The Ultimate Guide to Running with Your Dog: Tips and Techniques for Understanding Your Canine's Fitness and Running Temperament

CHAPTER ONE:

You Do What?

When I tell people that I run dogs for a living, the response generally falls into one of two camps. The first is:

That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. Why would anyone hire someone to run their dog?

Why would you get a dog if you can’t run with them or spend the time exercising them?

Can’t you just throw them a ball?

Do you actually run other people’s dogs?

The questions continue on and on to borderline insult level where I start to question myself!

The second camp being:

That’s the coolest thing I’ve ever heard! How do I sign up?

Wait … you spend your time running with other people’s dogs and get paid for it?

I have a crazy dog who has so much energy; do you have a card?

What it seems to come down to is the following: either you have spent time with a dog that needs to run, or you have not. It really is that simple. If you have not owned a hyperactive dog, or have been fortunate enough to have a dog that is satisfied with their daily dog walks, then I get it; it seems absurd that you would outsource the exercise of your dog. But there is a segment of the population that is at its wit’s end trying to find a solution for their dog with endless amounts of energy, aggressiveness, or even destructive behaviors.

I’ve spoken with families that have spent a lot of time and money trying to solve the problems that eventually lead them to our company. They’ll purchase harnesses, specialty collars, and leashes searching for peace of mind and a positive experience outside the home. Tools like those are definitely part of the solution, but like your own health, taking a holistic approach can yield different, and potentially better, results.

I’ve been operating DC Dog Runner for six years now, with the sole intention of bringing happiness, as well as physical and mental stimulation, to our pets through long-distance running. To the exclusion of all other pet services we can offer, we have chosen to focus on running with dogs for half-hour- and hour-long runs, multiple times a week.

The majority of the dogs we run benefit from and are fully stimulated by the half-hour option. If a dog has not been doing any consistent exercise beyond being let out for the restroom, they can be built up to cover that time over a few weeks. Our approach is to begin with the half-hour-long run as the goal.

The hour-long runs are a bit more breed- or even dog-specific. If we are just filling in for a runner who routinely takes his dog on long-distance runs and we need to maintain the fitness for a dog to keep up, we offer the hour. If the dog is a specific breed like a Vizsla, Weimaraner, German Shorthaired Pointer, etc., with lean, muscular, athletic builds, we recommend the hour. Just like us, the benefits only begin with physical fitness for the dogs. The long-distance running gives them work to do and a sense of purpose.

While it started with me running with dogs in my spare time to have fun and pocket a little extra cash, it has now grown into a small army of fifteen runners. My wife, Suzanne, and I have been able to turn it into one of the best dog-running companies in America, as named by Runner’s World magazine!

My first appearance in Runner’s World magazine.

Photograph by Ryan Donnell

How to Use This Book

Consider this a reference guide to running with your dog. The idea is to deliver information I pulled from research and my personal experiences to help you better understand your dog and its needs. Can you read this book cover to cover? Yes, and please do, but you can also use it to look up helpful tips for the specific kind of running you’re going to do that may be a little different than your normal routine. That is where this guide is going to be most helpful: whether you are a newbie who just adopted their first overactive dog, or a trail master who is looking for suggestions and solutions to help your current needs. I really hope this book and, more importantly, information can be shared in our running and dog communities to ensure that we are keeping in mind our four-legged friends turned road warriors!

Ideally, you can find everything you need for any situation. Say you’ll be running in the city, primarily after work, when it is hot because it is summer. You can navigate smoothly around from topic to topic to piece together all the pertinent information on just those kinds of conditions. Same goes for a rainy, cold, trail run, but this time you are running with multiple dogs, one of which likes to pull. Additionally, you can go and find specific gear recommendations to help you have a successful trip. This should be an essential guide you can keep and consult before all of your runs to have the best experience possible!

Who Am I?

My name is Bryan Barrera, and if you haven’t guessed by now, I am a professional dog runner! I’ve been running with dogs for seven years now and turned my side hustle into one of the best dog-running companies in the country. But it helps to go back to the beginning. It should be noted that I only started running in May of 2012. I signed up for the Katy Trail 5K after a fantastic sales pitch from one of the speech pathologists who worked with me at a hospital in Dallas. Calling this thing a 5K does not do it justice; that’s like calling a fancy motorcycle a bike. Yes, by definition, it is accurate, but it hardly tells the whole story. It’s more like a party you run to that happens to be 3.1 miles away. With the entry fee came samples of food from forty to fifty of the best places to eat in town, free beer and margaritas, and the excellent timing of being run on a Thursday evening in near perfect (slightly warm) weather. I was bamboozled. This was my first 5K ever; I didn’t learn until later how atypical this setup was. I have since become accustomed to the 8:00 a.m. Saturday starts and the bananas and bagels most races offer! Fine fare for a short run to be sure, but hardly the Cadillac expectations set by the Friends of the Katy Trail in Dallas. After that, I was bit by the running bug and continued to run faster and farther as the weeks went on. I loved the mental and physical challenge and the focus and commitment to training. Running was becoming an integral part of my life.

