This is a little something somewhat out of the ordinary for a beautyblog, but then, who wants to be ordinary? It’s like that disease, you know? Normal, I think it’s name was. Anyway, I don’t think I’ve done anything remotely outfit related since I showed yous my new Nikes. Well, I’ve been putting them to good use, even going for runs, which is something I’ve done for periods of time until my bone membrane inflammations flare up, and getting back on track afterwards is always such a chore, as it’s no fun starting anew every time – I always feel like I’m worse off than I was the last time I started.
It’s fun once you start seeing progress, and while I haven’t been going for long runs, it’s starting to become addictive once more. This time, however, I’m doing it for my little girl, here. It’s not that we don’t take her for walks, but she loves to run, and she does so more easily when wearing her harness and not pulling at her leash from the neck. It’s a lovely sight, really, and it makes her happy.
When we started out, I held her leash in my hands, but I soon found that a handheld leash impaired both our movements, so while not ideal, I tied it around my waist instead. Improvement.
Then the BF came home with a simple hiking belt. This was better as she now would be getting a longer leash, and we could both move more freely. That belt didn’t last long, however, and we started looking for another design. She’s very strong, in spite of her size, and given momentum, we’d now learned that she’d destroy anything that didn’t counter for strong tugs.
We talked to the folks at XXL, and eventully landed on a hiking belt from the brand Kennel Equip meant for large dogs, and I’m very pleased.
The belt’s got two hooks for to fasten the leash, attached to the ends of an elastic strap. The whole thing is padded with neoprene, and very comfortable to wear.
It also counters some of the safetyissues I had with the previous belt we had as well as the solution I used before that. The most obvious being the reflective material, which also spares me of wearing a reflective vest – yes, I do find those to be a hassle, as they’re noisy and, well, bright. Always hated wearing them. Next is the way the strap goes around the waist inside the padding, so there’s no danger of the plastic clasp fastening it breaking due to strain. Finally, the elastic strap really makes this thing comfortable to wear as it prevents jerking and so allows me to keep a steady pace, even when she wants to turn it up a notch as it gives. The downer being that I lose the advantage of her pulling me up the hill.
Two added bonuses are that this lessens the strain on my arms, as it’s a handsfree for pets – My holding the leash in these photos are purely an attempt to keep her within the same frame as myself. And the neoprene helps to keep me warm, which I don’t mind with the temperatures we’re currently having. Some reported-15 degrees today, which really doesn’t encourage any activity on my part that doesn’t involve a sofa and a blanket.
Oh, and apparently it’s washable, which is a huge plus with anything dog or outdoors related.
Scribbled with liner 
Aww I’m so sorry to hear about the inflammation 😦 It must be fun to go jogging with a dog! I used to live with one, but she was not that young anymore and very socially-awkward, so going jogging with her wasn’t a good idea. I’m glad to see there are so many gadgets to help both the canine and the human to enjoy this activity!
Thanks – it’s been better snce I started wearing free runs, though, so as long as I allow for a bit of rest I’m fine 🙂 They make excellent exercise partners, though, and while there are quite a few gadgets like this available I decided this one in particular was deserving of a post. Too bad ’bout the dog you used to live with. It’s sad to see dogs growing into conditions where you just don’t know how to help them – Is living with her in part why you have cats?
Obviously, I’m worried that at some point we won’t be able to give Teyla the exercise she needs, as she’s still so young, but huskys are very adaptive, so hopefully we’ll each get us a pair of landrollers for that time of the year when we’ve got poor skiing conditions, and for the time we do, I’ll go running and the BF will take her skiing and we’ll make good use of the belt to boot 😉
Haha nooo I loved Tania a lot! I’ve just always been more of a cat person (ever since I was a liiiiittle kid). She was (she passed away at the age of 13.5 in 2012) a Belgian shepherd. I know that they are in general working dogs, and there is more inbreeding (she was adopted from the pound but did come with a pedigree) so they tend to have more problems. There was just no way for her not to react to the smaller dogs barking at her during a walk (and they tend to do that A LOT), and if I were running that could be flat out dangerous. She wasn’t that young anymore when I met her, but I managed to go to the supermarket with her (she didn’t really like to be leashed outside to wait, but she never bit anyone in the process LOL), to the pet store (for some reason she hated it), the dry cleaner’s and so on. She was a good dog that took some getting used to!
