Running with a dog

Okay I'll admit it, I am slightly obsessed with running. (No really!). But at the same time its not all about that; I also have a great love of being in the great outdoors and therefore being able to run while being in the hills and wilds kills two birds with one stone. But when you then factor in the sheer joy of running every day in the hills with my border collie, Harry, things are pretty much as good as they can get; the dog's bollocks in fact (not that Harry knows anything much about those).

Harry just loves running, and I love running too, so we have agreed to both run together and have a lovely time each and every time we venture out. And given that Harry needs a good run every day anyway its a great incentive for me to bung on my fell shoes, no matter how crap the weather is, and go out for a trot with him. 

We're blessed here with fabulous countryside straight out the door, with the Yorkshire Dales National Park stretching for something like 50 miles north from my house, so Harry has been a hill dog right from the start. As a border collie anyway, born on a farm with two working collies as parents, I imagine its in his bones. He's only just turned three years old but, already, he must know 500 square miles of the Dales like the back of his paw, he knows huge tranches of the Lake District, both in and out of the lakes and up and down the hills and mountains, parts of Glencoe, the north west Highlands, Skye, the North York Moors, Northumberland, all of the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path, a fair bit of the Cornish coastline around Penzance and Lands End. He's an expert of the countryside and woods around Masham where we often run with Hester (who, before she starts thinking that I only love running with Harry, I also love running with!). He knows Pendle, parts of the Forest of Bowland, Ogden Water and Moors above Halifax, Bronte Country above Hebden Bridge, the Peak District between Edale and Bleaklow and lets not forget Roundhay Park (one of his favourite places) smack in the centre of Leeds.

In fact he's the perfect wilderness explorer pooch. In addition to just running along with me he especially likes chasing sticks and, for the few actual fell races that he has been allowed to join in with, we've managed to dumbfound a few of the other competitors with me stopping to lob the occasional lump of wood for him to scuttle after, before picking up the pace again and trying to hold my position in the race. I once ran around the Fairfield Horseshoe with Harry in heavy snow chucking the same couple of sticks for him to chase after all the way round which, given that many of the walkers we met on the way were dressed like Scott of the Antarctic (in view of the conditions), seeing me in my running shorts in a blizzard, playing stick with my dog, must have seemed surreal and somewhat mental.

Harry's other great love while out running is swimming. Even though he was petrified of water for the first year of his life, he is now aqua-dog and looks to swim whenever he can. We have a run alongside Rydal Water in the lake District where he always likes to swim out into the lake about 100 yards from shore and then paddle along parallel to us for the length of the lake. God knows whats going on in his little head.

Anyway as a dog runner, Harry usually runs off lead and, given that in the Dales especially, the fields are full of sheep, that means that Harry has to be trusted with the sheep. Again his genes probably help here but he pretty much completely ignores sheep and lambs; all the same I tend to put him on his lead if a farmer is about, largely because the farmers like to see that (and of course because a small number of farmers can be right miserable doodahs). He's good with cattle too, and tries to give them an especially wide birth; that said some cows can be quite aggressive and look to charge after us if they're in a mood. Thus far I've been able to avoid being stampeded to death by turning and shouting at the cows whilst waving my arms. If you ever find my trampled body face up in the mud with my arms aloft, you'll know what I was doing.

If you like running in the hills, get a dog to run with and you'll like it even more!

Harry's 'mountaineer's' lead, his glow in the dark running harness and his panniers for big expeditions (note the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path pin)

Harry doing what he does best

Not just a fair weather runner