Canicross

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GinaB

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I keep seeing this mentioned a lot, do many on here do it? I think my dog (Jess, not Beastie!) would love it. She's very high energy. Although I think it would be the death of me. How do you get started?
 
you just get out and run, I started recently with my lurcher and am waiting for my made to measure harness to arrive for her-she pulls (a lot) so running whilst holding a lead in my hand creates back problems for me-so belt and bungy for me and harness for her.

my local running club are happy or people to run with their dogs so it may be worth looking there if you need so motivation
 
Hi Gina, there are lots of local informal groups who meet up for social runs as well as races and more competitive events. There is a facebook group called Canicross Trailrunners where you could add a post asking if there is a group in NI. I am not really a runner but my dog has been taking part in events for over two years now with my friend. As she is away at the moment I went as part of the Sussex team to Crufts on Friday. There was a canicross demo in the main arena with 16 teams in a knock out relay. It was great fun. All the people I have met are really friendly and there are lots of folk to help you with kit and loan stuff as you get started. You do really need a well fitting harness for your dog and a proper belt to guard against injury. And as was shown at Crufts it really is for all shapes and sizes of dog (and human!)
 
I do it with tia. I pretty much just started (I'm doing it with the c25k app atm as I'm horribly unfit!). I joined my local club and managed to get hold of some kit second hand. I love it. I know with the club I joined they have training runs and there is cake at the end....always a bonus!!
 
Can anyone give a brief description of what is actually involved other than running with your dog, I run with mine on the forest trails, but he's either off lead (and shows off going up the hills) or when he's on lead he runs at my side.
He's capable of the mileage (12mile long run yesterday, 13mile long run due on Saturday, think he might just tell me to p1ss off when it hits the 20mile run) just not sure if our style is acceptable!!
 
They must be on-lead for competition and while most will be seen running up front there is no reason the dog can't run alongside. The only thing that will be frowned up/result in disqualification with most organisations is a dog running behind or being in any way tugged along by the lead.

A consistently pulling dog on a well fitted belt makes for a much better run though, it lifts you through the hips and makes it (slightly) more effortless. :p
 
I stumbled on this post while doing some work for our Cani-sports Edinburgh website - Naryafluffy have you found us yet? As you can tell from the name we're from just outside Edinburgh - we run canicross style and we ask for all dogs to be on lead at official runs - if you're wondering why we do this rather than offlead, please come along and meet us and see, its a very different feeling running canicross style, tires the dog out more physically as technically they're meant to be pulling and mentally as you're meant to be running as a team - we do have adhoc runs in the Pentlands where some people run with their dog offlead (dependent on sheep!) - although the pulling isn't necessary (my dog doesn't pull) - your dog having lots of fun is! We have kit you can borrow, our website has a beginner's guide and an FAQ and if you have any more questions just ask or meet us for a walk, trial run etc (if you haven't already done so) http://canisportsedinburgh.co.uk/?page_id=68
Naryafluffy said:
Can anyone give a brief description of what is actually involved other than running with your dog, I run with mine on the forest trails, but he's either off lead (and shows off going up the hills) or when he's on lead he runs at my side.
He's capable of the mileage (12mile long run yesterday, 13mile long run due on Saturday, think he might just tell me to p1ss off when it hits the 20mile run) just not sure if our style is acceptable!!
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