Golden Retrievers as Running Buddies

Posted by: Audrey Post date: June 16th, 2011

I’ve just been speaking to a friend who has a Goldie, and she was asking if they were good to run with.  In a nutshell, yes, but you need to choose your dog carefully.

Golden Retrievers were bred to bring back waterfowl that were shot during a hunt. So, they are an active breed that is keen to work with people. That’s two points in their favour. They are cheerful and willing, and are easily trained. Three more ticks for this breed as a running buddy. If you start running with your Goldie when he is mature, and build up the distance gently, he will be an ideal companion when you hit the road.

What do you need to look out for if you want to buy a Golden Retriever to run with? These dogs are prone to hip and elbow dysplasia. A running dog needs four sound limbs, so you won’t be able to run with a Goldie with either of these conditions. The most important thing you can do to avoid this, is to do your homework before you buy a Goldie puppy. Both hip and elbow dysplasia are hereditary conditions.  Golden Retriever breeders are doing their best to reduce their incidence in the breed by carefully screening adult dogs before they are mated. Hips and elbows are x-rayed and given a numerical score, based on the degree of dysplasia. Only those dogs with low scores should be used for breeding.

Responsible dog breeders will be able to show you the results of such testing on their dogs, and be able to discuss with you the suitability of their lines as a running companion. If they can’t, then don’t buy a pup from them, no matter how tempted. You are setting yourself up for heartbreak when you have to leave your dog at home when you go out for a run.

Sad and Lonely Old Blog

Posted by: Audrey Post date: February 3rd, 2011

It’s been a while. My bad. Been tied up writing web content, building sites and selling them, and generally faffing around. Kids keep me busy, but I’m still running and am doing the Kokoda Challenge on the Gold Coast this year again.

Back onto the theme of dogs and running. I was absolutely horrified and disgusted to read the news report about the sled dogs being euthanased after the Vancouver winter olympics. You know, I can stretch my mind to the dogs being a business “commodity” and I can even stretch it to some of the sled dogs maybe not being suitable for rehoming for whatever reason – mind you, if they were working with the general public they would need to have had good natures. No reason why they couldn’t have been rehomed. What I can’t come to terms with is the dogs being euthanased in such a way that the person doing it received a payout for post traumatic stress disorder. You can read further details here.

What I find particularly distressing is the idea that these intelligent, aware creatures would have known what was going on, and heard the cries of the other dogs as they were “euthanased” – I use that term very loosely because that word means “peaceful death”. Nuthin’ peaceful about that!

There have been calls for emails to be sent to the company, expressing disgust and outrage. I had a better idea. I was going to build a website and call it www.companynamekillsdogs.com and get it to the top of Google. Nothing defamatory or libellous, just the facts.

It’s not hard to whip up a simple website with WordPress. That’s what this site is built with. It’s free, and very easy to use and customise. The domain name costs around $10 a year. The main thing you have to worry about is web hosting. If you’re looking for a place to host your website, reliability is the key. Because I’m not an expert on this sort of thing, I also appreciate good customer support. If you Google “web hosting”, there are pages upon pages of results. How do you choose a web host? Have a look at this site -

http://www.thetop10bestwebhosting.com/

It features reviews of the top 10 web hosts out there, and these reviews are by real people who have used the services. So, the comments are genuine. For example, check out the Just Host user reviews – you’ll find comments from users in the UK, USA and all over the world. You’ll also notice that there are some people who haven’t been happy with the service, which indicates to me that the site is legitimate; you get the good with the bad. If you have a close look at the site, you’ll notice that there are reviews for both UK and US webhosts, and they’re not necessarily the same. There are good Fasthosts reviews that see it place in the top 10 in the UK, but it doesn’t show up in the US charts. Just Host, on the other hand, are number one in both regions.

I always like to rely on reviews such as those on this site to make my webhosting choice, it’s easier than buying a pig in a poke. It’s a real nuisance to have to move sites from one webhost to another, so making a good choice right from the start is worth the effort.

The last thing I want to say in this marathon post (drought, drought, drought, FLOOD!) is that I’m going to change the whole theme of this blog. I’m still running, but after a few years it’s getting a bit monotonous. So, the new “runwithdogs” blog will be about the science of the canine athlete. There is more and more research out there that’s absolutely fascinating. So, new topics, new theme, whole new look. Watch this space.

Run for Other Women

Posted by: Audrey Post date: August 25th, 2010

I don’t know if you have read the September issue of Runner’s World. Yes, there’s a good running with dog section, although I do have issues with a few parts of their article. Beginner dogs don’t need to start with a 15-20 minute run three times weekly, and Staffordshire Bull Terriers don’t necessarily make great running dogs.  I’ve written a letter to the editor regarding the first point and threw my degree around a bit, so we’ll see if it gets published.

Back to the topic of this post. This issue of Runner’s World had an article about women in the Democratic Republic of Congo in Africa. They have suffered such atrocities that it’s hard to imagine that people experience such things in the 20th century. For example, one woman had her leg cut off by rebels and cooked over a fire. Her 12 year old son was told to eat it, and he refused. So, they shot him dead. I’ve seen horror movies that are less frightening. I mean, #$%#%!!!!

These women participated in a 1 mile run that was organised to bring them together, and to strengthen and empower them. My running girlfriends and I were planning on raising funds for these women through the Run for Congo Women website. However, we’ve had a change of plan.

We have set up a group at Kiva, called “Run for Kiva Women”. Kiva offers micro-loans to people in third world countries to establish or grow businesses which will generate ongoing income for their families. Then, the loan is repaid, so we can lend it again. The repayment rate is 98%, so the odds are good that we’ll get the money back to share again. What a great idea! We can lend as little as $25, and we can still choose women from the Congo, or even women from any part of the world.

I’ve battled with motivation on and off over the years, but if this woman who had her leg chopped off and saw her son shot dead, can run almost a mile on crutches and an artificial limb (with painted toenails!!), then I’ve got no reason not to get off my a$%^se and run.