Guillermo soon found Monster Milers, a group of Philadelphia volunteers who are trained to take shelter dogs on runs. At first, Guillermo was worried that the pit bulls he was assigned would act up around other runners, but to his surprise, he found that the bigger the group, the better the dogs behaved. “They’re more focused,” he says. “It’s very interesting to see the change that comes over them. I’ve never had a problem.”
Soon, Guillermo was taking his shelter dogs to a big downtown running store for its Sunday morning group runs. Even a little Chihuahua named Legs got his chance. “I thought I’d have to carry him, but he was the best!” Guillermo laughs. “He scritch-scritch-scritched down the sidewalk like a little chicken and did the whole four miles. He wanted to keep going.”
Legs made such an impression that within two weeks, he was adopted. It began to dawn on Guillermo that it wasn’t just the running that the dogs loved, but the running group.
“It can get crazy at times in the shelter, barking 24/7,” he explains. “But when you take the dogs out with lots of people, they sense the social atmosphere and fit right in.”
Likewise for Guillermo; thanks to his time with Monster Milers, he became a popular sight on the Philly running paths and was adopted himself by the Fishtown Beer Runners, a raucously chummy gang known for loosening up even the most nervous novices by ending every run in a bar. “Before I knew it,” Guillermo recalls, “I had more friends than I could keep up with.”
Running With Sherman
Back home, I was seeing the same transformation play out with Sherman. Tanya always told me that the secret to training any animal was to watch them long enough to figure out their natural drives, then channel what they want to do into what you want to do.
But while watching Sherman, I had an idea. Maybe there was a shortcut. I’m sure Tanya is right that every creature has its own quirks and personality traits, but there’s one thing that all of us — dogs and donkeys, humans and animals alike — have in common: We all want to feel so surrounded by family, we’re ready to yodel like Refried.
Source : Nytimes
