r/RunningWithDogs • u/BergamotVerbena • 15d ago
Advice on beginner training with pit mix
Edit: I do not use the prong for runs, I clip on the back harness. This picture was taken to showcase his build. I do not use the prong anymore
Hi there, I’ve recently started training my large pit mix (~85lbs, 16 months, 71% American pitbull terrier, 12% coonhound, the rest boxer and Rottweiler) and he seems to really enjoy it but gets tired/hot quite easily. He loves to do sprint bursts and quickly wear himself out. We’ve been easing into it with 0.5 mile runs in the morning. It’s very hot where I’m at on the coast and I try to always go before 9 am, but I’m thinking we need to go much earlier. Any tips for his breed and general tips on starting him out? He gets so pooped and I’d like to build up his endurance so we can run 1-2 miles at a time. We train 2-3 mornings a week
4
u/Fox-In-The-Wood 15d ago
In the first photo, I'd say you should clip the leash to the back most metal part on the harness. This will be most comfortable as far as the weight distribution for your dog.
5
u/roccosito 15d ago
Correct. I would also do a regular and not a prong collar during runs. You’re putting pressure on their neck which they need to breathe, especially if they’re exerting themselves. It’s like a human trying to run with a choke collar. It’s not painful but certainly not comfortable.
6
u/BergamotVerbena 15d ago
I should have clarified, this pic was not on a run and I do not use the prong for runs, I do clip on his back harness. I will edit in the original post, thank you!
5
u/Boozedonkey 15d ago
Don't go too fast or long to start. My pitty was built for endurance over speed. He loved running mountains but that would be in the sub 8km mark. Hiking pace was close to 20km. Carry lots of water or look into a cooling vest for hotter hikes.
3
u/vax4good 15d ago
Not sure where OP is located, but cooling vests only work in arid climates so I suspect that’s pretty low on the list for gear upgrades given the gorgeous fern-lined trails in their pics.
2
u/Boozedonkey 15d ago
I live on west coast of Canada. We have our lush forests but those forests can get hotter than you think in summer. I used my cooling vest with my dog on many adventures extending our time outdoors.
2
u/vax4good 15d ago
Sadly I haven’t spent time in your area yet. In my region (PA) it’s just too humid for evaporative cooling technology. Agreed worth looking into, just calibrating OP’s expectations.
3
4
u/H2Ospecialist 15d ago
I run with both my APBTs. We've gone up to 5 miles in cooler temps. Right now we limit it at 3 miles and head out around 6 am (in Texas).
We started with long walks and eventually did some walk/running. One likes to run ahead and pulls so she gets the canicross harness. She could probably go much longer but my second older one is slower and runs at heel or sometimes behind me (shes attached to my waist) on a regular harness.
The one that pulls ahead we had a hell of time finding the right harness that didn't chaff. I finally caved and got her the freemotion harness and it made running much more enjoyable for both of us.
I let my slower one set the pace. We are about 13 min/miles in the heat. I don't mind, its a nice zone 2 for me. So I think figuring out your set up (canicross style, or heel) is important.
Then just take it slow at first. We take walking breaks if we need to. Maybe see if you can slow down for half mile. Walk another and then pick it up again.
Also, your dog is not brachycephalic at all. Idk what that person is going on about. Maybe they are thinking more American Bullies that have more bulldog in them.
I had an AmStaff mix who was tall and lean who ran up to half marathons with me. She could go for days so quite literally YMMV depending on your dog alone.
2
u/BergamotVerbena 15d ago
Thank you! I really appreciate the in depth response. I didn’t even consider chaffing from the harness, so I’m glad you and others have brought that up. I will keep an eye out on it and maybe altogether get a new one to avoid that. I would never run more than three miles with him, because I personally will never want to run more than that lol. I’m only doing trail runs because I thought it could be a fun exercise for us both
2
u/eLishus 15d ago
Temperature tolerance will depend on the dog. My last dog, Staffordshire/GSH mix was generally fine up to 80°, but that started dipping in her later years of life. Our newer dog, Doberman/Lab, is done running at 70°. She loves a 6am 55° temp and will go for 6-10 miles no problem. When it’s closer to 65-70°, she’s usually spent at about 3 miles. She was about 1.5 years when I got her so that puts her at about 3.5 years old now with two years of solid running training.
1
u/BergamotVerbena 15d ago
I’m learning that my dog has a low temperature tolerance with this warm weather and humidity. I definitely think I’ll start runs at 6am
2
u/roccosito 15d ago
Before 9am is way too late in this heat. I would aim for 6am and in the dark honestly.
