Sadie's first jog

Today I took Sadie on her first jog at the trail. It did not go even 1/3 of the way I thought it would...

Seeing how beautiful the weather was today, and since I had the day off and am actually starting to get some energy back, I decided it was a good time to take Sadie to the trail for the first time. Jogging at the trail is one of my greatest passions, I love it when the weather is in the 60s and 70s and I can strap on my iphone with my running play list, my heart rate monitor, my mace and go out for a good jog.... and one of the reasons we got a big dog was so Bryan would feel safer about me running alone at the trail (hince the mace I already have to carry). Let me also preface this with the fact that I have not been running or jogging since I found out I was pregnant, I have only been out walking... so I'm also kind of out of my running-shape.

Also, you have to know our sweet puppy, she is extremely playful and loves anyone and any other dog. She thinks the whole world is her playground... so this is where the fun began. We got out of the car, I put Sadie on her retractable leash, turned on some heart pumping music, started my workout timer on my watch and set forth onto the trail. We went about three feet until Sadie spotted a guy taking pictures, boy was that exciting, she tried to run up to him (and succeeded, since I was fumbling to put my iphone into the case on my arm and hadnt locked the leash), and he didn't seem too pleased, oops... so I pulled her over to me and started to jog, we made it about 10 more feet and...

then we saw a dog

Oh my goodness, Sadie pulled me with ALL of her strength and for a 40 lb dog, let me just say she is pretty strong, she sniffed at the other dog and then I pulled her to keep jogging with me. About 20 more feet and there was a stream, and a rock, and a fence, and grass... and so on... and then she would get in front of me and stop, very helpful. We did really good for about 3/10 of a mile that was in the woods because there was no one to distract us, then we got to the play ground where kids were throwing balls, Sadie's very FAVORITE game. So I yanked the leash again and told her to come on. Now don't get me wrong, people kept commenting on how sweet and cute of a puppy she is... and I know that she is the most adorable puppy ever, but my patience was running thin and we weren't even a mile into the run. This continued for 16 more minutes until we got around the lake and closer to the car... about 3/4 of the way finished when we saw two girls each walking a dog. TWO DOGS. Sadie thought it was her lucky day and that these dogs were her new best friends. I let her stop and sniff them for a minute, told her they would love to play another day maybe and pulled her to continue our jog, thankful we were almost back to the car... then

She managed to break her leash.
Lovely.

So I take off in a sprint since we are about 30 feet from the interstate and my dog thinks she is invincible, thankfully all she wanted was the two girls and their dogs. One of the girls managed to grab her collar and I thanked them, explained the she was new to the trail and just a baby... and as I am pulling her away I realize she has peed all over the ground where they are standing and I am just hoping it didn't get on their shoes... geez...

Needless to say, I had to drag Sadie back to the car by holding on to about a foot of leash with no handle while she tried to run and jump on anything that passed us. It was fun. So about this time I called Bryan and told him how great HIS dog did at the trail. ha.

From now until she is a little more used to running on the leash and a little less hyper we will be doing our jogs on the roads close to our house with minimal distractions.