Introducing Honey, my partner in crime on the trails — and the research on why running with a dog does something running alone can’t.
Her name is Honey, and she has never once asked me how far, or how fast, or why I do this before the sun is properly up.
She just goes. Off the lead when the trail allows it, a black and white comma disappearing round the bend and reappearing, always, exactly when I start to worry. On the lead when it doesn’t, trotting anyway like the rope was her idea.
The studies say what I already knew: that a dog on a run does something a watch can’t — lifts the stamina, lowers the argument in your head, turns fatigue into something almost cheerful. Something about oxytocin. Something about not running alone even when no one else is there.
I call her my partner in crime, which undersells it. Crime implies a plan. She has none. She just runs because I’m running, and I run better because she does.
Sheepdog, no sheep, just me, and she has decided that’s enough of a flock.
Inspired by Mary Oliver