The runner in question is Clarke McClymont, and Cooba the Cattle Dog is his training partner as he prepares himself for ultramarathons like last year’s Kokoda Challenge, where the team he was in smashed the race record by around and hour and thirty minutes, over some of the toughest terrain in a trail race anywhere in Australia.

Cooba was bought in the outback mining town of Coober Pedy, and has travelled extensively with Clarke and his wife Tiffany.  He’s three and a half years old, and regularly runs thirty to forty kilometres in training.  He’s also been known to surf on a longboard and plays fetch at the beach for hours at a time.  Four weeks ago he did a 50km road run with Clarke, then he swam after a stick at the beach for an hour. The McClymonts  thought they had broken him when he slept in the car on the way home, but as they drove into their street Cooba had to jump out the window and go across the road to join in a soccer game with the neighbourhood kids until dark.

Cooba has no trouble with his weight, because he has such an active lifestyle.  He goes to work every day with Clarke and does pretty much every run with him, except for races.  Cooba eats Proplan for highly active and working dogs. A cup in the morning and a cup at night. If he’s been good he gets a can of sardines in oil over them. He also goes nuts for chicken necks and bones.

As well, he has to confess to being not just an ‘indoor’ dog, but an ‘in bed’ dog too. “In terms of sleeping arrangements, he starts the night on his mat but usually ends up between us on the bed at about 4am – usually diagonally with all of the doona.” says Clarke of his dog.

When Cooba was 6 months old he snapped his cruciate ligament jumping out of the window of a stationary car. It was  feared he would never be able to run but the McClymont’s vet tried a new procedure to repair his leg and so far he is the perfect case study. The vet often slows down if he’s driving past to assess his gait.

So far, so fantastic for our May running dog of the month!

There are a couple of reasons why we’re doing this. Firstly, we’re always open to learning about new ways of getting fit and staying healthy with our dogs. The challenges will give us the chance to have a go at something different, something other than going for a run.

Also, it’s always great to hang out with like minded folk, and we’re hoping we get to know others who are as interested in dog health and fitness as we are.

Why don’t you head on over to Peggy’s Pet Place and Kol’s Notes and read about the challenges in K9 camp, and have a go with your dog? If you do, we’d love to hear about how you’re getting on.

The first challenge is issued on Friday, US time. Bring it on!

Pooch to 5k were thrilled to win the best dog website of the year award at the recent MDBA awards night. It’s great to see that others think the program is valuable too.

My name is Jon and I have a beautiful Black Lab named Lars who back in July of 2011, underwent a TPLO on his rear left leg. TPLO stands for tibia plateau leveling osteotomy, and is the newest surgery to be developed for dogs who present with a torn cruciate ligament. Lars tore his cruciate when sprinting around our dog park in January of 2011, but unfortunately for him, and myself it took more than five months before he was properly diagnosed.

Once diagnosed, Lars, or Bar as I affectionately call him was booked for surgery and things began moving very quickly! Even after he tore his cruciate, Lars, who loves to run would run like there was nothing wrong, only to be hobbling around for the next day or two on his sore leg. My main concern with him being such a young dog was that he would be crippled for life, even after the surgery but the surgeon told me that a TPLO, would offer him the best chance of a full recovery and I jumped at the opportunity!

I am not going to sugar coat the recovery process. It is long, stressful and does have its fair share of hick-ups. Lars’ recovery got off to a great start, but his 12 week x-ray showed a small regression. Compared to other TPLO stories I researched online however, Lars had it easy and now that he is almost a year post-op, he is doing great and is probably as good as he is going to get. His leg lacks the muscle tone that his other rear leg has, and he pronates a little bit because of the adjusted angle that the femur and tibia connect, but aside from that, he is back to being a little jitter bug! He is back running a few days a week, and he would be running more if it was not for my extreme nervousness when it comes to letting him be more active. I am very protective of him, similarily to an overprotective parent if you will and I can just imagine what he would say to me if he could.

For anybody with a young dog who has the unfortunate luck to end up in the situation we did, I highly recommend the TPLO! It definitely is the most invasive of the surgical options, but it also has the best prognosis for recovery and the return to full, or near full activity.

My wife, Carolina, and I moved to Greece about 4 years ago and immediately started looking for a house and dog. On the morning that we were due to move in, Carolina spotted an advertisement for a gorgeous little puppy that needed a home. She rang the number immediately and arranged for us to meet him. It was truly love at first sight. Biskotouli was found in the mountains near Athens along with his mother who unfortunately was very sick and had to be euthanized. But her son immediately became a cherished member of our family.

I was running most days and started taking Bisko with me for company. In the beginning I was only covering short distances with him but on returning home could see he was still full of energy. We discovered he was obsessed with rocks, so we started draining his excess energy by throwing them up and down rocky cliffs, which he fetched with the agility of a mountain goat! Over time I increased the distance until eventually he was joining me on all of my training sessions, including my long runs of up to 40km. I just carried a collapsible water container and some snacks with me.

