Teaching My Puppy How to Run

In early April, I adopted the cutest being on the planet.

Her name is Zelda. She is a 6 month old black lab mix who loves to sleep.

She sleeps with her tongue out.

As a recent running buff, I was excited to have my puppy join me on my running adventures.

Little did I know I was going to have to build up her speed and endurance just like I built my own up.

It is safer to take dogs out on runs once they have reached a certain size. For medium to large breeds like Zelda, the information I saw said it was safe to start running with them at 6 months old.

So for 2 months, I patiently waited as my puppy grew tremendously, gaining almost 15 pounds in that span.

So now that she's so big, I figured a little one mile run would be pretty easy for her, and I could start at my normal pace, just building up her distance. 

Boy was I wrong.

My sleepy puppy is not very fast yet, and when I tried to start at my normal pace, I was practically dragging her along. 

I slowed down to her pace and we were able to run the whole mile without her stopping, which I was surprised about because of how much she was panting.

It took us about 11 minutes.

Not bad for a little puppy, but she's got some work to do.

I am going to keep consistently taking her on runs and coax her to get faster and faster. 

Stay updated on the blog to follow Zelda's running adventures.