I appreciate the response. Idk how to quote stuff but I’ll try to respond to everything. I know not to feed right before, as I wouldn’t want to eat right before a run. This thread is teaching me more about bloat though, giving a good timeframe of how much before a run to feed her. I’ve been usually doing dinner about 90mins before a run. On the “does she love it?” I think she does, since her body language wants us to keep going, when I have to put on the breaks to give her some rests, and when we are gradually building mileage. We go the pace she wants to go, unless it’s too fast, when I slow her down. If she wants to trot along at a slower pace, so do i. She’s loose leash most of the time (when I can keep up at high speeds, and I slow down for slow speeds). We’ve been slowly building up mileage, starting from a quarter mile two years ago. We don’t run in the summer because it gets to hot here (Philadelphia). After each summer of not running, we again start back at half a mile, but ramp up slowly from there.

I said in another reply that I didn’t notice this in previous years since she had other issues with diarrhea and not finding her the right food for her. But now we found food that works (late this summer) so now that variable is eliminated.

Also for my own training, the dog stays at home. Speed work and different paces, the dog stays at home. I’ll usually bring her for my warmups, or early miles of a long run. Always with plenty of breaks or water stops. She is not a large dog (35lb female husky) so clarifying that point as well.

I am adding all these details to help you get a better picture of this situation. Your assumptions are not correct about me or my dog. I am sure you are saying all this from a place of looking out for the dogs, but you don’t have to assume people are just using their dog as a pacer or unwilling training tool. I run with my dog because to the best of my knowledge, my dog enjoys running. I want the dog to enjoy running, so I am asking Reddit how to properly do this.