It sounds like you guys are doing a lot of fun things with Teyla! I know that when Tania was little, the family that owned her would take her to an empty parking lot and play catch with her for quite a while just so that she’d get tuckered-out! It’s so much easier with cats. I only have to wave a toy around for 20 minutes and that’s about it 😉
Also, this might be a stupid question, but is Teyla a Husky? She looks more like a Border Collie to me!
Not at all:) She’s an alaskan husky, but I’ve seen border collies that looks very similar to her, with the black-and-white drawings. The visual differences are more obvious in the way she carries herself, though, something as doesn’t come through in the photos yet.
Which one of the Belgian shepherds? I used to wish for a terv or groendael, myself, when I was little :p
Tania sounds a lot like a dog we used to have, she was a shelter dog, mistreated and understimulated, but she grew to become my best friend in childhood. She had her issues, and though she bit me a few times, she wasn’t vicious, we just misunderstood each other. 13,5 years is a lot for a dog.
Those tiny dogs can be such a nuisance when you’e walking a larger one. You’d often expect the larger dogs to be the more cumbersome party, but most often it’s the small ones. This is in part a result of breeding, as a temper and barking has been considered to be more trouble with the larger breeds while if a smaller dog was in your face all the time you’d just shove it away with your foot. Thus, there’s been more focus on achieving “good-natured” offspring in larger breeds than in smaller 😉
We try to be good parents, and find new ways to exhaust her properly – as a tired dog is a happy dog.
Hmm I suppose she is bigger than border collies, and you’re right: she does seem a bit more wolf-ish to me? Maybe it’s her slightly arched back. I’m not sure. It’s just that all the Huskies I’ve seen seem to be fluffier (and have blue eyes).
Tania was a Belgian Malinois. They are often trained as rescue dogs or military dogs. Tania was abandoned in the shelter before she was even 1. The family I lived with took her in, and despite all the problems she had (she was diagnosed as hyperactive. Throughout her life, she had to take medicine twice a day just so that she wouldn’t chew her own tail to a bloody stump), they really tried their best to give her a good life. Had her been taken in by another family, I am relatively sure she would have ended up in the shelter again or been put down.
No, small dogs are usually the aggressors from what I can see. There were many older people in the area I used to live, and naturally they all had smaller dogs. Man, some of those would start barking from literally one block away! I have the impression that owners of smaller dogs aren’t as strict with the dogs, while owners of bigger dogs know it could be very dangerous if the dogs don’t learn to obey properly. But that’s just me. I am very biased when it comes to dogs. Basically I only really like big ones :p I just don’t think I’ll get one anytime soon because for the moment we don’t have enough space, and we’ve got cats 😉
Definetely more wolfish in appearance, although she only ever howls when she’s dreaming 😉
A lot of photos seem to be of blue-eyed huskies. I’m not sure wether that’s mainly a trait in siberian, though, as the alaskan isn’t recognized as a breed – still too much mixing involved in order to get the best runners with good appetites.
That’s so good of them to take her in in that way, in spite of the extra work and expenses. It’s rare that you meet people like that.
The BF and I weren’t even supposed to move in together, but when we met Teyla (or Luna as her name was back then), we couldn’t get her out of our heads. So we made the necessary changes to our lives – we wouldn’t be living together if not for her. Also, my apartment’s in close proximity to some trails, while a bit off from the city centre, so it’s a good place to raise a furbaby 😉
Cats can make great companions too, though, but people are likely to find you very strange should you start taking them for runs around the block :p