This guy

This guy, Sparky, is the reason I did over 11 miles on the trails on Sunday at a pace just over 15 minutes per mile. I often refer to him as my personal trainer. He's definitely my preferred hiking buddy and he's the only one I took until a couple other dogs came along (Ochie and Max) who really need more stimulation and exercise than they get just by being outdoors and playing with other dogs.

Sparky is a stud. He's the canine equivalent of that 20-something guy who divides his waking hours between lifting weights in the gym, running, and eating enough to provide fuel for those activities. He sets a good, brisk pace and encourages intermittent bouts of running. He's about a hundred pounds, has four legs, and a low center of gravity, so just holding onto his leash and restraining him to a speed that I can compete with provides a fairly decent core and upper body workout while we are walk/running.

This is not obedience-style dog walking. He drags me, yes, and if we are going uphill I encourage it and appreciate the assist. I only really discourage it if we are going downhill because of fear of falling, but he will "ease up" when I ask him to. Unless you are stopping briefly to pee, poop, or sniff, Sparky believes we should keep moving, although he does stop for a cool drink at most of the small streams we cross. That's when I can take a couple pictures and check our distance, but he doesn't have the patience for checking email or anything else.


He sometimes thinks something needs to be sniffed very thoroughly. The leash is 6' long. He's generally 6' ahead of me. If he stops, he has until I'm 6' ahead of him to do his sniff, pee, and scratch routine. Rarely do I need to pull him forward to keep us moving. I think it's because I've shown him that I'm willing to at least try to keep pace with him. If I set out at a casual walking pace with no sense of urgency, he'd do whatever he wanted, knowing that we aren't going anywhere fast anyway. The bottom line is that he likes to move and we are out there to move, so we move.

That is one fine hunk of dog.

Sunday's route, 11.11 miles