Jean;18895 said:
I'm wondering, does your dog's pads get worn? I find that my Border Collie always hurt her pads when she runs too long on pavement... :dogsad:
Most of the trails i run are actually dirt/gravel and are well groomed by the park service. There is one trail i go on very rarely that has a patch of larger rocks (they're like 3-4 inches across) and i think they cut Koda's pads up once. Other than that their pads are in great condition! I don't do much to them at all. If their pads are dry and prickly (happens more with the dogs that don't go running) I will coat the pads with vaseline, slip on an old sock and vet wrap it to keep it on, and leave it overnight or for at least 3 hours and then rub in the rest when i take the sock off. That helps to hydrate the pads and keep them soft. But for the guys that go running all the time i don't do much.
We use a product at work called tuff-foot that helps dogs who are very sensitive to walking on the pea gravel we have in the out door yards. That seems to help them, maybe it will work for Chase?
jazzycat;18896 said:
So lexio, do you have any control over where they go? Can you steer them, or are you at the mercy of the dogs?
I don't have reins or anything, if they decided to veer off course randomly i am completely at their mercy, except i can stop them if they don't wreck me (which has happened only once so far *knock on wood*).
That being said, Koda knows vocal commands for left, right, woah, line out (still working on perfecting that one), and we recently started working on gee and haw which i am using to mean "move to the right side of the trail" or "move to the left side of the trail" without turning. Baxter has just started learning the commands left, right and woah - which are the most important.
Trophy is clueless and just runs for the thrill of running. Often he will try to veer off after a bird or rabbit. Baxter ignores birds, but did try to go after a rabbit that crossed several yards infront of us once.
That's where i just thank my lucky stars that Koda knows that running the trail and not going off course is his
JOB and luckily he keeps the others in line. That's something that can be taught but will take a long time to teach if your dog doesn't pick it up in the first few sessions. Koda was born to run the trails!