Can you run with a jindo?
While Jindo dogs do enjoy running and exercise only the most well trained ones make good running dogs. The reason why is that Jindos are easily distracted, they want to smell that tree or chase after that cat.
Jindos love to run and exercise, if it was up to them they will spend the best part of the day every day patrolling their neighbourhood, hunting and scent marking as they go along. I do not consider Jindo a high energy dog, they do like to laze around the house after all, but they are certainly fit dogs that can run a reasonable distance.
Jindo dog do love to run alongside their owner, while living in Korea, I also saw Jindos running beside cyclists and one that even runs beside his owner who rode a motorbike.
There was even a pack of three Jindos who will go for massive long runs beside their owner as he cycle alone, all but oblivious to the chaos occurring around him. Those three Jindos were a bit of a nuisance, hooning all over the place and looking for trouble, when they went for a run they had all the dogs in the neighbourhood barking, howling and going crazy.
When my Jindo cross was younger I use to take him for runs quite often, and while he did not enjoy running in the summer heat, he could quite easily keep up over the cooler months. Was he the perfect running companion? Will, no. On leash, he got too easily distracted and wanted to spend time sniffing, or adding to all the pee patches. Running with him was start, stop, start, stop. Impossible to get into any sort of rhythm.
Off leash, running was much easier, yes. He will still stop to sniff and scent mark, but he could easily catch back up if I happened to get ahead. Now, Jindos off leash are difficult to control due to their strong hunting instinct, and my Jindo was no exception. He will be happily running along with a big smile on his face, then he will smell a pheasant, or spy a squirrel or cat and he will be off after them.
A few times, he even started to chase after stray dogs or roaming dogs, in those cases it took a good 10-15 minutes to get him back again. He had a bit of an aggressive streak to him and just love to chase after anything smaller than him.
How far and long can Jindo run?
Will, in the winter my Jindo was quite happy to run 4 or 5km, that is about 3 miles. He was certainly willing to go further and longer, but I did worry about his joints when going at a faster pace. That is about a 30 minute run.
On long slow runs, he can basically walk as fast as I can run, so at slow speeds, we can run significantly further.
