Jogging with a Beagle

I’ve written before, in talking about Larry and June’s exercise needs that you can’t jog with a Beagle. I must admit, that’s not quite true. You can jog with a Beagle- kind of.

In the mornings, I take the dogs for a walk before I head out to work. It is not a long walk- two blocks to the end of the street and then back. Both dogs usually get their business done during the first half of the walk, so when we turn around and head back to the house, there is a chance that we can jog the whole way.

Here are the keys to jogging with a Beagle.

1)      The Beagle has to want to jog

a)      If the Beagle really wants to move fast, you better be prepared to pick up your pace or return to a walk. Otherwise you’re likely to be pulled at a rate that has you tripping yourself.

2)      It is best to keep the Beagle away from anything it might want to sniff

3)      You must be in an environment where you are free to pay more attention to the Beagle than you are the road

4)      Do not expect to be able to do this for extended distances

This means that at about 6:30am, when we try to jog back home, I stay in the street, with Junebug in the middle of the street instead of near the side of the road (where there are many more smells). Because it is a short distance, on a dead end street, and it’s dark out, it is very easy for me to tell when vehicles are coming our way and to get out of their way in plenty of time.

The biggest challenge is actually keeping June in view. Her stocky body and low center of gravity don’t just mean that she’s excellent at pulling when she wants to go, but also very good at holding her ground when she wants to stop. She can dig in with the best of them. If I am paying attention to something other than June, and she decides to stop, then I am stopping too, very suddenly.

I would say that about 60% of the time, the three of us are able to jog the whole two blocks back to our house. Sometimes we get interrupted in the middle by a particularly interesting bit of garbage that she will run around me to get to, and other days, she is just much more interested in smells than getting back home.