and as always...

Foxy, our matriarch

Foxy has been a couch potato for about a year and a half.

Until last week.

On a very cold night in January, 2009, she decided on an extremely rare fluke to break the fence and run away with her kennel mates, Mandy and Yeti. In a tragic accident that will haunt me forever, she was hit by a car that frigid night and found by a police officer who took her to the local Humane Society where I recovered her two days later. Mandy was never found. I was devastated by the loss of Mandy. I still think about her almost daily, holding onto a ridiculous hope that someday she will possibly reappear.

It was after this horrible accident that I started chaining all of the dogs up in the kennel. At 13 years of age, Foxy had a broken pelvis from being hit by the car. Our vet told us the prognosis was grim, at her age, and surgery, if we chose that route, would be outrageously expensive starting at $3,000...and risky, because of her age.

But, our vet said it would be possible for her to heal, with lots of rehabilitation, patience and TLC.

Maybe it was because I lost Mandy that I was so determined to do all I could to help Foxy. I started a fund to help raise the necessary funds needed for her surgery. And, in the meantime, she rested on our sofa. I carried her 62 pound body outside every few hours to go to the bathroom, and I brought food and water to her so she never had to leave the sofa.

So Foxy took up residence on our sofa. I massaged her hip, carried her, fed her, and with patience and time, she healed. But she still wanted to remain on the sofa!

So I wasn't sure how she would react when I moved her to the new kennels at our new place last week.



What a beautiful, beautiful girl Foxy is prancing like a puppy in the wildflowers that grow at our new place! She is like a puppy again, and seems so genuinely happy to be back with her pack in the kennels.

I free run my dogs daily. It's my favorite part of the day.

Here is a video of a free run I did with some of the dogs on Sunday afternoon. Watch Foxy prancing. At 14 1/2, she still has the heart of a puppy.

Namaste, goodnight.