The Big Ragu

I decided I needed an alternative to the dog park.  As much as I love to watch Carmine play and interact with other pooches, I started to see what every trainer I know always says:  Dog parks are a breeding ground for unstable, aggressive, and untrained dogs. And even if your dog is the best behaved dog (don’t we all think that) it’s the other dog and most likely the owner who is the problem.

So I decided to take Carmine on his first “run” (actually jog) on his first Thanksgiving.  I also figured it was good for me to run that morning to absolve my guilt-to-come as I would be eating later in the day as if I were going to the electric chair!!!!

We walked briskly to the river where there’s a bicycle/runners path.

Carmine was like a kid in a candy shop!! The water, the seagulls, the bushes, the trees, the bicycles whizzing by, and the runners!  What’s a dog to do??!! Where do I look?? All these new sights and smells!!!!

His head was spinning from left to right.  We did jog a bit, and then we’d walk and alternate between jogging and walking for about an hour.  I brought home a very tired Carmine.

Thinking that our run was a huge success, I decided to try it again on Friday morning to burn off all those millions of calories I ingested the day and night before, and also to see how Carmine would do.  A different outcome this time:  Carmine was either still tired from the day before or he’s just not a fan of the jog.  He did do a couple of sprints, you know those puppy bursts of energy…but we mostly walked.  In fact, he flat-out laid down a couple of times.  Maybe the two days in a row wasn’t such a hot idea after all.

But I’m not giving up!  I’ll try again to get the young boy on the run.

And after that?   Agility here we come!!!