Country running

Kate and I have been training for a half marathon.  Yes, it is January and we realize we are crazy.  But we needed a goal to keep us running through the winter.  Sunday mornings are reserved for our long runs that we always do together.  Often I go into the city to run around the canal or along the river by her place but as our runs get longer and longer, it is getting difficult to find complete cleared paths that don't involve pedestrians and puddles.  This week Kate offered to come out to the farm for a long run and since the roads were clear, I was happy to have her!  Also, when we run out here I can take Jackson which he absolutely loves!  He has become my little running buddy.  I have started calling him my "performance enhancing dog" because I always run faster when I'm with him. And when Trey is with me too I practically fly!

Sunday morning we had 16K to complete and I mapped out a nice country "block" that was 16K door to door.  Great for the psychological aspect of our run.  We started off nicely with Jackson running along beside me - it was sunny and quite a nice day despite a bit of a wind we were running into.  But we managed to go a route where we'd be with the wind on the way back and there is no way to avoid it so we buckled down and kept up a good pace.  That is until we rounded a corner onto County Rd. 29... out of nowhere a border collie shows up.  Beautiful dog who started running down the other side of the road from us but clearly following us.  He was on the inside of a fence so we weren't too worried but as we came up to the next house he came out to the end of that driveway.  Just as I said to Kate "wow, he is well trained staying on the property" he of course decided to dash across the road to greet Jackson.  Now, Jackson is not the best with all dogs, especially if he feels stressed which he would on leash.  He did fine at first but then the dog was showing signs of dominance and Jackson gave a growl.  I keep Jackson tied around my waste so I couldn't even hand him to Kate while I tried to deal with this dog.  But I managed to grab the border collie by the collar and keep him off of Jackson and Jackson stayed very calm and controlled - thank goodness because it could have gone the other way!  Kate, being a farm girl herself who grew up with border collies and loose country dogs, had no problem taking him back across the road where we hoped he would stay.  Nope.  Of course not.  He was having way too much fun and came back for another go at Jackson.  Kate again took him across to the driveway and yelled at the house but no one came out so she tried to tell him to stay and started running to join me.  To my surprise, I thought he was going to stay but as soon as Kate was a certain distance away from him, he started running towards us again.  So... again Kate takes him across to the other side of the road, put him in a down, and told him to stay.  No luck.  He had lost interest in Jackson but he really wanted to join us on our run.  So he just started running down the side of the road, then across to our side to run along with us, then back to the other side and so on and so on.  Now, we are on a busy country road and Kate and I could see what was going to happen.  This dog was obviously going to get hit by a car and there wasn't much we could do about it.  Being dog lovers, we both felt sick about this but also quite helpless.

Then it happened.  A car coming towards us moved into the far lane to give us room as polite country drivers do.  Unfortunately, he was so busy watching us that he didn't see Mr. Border Collie on the other side of the road run completely in front of his car.  As we yelled "stop", the right side of the car and wheel clipped the dog who screeched and rolled.  The dog then took a second to stand there stunned and then ran back from where he came from!  And being a border collie he was fast and there was no way we could see if he was ok.  He looked ok, and by the way he ran he seemed ok, but I know dogs and shock sets in allowing him to not feel any pain, and he could have had internal damage.  This poor man driving the car felt terrible!  He pulled over and I went over to talk to him.  By this time 3-4 other cars had approached and stopped as well but the dog was gone and there was nothing anyone could do.  I explained to the man what happened and he was beside himself about hitting the dog.  But as the dog was gone, we all went on our way.

The rest of our run was drama free thank goodness.  We managed to make great time even with all that happening.  And I was so proud of Jackson for keeping his cool during the whole thing.

After getting home I decided to drive back there to find the dog and where he lived to tell his owners what happened.  I was able to find him at the first house he ran out from - still loose outside!  He was very excited to see me - jumped all over me as I walked up to the house.  Beautiful, friendly dog and it would be a shame for him to get hit seriously by a car.  I spoke to both owners who were shocked at how far he had chased us and that he had been hit.  The lady's response... "I guess we should keep him in the pen.".  You think???  He's a young border collie who wants to chase and herd things... you think he's just going to stay on your property???  They were grateful I told them what had happened and I can only hope that they took him to a vet to get him checked out and make sure he is ok.  If he wasn't a border collie I would have invited him to camp! (people who know me will understand that... )

I love country running and I like running in Ottawa.  Both have advantages, but loose dogs are one big disadvantage of running in the country.  I think that when I do go further from home now that I'll carry an extra leash with me.  Might save us some unnecessary drama!