Sarah Peel from Dogrunnin was on hand to greet all the students and their owners.
Marley and Roxanne Myers were among several first-timers.
There was plenty of time for the dogs to get familiar with other participants.
Sarah Peel welcomes the group to Point Pleasant Park and explains the day’s activities.
Dogs and owners alike kept moving to stay warm and ready to run.
Sarah Peel and Nahla show starting line commands.
Sarah Peel and Nahla simulate a race start.
Patience was necessary as commands were taught and participants had their turns.
Some racers were less patient than others.
Owners were taught how to speed up, slow down, and get their dogs to focus running forward.
Other basic skills included safely passing other racers.
The group enjoyed a run through Point Pleasant to test their new skills.
Onyx attends many canicross clinics in Halifax with his owner Sarah Peel.
The bond between human and hound has always been close, but the increasing popularity of canicross in Halifax is making that relationship even tighter.
It’s a sport that evolved from mushing, or dogsledding, but it differs from simply running with a dog where the dog is at the owner’s side and requires a team effort.
Canicross is a harness dog sport, meaning that the dog is attached to its owner with a taut line. The owner is also positioned behind the dog and gives commands to start, stop, speed up and slow down.
Peel has been coaching canicross programs for two years. She said she and her dog, Nahla, have gained confidence together thanks to the sport’s need for strong, consistent communication.
While Dogrunnin’s programs are relatively new to Halifax, canicross is already popular in other parts of Canada. Quebec has a strong canicross community, as there are plenty of trails to run on and enough snow in the winter to pursue seasonal sports. There are also a number of groups in the interior of British Columbia, where canicross has also found a following.
The Signal visited Dogrunnin’s latest clinic on Saturday in Point Pleasant Park and saw Peel in action, showing local dogs and their owners how to run better together.
The dogs present at the clinic were all shapes and sizes, from huskies to labs to greyhounds, but they all shared a desire to run.
Some had previously taken classes with Peel, but nonetheless she reiterated the need to practice commands regularly to make sure that both pet and owner were on the same page.
The stress of communication in canicross cannot be underestimated — and it’s the reason that many participants decided to take up the sport.
The sport is also a gateway to other harness dog events such as bikejoring, where the dog pulls its owner on a bike, and skijoring, a popular sport in Scandinavia which involves being pulled by a dog on cross country skis.
Canicross isn’t the only local option for dog owners wishing to get outdoors with their canines. Members of HRM Urban Mushing “train for the joy of improving the runs we can do with our dogs,” whether with sleds, bikes or on foot.
Dogrunnin is organizing a skijoring clinic in Truro later this winter, and puts on regular time trials for Halifax-area dog and runner teams. There was enough participation in last year’s events that the group is planning to host sanctioned races in 2017.
Myers hopes to run races with her dog, Marley, and perhaps go even further.
“I would like to try cross-country skiing with her,” she said.
Myers is not alone in her desire to expand her horizons with her canine companion. Peel is glad that more people are trying harness dog sports, and expects the trend to continue.