August 26 is National Dog Day, so celebrate humanity's long and fruitful relationship with dogs.
What does this have to do with Nordic walking? You may have thought you wanted to take up Nordic walking, but how in the world would you walk your 4-legged family member as well? Here are some ways people have done it.
This video shows you can let the dogs walk with you off-leash.
This next video shows the walker holding leash and pole in one hand. She's using poles without Nordic walking gloves.
This third video shows a walking using a waist belt to which the leash is attached. It's inspired by the sport called canicross or skijouring, In the same way Nordic walking grew from cross country skiers who wanted to stay in shape without snow, canicross was developed by dog sledders who wanted to keep themselves and their dogs in shape during the off season.
Here's one last approach: use one pole, making sure your pole has quick release gloves. You can hold the leash in one hand and push off with pole on the other. That way, you can easily switch arms. You only need one pole because it's ambidextrous. The gloves are left and right-handed, so you just wear the gloves. You can easily hold the leash in either hand, allowing you to get the upper body benefit for which Nordic walking is known.
Here's a video. Notice the walker is pushing off with the pole with one hand and holding the leash with the other hand.
Happy walking!
