One of the biggest struggles I’ve had since Ryder came to live with me is making sure she gets enough exercise. She spends a lot of time alone. And while she seems to mainly sleep during that time, it means that when I get home she wants to play.
She loves the walks at the park, especially when I’m tired. This is because when I’m tired, I tend to stroll and let her have a loose leash and stop when she wants to smell something and pretty much let her determine our pace. She is less impressed with the brisk walks where I make her mind her manners. And she downright pouts when I make her run. It’s almost impossible to pee on everything that smells peeable when we’re running.
For the last two weeks my ankle has been bothering me. Mostly it is fine, but then it will suddenly have this sharp shooting pain that will make it very painful to even walk. Sometimes I can limp through it and it will quit. And sometimes it doesn’t happen at all. It is very sporadic, but getting worse, and it is because I need new running shoes. And also probably a break. But mostly new shoes.
Today the pain in my ankle was so bad that I was limping by the time I got home. I put ice on it for a while, but when it came time to take Ryder to the park, I left the ice at home, took a couple of advil and decided to see how it would go. It hurt at first, and then got better for a while and then started to hurt again when we were at the baseball diamond at the far end of the park. I decided to sit for a bit to rest it, and she was tugging at the leash to smell the trees and kept getting tangled in the table and in the garbage can and in my legs.
So I let her off the leash.
I’ve done this twice before and both times she came back when I called. Both times she never got more than about 30 feet from me. Both times everything was fine. So I assumed this time would be fine too. It was late, there were no other dogs around. Traffic had died down, there were no people about, I thought it would be fine.
It was not fine.
She wouldn’t come back when I called. She’d stop and look at me, and then turn and keep trotting away. When she got to the edge of the diamond I realized that she was just about out of my range of control and got up to follow her, calling her all the while. She just kept trotting away, looking over her shoulder to see if I was still coming, and then continuing on. I started jogging after her because she was getting close to the edge of the park and would soon have to cross the street. When she saw that I was jogging, she started to really move.
This is when I realized that she wasn’t going to stop or listen or come back to me by command. This is when I realized that she would probably run all the way back to where we usually park the car – which meant crossing two streets and a parking lot – and then who knows what would happen when she remembered that wasn’t where we parked the car this time. This is when I realized that I would have to catch her by then or else…
This is when I started running for reals.
Now, running is a thing I do. But I seldom go all out for more than what it takes to cross the finish line. It has been a long time since I tried to see how long I can run at top speed. Apparently it is a lot longer than I used to.
I had almost caught up with her when she crossed the first road. Thank god there was no traffic and I thought just maybe she’d get distracted by the duck pond and everything would be ok. We passed a cyclist who said something in Chinese as he passed me. And then we passed the pond – she didn’t even slow. By this time she was loping along, glancing to make sure I was following and having a grand old time.
If I hadn’t been afraid of the cars and the potential that she might hurt someone or that someone might hurt her, I would have handled this differently. If, if, if. As it was, I’d run one of the fastest half miles of my life when she cruised on past another runner going the other way. Apparently she liked him because she stopped for a moment. This is where I made my mistake.
I started to sprint.
I didn’t know I could run faster than I was, but then there I was almost flying. I was having visions of her pulling some sort of snarling biting thing – though she has never bitten anyone. Killed ducks and chickens and goats, yes, but never bitten a person.
There was a couple of seconds where she looked like she was going to approach this person. He crouched down and called to her and she seemed taken by this. And then she saw me coming fast and she took off again. The guy stood up and saw me coming and asked if she bit.
I told him no, but that she didn’t know about cars. He took off after her too, running as fast as he could. He had about 60 feet on me so he was closer, and Ryder, well, she thought this was the bestest game ever.
I was right about where she was headed – straight for the usual parking spot. I also lucked out. He got there right after she did and when she stopped to wonder where the car was, he called to her and she went right up to him. When I came gallumping up a couple of seconds later, he had her by the collar and was scratching her ears and she looked all sorts of pleased and a little confused.
I haven’t been that afraid since I don’t remember when. It was my fault, my stupidity, my assumptions and it could have been a disaster. When I finally had her leash back on her, I couldn’t decide if I wanted to hug her or kick her. I was so relieved and so angry.
I profusely thanked the man who caught her. I felt like such an idiot – taking the leash off of an Akita in a public space was an incredibly stupid thing to do. All because I was feeling tired and sore. And there I had just run a mile at full speed and I hadn’t even noticed my ankle, or the fact that I was running in sandals, or that I was so tired.
I can tell you I’m noticing it now.
He was generous and told me it was ok. No harm done, he’d got a good run out of it. And when he stood up to leave, I had the very strong urge to introduce myself – which is not something that ever happens, especially when I’ve been caught being criminally stupid. I found that even in that short of a time, I had a positive impression about him – apparently my dog has good taste – that initial impression is never wrong. Sometimes I ignore it, but it is never wrong.
I have learned my lesson. This dog will never get to be an off leash dog. Next time she gets all wistful watching some other dog playing fetch in the park, I’ll remind her of this little adventure and why she cannot be allowed to play fetch in the park. Or sniff things unattended. Or participate in any of those other off leash adventures that more responsible dogs get to do.
God, I sound like a parent.
Things I have learned:
Leashes are forever.
I need to do more all out running intervals – I was thinking today that I wasn’t going to make my time goal for my next race – if anything was going to change that some serious speed intervals would be the trick.
And I need to take a couple of days and let my ankle heal. Maybe while I wait for my new running shoes.
Oh, and one more. I think I might start running at night. 🙂
SecondHand Saint 