Bisko quickly became impatient with me and started demanding I take him for runs more often. He would go into our bedroom, take one of my running shoes and run outside and wait. How could I refuse this gorgeous boy! It wasn’t long before I entered Bisko in his first race, a 21km trail run up and down a mountain behind Athens. I couldn’t believe how competitive he was! He didn’t even want to stop for a drink; he just wanted to pass everyone and dragged me up that mountain with ease. Most people were shocked to see him passing them and nearly everyone wanted to hold his lead for some assistance. I spoke with so many people on that run and Bisko got a lot of encouragement; it was a really nice experience and I was so proud of him at the finish.

His next challenge was the Athens Classic Marathon. We ran this together in a time of 3hrs:50min. I’m not exaggerating when I say Bisko could have easily run this in under 3hrs if it wasn’t for me slowing him down! It was a truly moving experience entering the stadium at the finish and hearing so many people cheering for us. They were very kind to let him enter the stadium and give him a medal (he has a collection now).

You can’t imagine how happy Bisko gets when he hears the magic word (run) and how much it makes him smile. He is the happiest dog on the planet when he is exercising with us and without his company I probably wouldn’t run half as much. Bisko also enjoys kayaking and swimming and just recently competed in his first Triathlon (Tri4Pets) here in Greece. He finished both the 300m swim (beating me by about 50m!) and 5km run. I’ve just got to device a way of getting him to ride a bike and we have an IronDog on our hands!

I’ve often thought that my dog seems to feel just as good as I do after a run, but I’ve been unable to find any scientific proof, until now.

Researchers at the University of Arizona put dogs, humans and ferrets on a treadmill, and measured the amount of endocannabinoids that were produced after exercise. Endo – produced inside the body, cannabinoids – chemicals that activate cannabinoid receptors in the brain that cause a euphoric feeling.

Ferrets aren’t a species that evolved to run, so it’s not too surprising that they didn’t show any response to running. However, both dogs and humans showed much higher levels of endocannabinoids after a session on the treadmill. This means that our dogs do indeed get that runner’s high.

One thing to take note of is that this research found that dogs didn’t get those good feelings after a low intensity walk. What does this mean for you? It means that walking your dog is certainly nice, it gives him the opportunity to sniff and explore and, if he’s anything like my Guinness, to pee on any vertical object. But, it isn’t likely to have any effect on his behaviour. If you’re looking to make your dog calmer, happier and more chilled, then you need to get him out for a run.

That’s not hard, even if you’ve never run before. Grab our training program – it’s free – and make a start. You and your dog will both feel good,  and you can both spend the rest of the day enjoying your runner’s high.

You can read the abstract from the Journal of Experimental Biology here.

When you think of Easter Sunday, you think of chocolate for breakfast and late sleep ins. This year, this was not to be for a large group of runners who had joined me in participating in the Wild Horse Criterium of 2012.

As I am a beginner, I took part in the 12km race, whereas others had braved 36 and even 60km, yet still had a smile on their faces as they crossed the finish line. It didn’t matter though, there was a large sense of community, and a sense of belonging, even when I had chosen my faithful four legged friend to accompany me through the trails of the Glasshouse Mountains.

Understandably, there were murmurs of doubt that this was in fact, a good idea. Would she obstruct other runners coming the opposite direction to us, would she decide to leave a few presents along the way, all these questions, I already had the answer to in my head, but I still needed to prove that she was an athlete too, and was there for the same reason.

We arrived after a scenic drive early in the morning, the race organisers were kind enough to let those of

us with dogs start early, so as  not to cause too much of an obstruction, and to avoid the dogs needing to run in the heat. As we found each other, the dogs were more than excited at the fact there were other canine companions to run with. The majority of them had met before, those we had not were happy to introduce themselves, and all without incident. There were even quite a few of the more elite runners who came up to distribute pats, and all with that smile we had been hoping for.

As we set out, my Siberian Husky had seemingly mistaken me for a sled and full steam ahead, we fell into our formations, and as I looked ahead, I saw the lovely backdrop of the Pine trees, turned the first corner and as they vanished, I saw bush, and sand. As I had only ever trained on concrete, you can imagine this was quite different for me, yet we powered on anyway. I can honestly say that every type of terrain was covered, my dog and I did not have any difficulty traversing this until we hit some rather large rocks, which are only navigable by walking through.

Along the way, we were passed by several runners coming through on their second and third laps, each with a kind greeting, a “well done” and the occasional “can I borrow your dog”. I think it was now becoming apparent that we had been accepted, as we had always moved off the trail if we had seen anyone coming.

As we hit the final creek crossing, which I must say was absolute heaven, and we may have stood in it for a good 2 minutes, we had almost made the finish line. Up a few more rocky slopes, down a few more gravel bends, and we had made it, and in the spirit of Easter, we were greeted with a chocolate Easter bunny, and a hot dog for my canine friend.

Once again after we had all completed the trail, we regrouped, all still smiling, and discussed the race, took a few pictures and parted ways.

