Running

Today was another day off for Ashke. I want to make sure the bruising and swelling in his left knee is completely gone before we try a ride. When I went out on Friday, his knew was swollen a touch, so we went out to the wash rack and cold hosed it for about ten minutes. It brought the swelling down completely and when I was out today he was moving on it normally, plus no swelling. Looking forward to trying a ride tomorrow. If he is still sore, we will turn around and come back.

So today, we facilitated lots of running. We started with T and his third 5k since he finished cross-country.

J making T look taller than he is . . . 

 Getting lined up for the start

  Start of the race - still smiling.

We were up on a berm looking for him and completely didn't see him until he was racing past us on his first loop. 

Back side of the course. Almost at the two mile mark.

 Coming back past us on his second loop. He didn't know the race course and wanted to quit when he thought he had to run the course twice.

 J letting him know he only had a 1/4 mile or so left.

 Turning on the afterburners heading for the finish line.

 Completely off the ground

The last push for the line.

Personal best time of 28:56

Second place in his age bracket.

We took him home and grabbed the dogs to take them Lure Chasing. If you have dogs that like to run, this will be something you will want to find near your home. If was absolutely just as much fun as I had hoped.

Lily started first. The dogs ran separate so they are focused on the Lure instead of the other dog. The lure is two pieces of plastic bag tied on a rope that runs through the course. The course covered two fields, with uphills, downhills and turns to keep the dogs interested. And OMG, this is something we will continue to do. They had so much fun.

I lead Lily out onto the course, just holding to her collar. I was told to hold her until she fixed on the Lure and then let her go. It took 10 seconds for her to latch on to the lure, I let go and she took off.

 She ran until she was panting and foaming a little at the mouth.

 And I do mean flying

 She didn't look at anything other than the lure

 The course has a lot of turns. As she got better at chasing the lure, the operator slowed down the lure, so she had a better chance of catching it.

 There were a couple of times when she was close and so focused that she overshot the turn and almost piled into the fence.

 Intense concentration

 I think this may be the happiest this dog has ever been.

 Coming up on a turn. You can see the ropes on the course.

 So very happy.

 The white piece of litter in the bottom right corner of the photo is the lure.

 Turning the corner after the lure. It can run in either direction in various patterns. 

 Coming to the end. We did not want her to break herself.

I would so own one of these if I had a field. Even after her run, when there were other dogs on the field, she remained focused on the lure.

 Then it was Skittles turn.

 If you would have asked me ahead of time, I would have said that this would be Skittle's forte and Lily would have issues, but it was just the opposite.

 It took Skittle a little longer to lock onto the lure. She was more interested in the other dogs waiting to run, than in chasing the lure.

 Next time we will try them together, since Lily will chase the Lure and Skittle will chase Lily.

 She was focused on everything else.

 She locked on a couple of times and really ran.

bj

 But it wasn't something she would rather do than breathe.

 We had to refocus her a couple of times.

 They can really fly when they want to.

 She really does love to run, so maybe next time she will be more focused on the lure.

Her "I'm done, Mom" face.

We will try it again either one evening or next weekend. We took them to the dog park afterwards and let them play with each other and then home to crash in our chairs. It was a lot of fun and I highly recommend it. We watched everything from the size of a Rottie to the size of a bichon chase the lure. The operator moves the lure as slow or as fast as the dog will run. The funniest were the three basset hounds, however.