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In 2017 the Tri Dog events committee (made up of recreational, national and international athletes) organised the very first triathlon with dogs in the UK. As individuals, we all wanted to be involved in running events and do something for the dog sports community, but there are so many organisations doing such a good job of the standard canicross and bikejor events, we wanted to do something a bit different.

The aim of Tri Dog was to arrange a 3 stage event where participants swim with their dogs, then exit the water and transition onto the bike to complete an off-road bike course, then transition to the trail running section to finish the triathlon. To explain a little bit more about how this works with dogs we’ve divided the triathlon into the three disciplines.

Swimming with dogs hasn’t got a specific name and isn’t yet a recognised sport, there are however, a number of groups beginning to hold Canine SUP and swimming sessions across the UK. For our Tri Dog events we request that your dog is attached to you via a lead of some description for safety. The idea is to try and get your dog to either swim alongside you in the open water or if you’ve got a really strong swimmer, they can even pull you if they are wearing a comfortable harness.

Biking with dogs is known as bikejoring and although originates from the sled dog sports where people used bikes to keep their dogs fit in the spring and autumn when there was no snow for sledding, is now a sport in it’s own right. Riders usually have a mountain bike with an attachment which helps to keep the bungee line from falling in the wheel if the dog stops suddenly and the dog is in harness, attached to the bike via a bungee lead around the headstock of the bike. Bikejor is much faster than canicross and the top dog and rider combinations are reaching speeds of in excess of 30 mph on some of the trails.

Running with dogs is now more commonly known as canicross and is defined as cross country running with your dog attached to you. To take part in canicross races, your dog must have a correctly fitting harness and be attached via a bungee lead to a waistbelt worn by the person. Canicross is the fastest growing sport of the 3 in the UK and there have been specific races for people to take part in with their dogs for over 20 years now.

The Tri Dog series of training and events got underway at the beginning of October 2016 with our first training weekend, we then went on to hold a duathlon in January 2017 to practice the transitions and ensure we could run the event safely with numerous dogs in one area. The training and duathlon went without a hitch, so it was full steam at the end of April for our first dog triathlon!

We chose to host the event at Box End Park near Milton Keynes because we’ve attended events there before and the site was perfect for everything we needed, with two separate transition areas, one at each end of the park. We wanted plenty of space for everyone so no one felt pressured to transition quicker than they wanted to, the aim was to keep everything very calm for the dogs and we think we achieved this.

The other big consideration we had was what time of year we held the event as the water temperature needed to be warm enough for the human and dog combinations to complete the 70 metre swim comfortably but also cool enough for the dogs for the bikejor and canicross sections. We had many a discussion about this and decided the end of April and end of September were probably our best bets and that certainly seemed to be the case for our first triathlon.

We had in excess of 60 entries over the weekend, made up of individuals completing the triathlon or a duathlon which we also ran after the main triathlon. We also allowed people to put together teams so they could relay the 3 stages if they wanted to, so everybody who wanted to come and have a go at the event could enter something they felt comfortable with completing.

The best part of the weekend for us as organisers was to see the real look of achievement as people crossed the finish lines with their dogs and received their competitors medal. The triathlon was a real test of people’s bond with their dog as it takes quite a lot of trust and training to be able to swim, bike and run with your dog. Not to mention the fact that although the distances were kept short (70 metres for the swim, 2.5 km for the bike and 2.5 km for the run) you needed to have a decent level of fitness to be able to race in all 3 disciplines, one after the other. At every stage we saw participants working with their dogs and it was evident who had done the most training from the dogs’ trust in their owner to guide them through the event from start to finish, competing in a race they would never have experienced before.

We are pleased to say the events that followed also had a great response and we managed to increase our numbers to 200 entries, we sell out every year now! We get great feedback from the events and many people join us for their first ever dog sport event at Tri Dog (which I think is ambitious!)

We are looking forward to hosting the next Tri Dog triathlon in September at Box End Park again. Over the years we have learnt valuable lessons about timings, numbers and general administration of the event, so we improve the event every time!

To find out more about the events please visit our Facebook page www.facebook.com/TriDogUK/, where will be beginning to post updates and information about the next event soon or visit our website: http://www.tri-dog.com/