On the drive home, I was still energised and chatting away about the event to my partner, who had come to volunteer, and as I looked in my rear view mirror, I saw my dog asleep in the back, looking very satisfied with herself, and so was I, for I had doubted myself, yet I had finished, and had a great time, which was a bonus.

I would highly recommend this event to beginners like myself, and more advanced athletes looking to break away from the usual pavement they see everyday.

If you get injured, the acronym you use to remember the treatment regime is R.I.C.E.R.  This stands for Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation, and Refer.  They’re all pretty obvious, maybe except for refer – it means to see a doctor if it is serious, debilitating, or fails to resolve within a day or so.  Anyway, ice is sometimes inconvenient to use – it gets wet as it melts, you have to remember to fill the ice cube tray, and your children steal all of the ice cubes to make slushies when you’re not looking.  Well, not any more!  I’ve created the perfect ice pack to treat injuries.  This ice pack doesn’t make a puddle, it doesn’t have lumps of ice, and no-one is going to steal it to make cold drinks.
To make it, you’ll need the following:

Three teaspoons of water storage crystals.  The brand I use is Homewares from Bunnings – where you live might not have the same brand but it should have the same stuff.  It is tiny white crystals like sugar, that swell up fifty to one hundred times their original size when they are saturated with water.  Use the remainder to make a second or third ice pack, or on your potted plants.

300 ml of methylated spirits.  This stops the water in the ice pack from freezing solid – alcohol freezes at a much lower temperature than a domestic freezer can achieve. 

The amount was selected to maximise the frozen water and yet minimise the size of the ice crystals.   If you don’t want to use methylated spirits, you could use Vodka instead…

Blue food colour.  You want to know if the ice pack springs a leak in the freezer and you want to make sure you don’t mistake it for food.  There aren’t many foods that are bright blue.

2 Litre (about US 1/2 gallon) wine cask bladder.  Nothing comes close – they are robust, inexpensive, easy to fill and readily obtainable.  Empty it out carefully (-: lever the stopper off with a spoon or similar, rinse it, and it’s ready to use.

Method:

1.  Using a spoon or a spatula lever the tap out of the circular hole in the bladder.
2.  Put three teaspoons of water storage crystals in the bladder.
3.  Add 1.2 litres (2.5 pints) of water to the bag, using a funnel.
4.  Add 300 ml (10 US fluid ounces) of methylated spirits to the bladder using the funnel again.
5.  Add three to five drops of blue food colour to the bag.
6.  Replace the stopper fully, shake the bladder, and leave it overnight.
7.  Squeeze most of the air out of the bladder, leaving a little in the stopper area.
8.  Freeze the ice pack overnight.
9.  Once it is frozen, remove it from the freezer.
10.  Bend it up and down all over to work the trapped air into the spaces between the ice crystals.

If you have a different sized bladder, just scale the volume of crystals and liquid appropriately.  You don’t want the bladder too full or it doesn’t bend around your limb as effectively.

Be careful with this ice pack – it WILL get cold enough to give you frostbite!  Always use a wet towel between your skin and the ice pack to protect your skin from freezing.

PS – it’s also great for rapidly cooling drinks in cans and bottles, to help while away the hours until your next run.

This is a guest post by Vanessa Rodriguez from San Diego, USA. Vanessa is a keen ultrarunner and she is often accompanied by her dog on her training runs. Here she shares what she has learned about running from Ginger, and there’s a lesson there for all of us.

My dog Ginger is more than my running buddy. She’s my teacher. She never lets me down on a long run, and she constantly reminds me how to run with a pure heart and happy spirit. These are her lessons:

1. Always greet strangers.

No matter how far or fast we are running, Ginger will always stop to greet another dog. Sometimes the other dog is friendly and sometimes they are not, but that doesn’t stop Ginger from approaching. And so I have learned to warmly greet other humans. You never know when a stranger might turn into a friend.

2. Exploring is better than not exploring.

When given a choice, Ginger always chooses to explore. She finds the way least travelled, and charges through the bushes. Sometimes she’s surprised with unexpected terrain, but that doesn’t deter her. She has taught me that the destination doesn’t matter. Only the journey.

3. It’s never too early for a snack.

Food is awesome, anytime and anywhere. Don’t be afraid to eat during or after a hard run. Nutrition is important. And so is carrying snacks at all times.

4. Always sniff the roses.

Or a rock. Or some dirt. Bottom line: there’s always time to stop and appreciate your surroundings. Pause to watch the sunset. Or spot some wildlife. Or pet your dog. Remember how much you love being outdoors and be willing to linger there.

5. There’s always time for a run.

Day or night, if I pick up the leash, I know that Ginger will jump up excitedly. Whether we’re running for five minutes or five hours, she’s up for it anytime. Her attitude reminds me that running is not a complicated activity that I need to always plan in depth. There’s always time for a quick jaunt on the trials.

Running with a dog is rewarding on so many levels. You will never find a more loyal and eager companion. See you out there!

Read more from Vanessa on her blog at Vanessa Runs.