Dylan is Australian Shepherd and Border Collie mix and has herding blood in him like you wouldn't believe. Corey also has a herding dog, but at least he's smaller and has less of an effect on the direction of your path. I had a super cute picture of Dylan moping from our too-slow run yesterday (too slow for him anyway) but it's on my phone and I can't figure out how to get it from my phone to my computer. Dylan is the most well behaved dog I know... unless he has some bottled up energy to release. Then he forgets his manners and etiquette and can be quite frustrating.Take yesterday's run for example. I was already cranky and sore from a 5 mile hike (with a 45lb weight vest on) and had several blisters on each foot. I got home and still had a 5 mile run to do, that both Dylan and my current marathon training plan were depending on. Well everywhere in Frazier Park is uphill, and my house sits at 4,500 ft...and only goes up from there. Dylan doesn't seem to mind the hills...or the altitude. He's used to running marathons at a 7 min pace with Shelly. And he's a herding dog. Imagine my frustration as he herded me up and down the hills of Frazier Park while I attempted to keep him out of the traffic. I had his leash clipped around my waist, and he knew it. So he grabbed the leash with his teeth and pulled me up the hills. Yes that does make it easier to run up the hills but at some point it gets irritating as well.
He's also well trained to run along side the roads. We run on the left side, facing oncoming traffic. When a car comes, I say "Get over" and Dylan gets off the road and onto the shoulder. This only made it that much more difficult when I decided that for our safety, on the way back we would run with traffic being as it was the only side of the road with any shoulder at all. Dylan didn't agree. He grabbed the leash in his teeth again and yipped at me to cross the street. We were at a curvy area where we'd be sure to be hit by a car if we were on the other side, so I disobeyed him. That didn't make him any happier and for some reason we were heading back uphill (seriously, uphill both ways) so I got cranky again. We continued to argue about the situation until we finally crossed the street.
Today was a shorter but slightly faster run. At least this time he was actually breathing hard when we got home. Yesterday we got home and he was yawning from boredom. I think he needs a treadmill.
Running in the altitude and almost always uphill is making me an angry runner (yes, I know how you feel now Corey). Not to mention there's not really a whole lot of running routes in Frazier Park except for the trails out in the mountains. Besides being at much higher altitudes (6,000-8,000 ft) there's also no one out there to rescue me if attacked by a mountain lion or bear. As much faith as I have in Dylan, they might outweigh him by a couple hundred pounds. Other than that, the running consists of either high speed roads (the safer bet) or running through town (not so safe). No one runs in Frazier Park, and it shows. I get some pretty crazy stares from the locals who can see I'm so obviously not from around here. We just recently got sidewalks put in in town but they only go about half a mile or so. And since no one expects runners to be on the road (or any pedestrians at all) they drive as if vehicles are the only things out there.
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