Not only are the temps and day cooler because of the recent night but so is the pavement.
2
u/BergamotVerbena 15d ago
Yeah I think I’m going to start at 6am now. We don’t run on pavement since I don’t want to mess with his joints and we only run on trails or the beach
1
1
u/Quirky_Tomato3766 10d ago
I have an American bully, he’s ~110lbs, almost 3 years old. We started by following the pooch to 5k plan, but quite loosely - there were a couple weeks that we repeated, just took it at his pace. He was grumpy af when we first started out and I almost gave up thinking it wasn’t for him, but he loves it now.
In terms of heat - the vet said to add together the temperature (in Fahrenheit) and the humidity, and don’t take him out if the total is 150 or more. But I found that actually his upper limit is more like 140. When it’s warm we head out really early, I take water and watch for signs that he might be getting too warm. I tend to plan a route that can be cut shorter if needed. And generally I let him dictate the running speed / walk breaks (I run separately as well so I can do my own thing then).
He also takes salmon oil and joint supplements, which I’d agreed with my vet before we started running since he’s a big guy. But you’ll be surprised how well they can do. We ran 5 miles this morning and he loved it.
1
u/BergamotVerbena 10d ago
Thank you! This is very helpful and encouraging. We are going to start getting up earlier since this August heat is brutal, and now it’s hurricane season, so unfortunately the humidity is only worse. I will definitely do that temperature calculation
1
u/ekmsmith 9d ago edited 9d ago
I have had my 3yo mostly Pit Pitsky for about 16 months. She was not in shape when we started so I just let her set the pace and did short loops near the house so we could head back when needed. I think we started with a mile and added .25mi to her 'long run' each week until we hit 7 miles in the winter. Looking back on runs this time last year, she's several minutes per mile faster now. We do short runs 4x per week and a longer run on one of the weekend days.
She is not very heat tolerant. 50* and below, she'll run with a lot of enthusiasm and no fading at the end but in the Texas summer, we're doing 1.5-2 miles max even at 6a and a lot of the back half is a sniffy walk.
She usually runs out in front of me but as she starts slowing down will run by my side or slightly behind.
She is super high prey drive and will bolt after bunnies, squirrels, anything that moves fast. For that reason I do not run with a waist belt and have her clipped into the front clip on her harness. I use a carabiner to guide the leash along the side of the harness so it doesn't swing and another carabiner clipped into the back clip on the harness that I thread the leash through so it performs like it's front clipped but has the clean exit of the leash like it's back clipped. This makes it easier to control the unpredictable sprints without the leash going everywhere.
I heard that terrier mixes have a larger propensity to be distracted by sniff breaks. Not sure if that's universally true but she would sprint 0.25 mile, sniff break, repeat if I let her. We worked a lot on not stopping as much during the winter but in general I accept that it's her run more than mine and we have some extra sniffy runs sometimes and that's ok.
1
u/BergamotVerbena 8d ago
Could you post a picture of how you set up the leash clips? This sounds like something that I could do with my dog and seems very helpful. He does have a high prey drive, but luckily we’ve worked on it a lot with training and there are squirrels and deer everywhere, so he’s used to them. Sometimes he will still get locked on to an animal though
-1
u/UncleAugie 15d ago
and he seems to really enjoy it but gets tired/hot quite easily
Bully breeds are not bred for running any kind of distance.... running 1 mile or more with a bully breed is never going to be something they can easily do without risking their safety. They do not have the right physiology.
Bully breeds (such as American Pit Bull Terriers, Staffordshire Bull Terriers, and American Bullies) have compact, heavy, and muscular bodies with semi-brachycephalic (moderately shortened) facial structures. They are built for short bursts of high-intensity power rather than long-distance endurance, meaning sustained forced running places dangerous stress on their respiratory, cardiac, and skeletal systems.
4
u/vax4good 15d ago
APBTs are extremely athletic as long as you keep an eye on the temperature
-3
u/UncleAugie 15d ago
semi-brachycephalic (moderately shortened) facial structures make them not good for any distance... look at the difference between a bully breed and a herding breed in the facial structure...
3
u/SparkyDogPants 15d ago
How do you look at this dog and see a semi brachy dog? He has a full stop and long muzzle.
-2
u/UncleAugie 15d ago
3
u/SparkyDogPants 15d ago
This is just an article about brachycephalic dogs. The word pit bull is not written once. And they’re not represented in any of the pictures.
In photo two you see that ops dog has nice normal nares. And in photo one ops dog has a normal stop and a long muzzle. Like wtf are you on about.
