Spartan Canine Heat Presented by Nulo

“Dogs love to run,” Susan Sarubin wrote in an article for the Whole Dog Journal. To most dog owners, at least dog owners that jog or run on a regular basis, this goes without much saying. But Sarubin goes deeper and also gets into why getting your dog in on running is so valuable: “They were born to run. Running will help maintain your dog’s weight, improve muscle tone, maintain a strong cardiovascular system, and build endurance. Running uphill develops rear drive. If you compete in any sort of showing or sport with your dog, he will undoubtedly be better conditioned from running than his ‘weekend warrior’ competitors.”

There’s also the psychological component. Dogs are like us—running outside, ideally on trails, does more than just burn off steam. It keeps us in contact with the kind of primal connection that we in the athletic-running-outdoor-fitness realm use copiously to fend off the brand of misery that can come from too much time indoors, too much time staring into screens, too much in the grip of the 24-hour news cycle, too much time in the high-tech comfort zone of modern life. Take it all a step further, this past August, at the Spartan Honors Series event weekend at West Point, Spartan launched the Spartan Canine Heat Presented by Nulo. The Canine Heat allowed owners of service dogs to participate together on the Spartan Kids course. In future events, those with trained dogs from police departments, government agencies, military personnel and those with service/support dogs will be invited to take part in an event with obstacles designed for the Canine Heat.

It should be mentioned that Nulo founder Michael Landa started his company to help mitigate the alarming numbers of overweight  pets and pets requiring insulin treatments for diabetes resulting from sedentary lifestyles. So the partnership between Spartan and Nulo with this new series is a great fit and one we are all determined to see make a difference.