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New dog running club taking the pound to the pavement

Minneapolis Animal Care and Control first tried pairing volunteer runners with shelter dogs late last year. It's exploded in popularity this spring.

MINNEAPOLIS — The hottest new running club in Minneapolis has a waiting list of new applicants thanks to a very simple premise.

"If you're going to run anyways, you might as well pick up a dog, you know?" said Madison Weissenborn, Volunteer Coordinator for Minneapolis Animal Care and Control (MACC). "And we have plenty of dogs who would love the exercise."

Late last year, Weissenborn started asking a handful of MACC volunteers, to try taking a handful of their shelter dogs for 10-30 minute runs along the nearby Mississippi River pedestrian paths.

It didn't take volunteer Amanda Christiansen long to fall in love with the routine.

"Today I'm with Mr. E," Christiansen said. "He came in maybe a month ago, as a stray. I run regularly anyway... and he's got a lot of energy, so we try to get him out as often as possible."

Chirstiansen has helped many different dogs stay active as they have awaited adoption in the last few months, and when the program was rolled out to a wider audience in the last few weeks, she is now far from the only one doing so.

"We now have 32 volunteers who act as our dog runners," Weissenborn said. 

And thanks to some recent press and word of mouth in running circles, there are plenty more potential runners now waiting in the wings.

"Tons and tons," Weissenborn said, pulling out a large file drawer in her desk. "These are all of the applications that I have, currently to get through. I mean, just this morning I looked online and we had 17 applications from yesterday. We've had so many people apply, so thank you for your patience in advance. I'm getting through them as fast as I can."

Before those volunteers can be on-leashed with a dog, they have to go through several hours of orientation. 

"I guess I have job security right now," Weissenborn said, with a laugh. "Once they have that (training) if they're comfortable and they feel good about it, they're good to go."

MACC staff and current volunteers certainly welcome the added help.

"We are doing treadmill training right now," said volunteer Ali Catt, who spent part of her morning helping another dog, Benny, get some indoor movement. "Benny has been here almost two months. He's very athletic, would love to go to a home that can help him burn off some energy."

Though she would have loved to help Benny get a run in, she had to opt for option B.

"I'm recovering from a little foot injury," she said.

Between the indoor training and outdoor walks, Weissenborn says volunteers and staff do make sure dogs get exercise four to five times a day, but it hasn't been easy maintaining that pace.

"Our adoption rates, they're going down, our intake numbers are going up, which means that our length of stay is extending," Weissenborn said. "So the longer that an animal stays in a shelter setting, no matter how good the shelter is, no matter if it's the best in the world, it's still a stressful place, right?  So running really takes that edge off."

And you don't have to look far for proof of that.

"This is meathead," Weissenborn said, showing off another MACC veteran. "His dad - or pet parent - unfortunately passed away and so he came here. He's been here looking for his forever family ever since. He's definitely been part of the run program, you can see he might not be a distance runner, but it's really helped his behavior, and he even shed a couple of pounds." 

And the dogs aren't the only ones lapping up all the benefits.

"This program has provided a little extra motivation for me to get out there every day," Christiansen said. "The other nice piece of it is - if you're a runner - there are days that you're kind of hard on yourself and if you don't do so well. This is a little bit of an excuse, like, I was running with a dog. I was going at their pace... so there's a little bit of that too."

If you're interested in getting involved with the running club, you can apply through the MACC volunteer portal.

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