3
-2
u/UncleAugie 15d ago
Airlines restrict pit bulls and similar bully breeds due to classification as brachycephalic (snub-nosed) animals
2
u/vax4good 15d ago
It’s on a spectrum, and APBTs are much less brachycephalic than other bully breeds. Just look at OP’s pics.
1
u/SparkyDogPants 15d ago
YMMV my pits all ran ultras with me and did fine.
-1
15d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
3
u/SparkyDogPants 15d ago
Pits are not anywhere near brachycephalic. Their long powerful snouts and jaws are what they’re famous for. You’re clearly thinking of boxers or something else. Pits are commonly used to hunt feral hogs where they have to run all day, and do great.
My oldest dog is 12 and can still happily run a 5k within it any difficulties.
Not to mention that ops dog is a pit/coon hound. Which is basically built to run.
2
u/BergamotVerbena 15d ago
I’ll look into both aspects of this comment and your reply. He doesn’t have much of a bully build, his build is similar to a coonhound with more muscle like a pit. He does not look anything like my brother’s full bred American pitbull. I’m trying my best to research the appropriate exercise for him and his mixed breed
2
u/SparkyDogPants 15d ago
He looks like my dog that I ran 50ks with. What will help him most with distance is to keep him lean and don’t let him get fat. He looks healthy now but if he has more ribs showing, that’s fine for pits. You don’t want hip bones, but ribs are fine. They’re supposed to be lean.
What helps me most with focus and the zoomies is doing a 5-15 minute off leash walk if possible to let him get his crazies out. Or a 15-30 minute sniffy walk, where he gets to sniff every tree and pee on every bush.
We do our first walk with a flat collar. Then for runs we switch a cannicross running harness. I don’t know if I’m full of shit but something about putting his “work” uniform on helps him focus. I would ditch the choke collar, coonhounds and pits are too stubborn and single minded that they will happily choke themselves out.
For training I have a handful of commands “stop” (which they come to a complete stop and sit), “go” “wait” (where they just need to slow down and walk) and working on leash manners. When they were younger I got their mileage up by doing a couch to 5k with them to up their mileage up.
Check his feet and anywhere his harness rubs for hotspots. It’s especially an issue for short haircuts. If his feet start getting beat up, you can put mushers secret or bag balm on his pads at night.
2
u/vax4good 15d ago
Just a minor quibble for posterity: I agree prongs shouldn’t be the default for running (and see that OP doesn’t use it for that purpose). But every dog is different and for mine in particular a prong is the only thing they won’t strain against to the point of choking when they spot a cat or deer. So there are exceptions to every rule.
3
u/SparkyDogPants 15d ago
Sure, fair pibble quibble. Outside of running I would agree but I personally like using pit strength for running. I call it my pit assist. I think it’s good for them to encourage their natural pulling abilities
4
u/BergamotVerbena 15d ago
I have been learning so much about pits and their natural tendencies. I do like him to pull me sometimes when he wants to sprint because it pushes me to run faster and build up my athleticism. The prong does not work at all for him if he were to see an animal that he wanted to hunt, luckily I have taught him exceptional verbal commands and he leaves deer alone now. He understands that the deer in our neighborhood coexist and they are not to be hunted. He is also way too stubborn lol, so if he wanted something, it would not stop him. He is very sensitive, therefore he has always done best with positive reinforcement. I have rarely ever used aversive training techniques as I know it would instill fear and he would become reclusive
1
u/vax4good 15d ago
I run with two at once on steep, popular trails. And they collectively outweigh me 😅
2
u/BergamotVerbena 13d ago
Godspeed to you. I outweigh my dog, but not by a huge margin. He is also extremely strong, I don’t think I’ve ever met a dog as strong as him. I don’t think I would even try a steep decline trail lol
2
u/SparkyDogPants 15d ago
And for breed, unless if your dog is physically incapable to run like an English bull dog or true brachy breed. Breed doesn’t matter for running. It’s all about drive and whether or not your dog wants to.
Plenty of people get boarder collies or huskies to run with and end up with lazy couch potatoes. My friend and I used to run trail marathons with her 10 lb chihuahua.
Your dog will let you know how far is too far.
1
8
u/vax4good 15d ago
Good training habits are easier to build than to change. So the number one question is whether you want him pulling you canicross-style (which requires a very different gear set up) vs. running in a casual heel beside / behind you (in which case all the same rules he’s used to with the prong collar should apply, just at a faster pace).
Either way I’d probably lose that particular harness on runs, which looks hot and likely to chafe under the armpits.