Teen runners, shelter dogs teaming up for workouts
Fun training activity has also led to adoptions
Daily runs can be a grind for high school athletes, even cross-country runners who love the sport. Finding motivation over summer break can be even harder.
Some coaches send out training plans, others offer prizes. Coach Luis Escobar was brainstorming with his wife when she hit on an idea: get a pack of goofy, energetic shelter dogs to go out with his runners.
“The dogs want to go out and run; the kids love dogs, and they love running. It was a perfect marriage,” said Escobar, who at the time was the cross-country team coach at St. Joseph High School in Santa Maria, Calif.
He reached out to a Santa Barbara animal shelter, and it was on board. After shelter staff gave the athletes a briefing on best practices for running with canines, the students set out on a mile-long loop around the shelter.
“It was super fun. The kids were having a great time, the dogs were having a great time,” said Escobar, who took a video of the outing that day in 2016 and shared the sweet scene on social media.
“Tails were wagging, kids were smiling,” he said.
Little did Escobar know then that the 60-second snippet would fly across the internet, with hundreds of thousands of views overnight.
“It just went out of control in a very, very good way,” said Escobar, who now coordinates adult running events.
It has been nearly eight years since that video. Every so often, it resurfaces on social media and starts making the rounds again.
The video shows a group of high school students running with shelter dogs of various size and shape. One student says “good girl!” to encourage his running companion, while another brings up the rear with a pooch named Fred nestled in his arms.
“Fred’s had it,” Escobar says in the video.
Not only did the shelter dog run become a staple training activity for St. Joseph’s cross-country team, but it also resulted in some adoptions — including by the student who carried Fred. He ended up bringing the dog home.
“Many, many dogs were adopted as a result of this,” Escobar said. “That is the thing that I am probably most proud of.”
The video inspired other schools to find their own puppy motivators.
“Our athletic director was getting messages and emails from other athletic directors around the country, wanting to know how they could do this project at their school,” Escobar said.
Jarrin Williams, the head coach of the boys’ cross-country and track and field teams at Rock Island High School in Rock Island, Ill., has been leading shelter runs with his teams since 2019. “I try to make sure that I provide every opportunity for my athletes to give back,” Williams said. “This is one way to do that.”
Multiple times throughout the summer and other school breaks — most recently during spring break — Williams and about 10 students will stop at Rock Island County Animal Care and Control to exercise with some canines.
“It makes the dogs better dogs,” said Samantha Wiley, an operations manager at the shelter. “They just look so happy.” The students love it as much as the dogs do.
“I’ve had kids who graduated come back and run with us and the dogs. That’s how much they enjoy it,” Williams said. “It’s really cool that this one thing that is so simple could be so impactful.”
Escobar said that in hindsight, he is not surprised his short video had such resonance.
“It was 60 seconds of genuine, organic kindness,” he said. “The world needs kindness.”