Running Mad - Kids And Your Dog

Photo Credit: USATF JO, Reno, NV, Kingstown, RI, JO Runners Up, warm up for Nationals. Photo: Lorraine Horton

For the most part the posts here have been centered around how you and your pet can benefit from healthy walks, and the assumption has been that the audience consists of adults. Doggie Sensei is going to depart from this standard to discuss the benefits of pets for children who suffer from Tourrette's Syndrome and ADHD, and how the same principles of consistent exercise discussed for adults can benefit children as well.

Your doggie is a wonderful therapist. The unconditional love that they give can become a source of comfort for children who have the extra energy resulting from chemical imbalances of the brain. Simply said, a dog can become a focal point for a child to distract themselves from excess urges, fears, anxiety and or emotional issues that can arise from ADHD. When your child has something external to fixate on, someone that they must care for, then their own worries are forgotten. The consistency required for keeping a dog healthy and well behaved require their constant attention.

If your child is old enough and is able to go with on the doggie walks or runs, have them go with you on a regular basis. Walking the dog is a gentle activity and gives you the opportunity to have conversations with your child. The process of walking, talking occasionally, and minding the dog have a marvelous affect on a child with ADHD, as the route will be a controlled, slow release of energy. Give them the leash, and make them walk at an even pace - your child will be amazed at how energy it takes to just mind the dog and NOT go running of down the path. When sustained over 20 minutes their energy is will be expended without the hyper jump in adrenaline caused by sprinting. This pace is best on an evening walk.

To get the day started, a run may be in order. A study conducted by Dr. Micheal Wendt reveals some insight on the affects of exercise and ADHD. For six weeks, Dr. Wendt led a group of children through a series of intense exercise, intense enough to "..increase the production of neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters are important for adequate communication between nerve cells." This burst of neurotransmitters, he notes, is the same result achieved with the medications many ADHD children take. A run with your child and the dog could be a better means of adjusting their brain chemistry without the side effects of a heavy duty medication.

There you have it. Good things come from walking the dog. No small surprise - that's why Doggie Sensei keeps writing about this wonderful relationship you can have with your pet.

Downtime and How to Keep Moving

Photo Credit: Ranger Gord

Sometimes your body just needs to recover. Yesterday Doggie Sensei twisted his ankle while running. This morning instead of running, Missy accompanied me on just half the route. Even when the owner is hurt the pet still has its needs that must be fulfilled, so when you have an exercise regimen with your your pet it's important to build in contingencies.

Talking half the walk is better than simply not walking at all because conditions are not optimal. Your dog will sense your slower pace and adjust. That's why they're such good partners. Keeping to your schedule will help you recover more quickly, as your mind is redirected from your injury. Your doggie can help you not think about the hurt.

This is not to say that your mind can overrule all injury. To the contrary, when you need to sit one out, you should do so you do not prolong your hiatus. The same holds true for your doggie, especially when their paws have been injured. Give them the proper care and time and you'll be back on track.

The Coach Does NOT Run

Photo credit: Laertes

For those of you who are avid runners you may find taking your doggie with you to be real challenge. When Doggie Sensei started, it became apparent that my doggie could out-sprint Doggie Sensei, but the differential in strides and rhythms meant that my doggie would speed up or slow down at different times during the run. Her sustained pace changed when mine wouldn't.

Dogs have a different pace, so when you start a jogging regimen with them, you'll have to to change your pace. It's just that simple. This will mean you'll have to do double duty running. In addition to the responsibility to your dog, you'll have to set aside time for your own sprinting or other human paced running activities.

For your doggie to keep a healthy pace, you should run no faster than your dog can trot. You recognize this as it is characterized by the rhythm of "tick-tick-tick-tick" as the front leg and opposite back leg move in unison. Next time you go out, listen for that rhythm. This is very comfortable for your doggie since they can sustain this without discomfort. Then to see the contrast, pick up your pace and watch them as they start that lope that is characterized by the head lifting up slightly as the front feet move followed by the back legs. It's like a ripple that moves through your dog and has staggered rhythm of "dugg-it dugg-it dugg-it".

Learn the sounds of these paces. Your doggie maybe your motivation for getting out there and movin' it, but they should not be running. Just a gentle trot as you both move together is what will benefit you both.

The Joy of Running on a Full Belly

Photo Credit: Chris Gin

One of the benefits of having a dog for a coach is that they are unrelenting. As people, we do have the ability to adapt our schedules. Dogs, God love 'em, can not.

Miss a morning run and, depending on the breed, you have to make up for it in a big way later on in the day. Like, after dinner, when you're tired, it's Friday, you're full, you want to sit and vegg in front of SciFi. Being the ever vigilant coach, your dog doesn't care about that stuff. It's time to get out there and stretch Doggie Sensei Daddy. Yeah, where can I chase some squirrels!!!

Once you give in, ignore all thoughts of "I'll just make this a walk around the block" and do the dance daddy. Go that whole route. For those of us who run, run that route. Your stomach will hurt, your sides will feel like splitting. Breathing is really hard, no rhythm, all steps jarring, when will this stop, I should have stuck with the schedule.

Sensei's theory is that when you complete the route in the most of sub-optimal conditions, and by that I mean fighting all the way against your dessert, you have added to your "Discipline Bank". That means the next time when conditions aren't as bad, you'll feel that progress come to fruitition. Effort banked from the bad sessions pays off, only later.

Lazy Motivation

If you think about, sometimes motivation gets in the way. Bear with me on this: how many times have you not performed your routine because conditions were sub-optimal? When you adhere to the definition "I am motivated when I am doing X on a Y basis", it can be easy to fool yourself to NOT to proceed because you won't get the optimal benefit, so you wait until conditions are right.
Guess what - you've just taken a step backwards, as your ideal of motivation stalled you out.

With external sources of motivation, sometimes you are forced to roll, to go for it, get it out of the way. Hence your doggie is a good source of motivation. Do it for her / him, as they need to get outside and stretch. When they are the focus, then your goals are also achieved, even when conditions are not optimal. De-motivate to get it done.

The Story of Missy and the Secret of Consistency

This is Missy, a dog that we adopted from a local shelter. She was with a marvelous foster family who could now longer keep her, and had been in and out of several shelters. When the foster family took her in, she was schedule to be destroyed that very week. They cared for her for several months before we found her at Petfinder.com.

Missy had never been walked on a regular basis, and as you can see, she is a very strong pitbull. You can imagine what energy she has and there were times when she could become too energetic for our kids. While she never was aggressive with the children, she could cause a real ruckus if she got running around in the house.

What many people do not realize when they get their pets is that the new pet need a schedule of exercise just a hyperactive like a child. Obedience school, while a good thing for people who have never had a dog, is not the critical element for a well balanced dog. Simply said, the dog needs to see you as the leader. The fastest and most effective way to achieve this is to walk, walk, walk your dog. We started Missy on a program of daily walks that lasted for 1 hour. During these walks Missy had to learn how to stay by my side. Within a few weeks we noticed a huge difference in her behavior. We also noticed that we started to lose pounds as we spent our free time making sure Missy got her exercise. A year later Missy is the gentlest, well behaved dog who interacts well with other dogs and loves children. What a story!