I once heard a local radio host say that the marathon is the most physically demanding feat of endurance that the common person can do. We don’t all have the funds to travel to and climb Mount Everest, and we can’t all go push the body to Iron Man limits, but we can—almost—all train for and run 26.2 miles. When I heard that, I thought, why not me?

It was early January 2013 and I was one month removed from finishing the Dallas Marathon, my first. It had been lovingly known as Dallas White Rock Marathon and had ruffled a few running- community feathers with the new name and branding. That year’s route was fantastic; it crossed the new, soon-to-be-iconic Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge while still running around White Rock Lake to the northeast of the city. It proved to be the final time it circled around the lake, thus the name change. I had checked off one of the more common bucket-list items, the marathon.

Back to January 2013, and now a month had passed since the marathon. I had been going for a few thirty- to forty-five-minute runs since then. In truth, I thought I had squashed that running bug underneath the fifty thousand to sixty thousand steps I had taken during the race. But that little critter is definitely a cockroach, because it survived! I was thumbing through a Runner’s World magazine and they had profiled David Hill, a man who was operating his own dog-running company. A what? A fantastic service that took aim at the issues dog walking couldn’t solve. There are dogs out there that need more attention and physical exertion than a walk can offer. Running isn’t a substitution for walking, it is a stand-alone offering that helps solve health and behavioral issues. It was terrific, and I thought to myself, If I could get paid to run with dogs, THAT would get me back on a running schedule. At the time I was living in Dallas, so I searched around and found two potential companies offering a dog-running service. The first company was operated by a sole proprietor who seemed content within the borders of downtown, a tough spot for me to get to daily. The second was a more mature company and had a wider service area but wasn’t hiring at the time. I was a bit discouraged because it seemed like a great way to spend time while making a little extra spending money! I couldn’t put the article down. I would read and re-read it until one night in bed I whispered to my wife, I’m going to do it; I’m going to start my own dog-running company. She was no stranger to me saying I was going to start a business, so she gave me the requisite, OK. I think she was a bit surprised when I started researching and drafting fliers the next day.

Of course, the doubts of starting a business crept into my head as I began to think of all the risks involved. After all, it was a bit intimidating to think about the prospect of taking a stranger’s family member away from their home. But I didn’t let that hold me back; I was born with an optimistic disposition and had spent years in customer service positions. I knew how to connect with people and earn trust. Being competent in our ability to provide the service for the dogs is vital, but it is connecting with families and building relationships that is at the heart of our continued success and growth.

I began researching all the different dog-running services I could find online. At the time there weren’t very many, usually one or two in each major city, and far fewer that specialized in running only. What I learned from that research that still holds true through today is that many companies are general dog-service companies, and they’ll do their best to help you with your needs. If that is walking, running, pet sitting, boarding, or something else, they will help you take care of your dog. I think this is a fantastic business to be in and definitely needed, but when I saw the discrepancy between general dog services and compared it against a service that specialized in running, I saw an opportunity to differentiate. I knew I wanted to spend time doing the thing that I absolutely loved—running with dogs. So right then and there I made a decision to commit to starting a company that saw running as the solution to health and behavior problems including anxiety, hyperactivity, obesity, and many others.

I was consuming everything I could on the topic, from magazine articles to blog posts to YouTube videos, and then I thought, What if I just called David? So, I did. I picked up the phone and cold-called him. I left a message saying I wanted to start a dog-running company in Dallas and asked if he could spend some time on a call with me. He agreed and was a wealth of knowledge. Honestly, that one-hour phone call saved me from more poking and prodding around the internet in search of answers. I found him most helpful in talking about starting and operating a dog-running company, learning the limits of the pups, and if he actually enjoyed doing it day in and day out. David was generous with his time and knowledge, and I am and will be forever thankful.

The more we talked, the more confidence I gained in being the person who could operate this kind of business. On the operations side, I had always had a quiet confidence when interacting with animals. I have never lost sight of the appropriate roles in the relationship with them, namely with them occupying a subordinate position. What I knew from experience and more research was that being dominant isn’t about being tough or demonstrative or strict, but rather it is about being confident in decision-making and swift in action when the behavior falls outside expectation. Easy enough, right?

Generally, dogs are on alert and will remain so until they are confident that you are someone who can lead them. It is not always an easy transition to gain the trust of your alpha dog, but over time you can gain it. You have to spend time with them and lead the run, being patient to let them see that they are on the run with you and you are dictating the pace and distance. Making good decisions to avoid uncomfortable situations and remaining calm and confident will help you. Once you have their trust, you must respect it and keep them honest by correcting them.

On the business side, I spent