How fast could a dog run a marathon

No way wrote:

A dog couldn't even "run" a marathon. Even the best can barely run 10 miles. They can certainly cover the distance, but not run it, and not even close to 2 hours. Most fatties would beat them.

Rubbish - I had a dog called Rab that used to run with me -breed general brown dog. Rab used to drag me round a 5+ miles (plus another mile sprinting round a field - him not me!) then slow a bit near the end. Once I got lost on a new run and did over 10 miles and it he still dragged me round the whole way' He slowed a bit near the end as usiual - craftily trying to make the run last longer over the last 200m

You are thinking about horses -its rumoured that man can beat a horse over a very long distance

I ran the Man v Horse marathon in Wales and eventually one year a marathon runner - Huw Lobb beat the 1st horse and pocketed £25k. That was over mountain trails and stuff though

Dalmatian dogs were trained to follow carriage and would be a good breed to do the marathon. In the wild a wolf would be hard to beat.

Most wild dogs would not run that far because they would have already caught or lost their prey long before then and the energy expenditure would not be worth their while

They can do a lot more than a marathon - pulling a sled!

I reckon a husky could do a marathon sub 1:30

Humans are better dissipaters of heat than dogs and just about every other animal, so we can run a faster marathon in 90+ degree Fahrenheit than any other land animal. A fit dog or wolf would absolutely destroy us in cold or moderate temperatures at any distance.

You were almost right wrote:

Humans are better dissipaters of heat than dogs and just about every other animal, so we can run a faster marathon in 90+ degree Fahrenheit than any other land animal. A fit dog or wolf would absolutely destroy us in cold or moderate temperatures at any distance.

Yeah but they don't have water stations in the desert

An African hunting dog would also run a human into the ground over a marathon even in 90+ There chases are shorter because of the speed they run at. Human running speed would just be a jog for them

I suggest you look up the way certain honeybees defend themselves against wasps. Panting simply isn't going to get the dog cool enough to keep running once it get hot enough. Of course there is always the question of just how far ahead of the chasing human the dog would get before it literally just stops and refuses to move (as it would die to overheating if it did keep running), but I think this would be short of a marathon. Whatever this distance is, it is the furthest distance any land animal can compete with a human in sweltering heat. Sweat glands are just so much better than everything else at transferring heat.

African dogs wrote:

Could a dog go under 2:00 hours.

In anything but seriously cold weather? Not a chance. Dogs only cool themselves through their tongues. They don't have the sweat glands we do and their travel is far less efficient than hours. A dog would overheat and die if it tried to keep going.

Not sure how one would respond to cold weather. Possibly

Sweat glands are the best thing at dissipating heat, as well as our slender form compared to other animal shapes. This is what made us successful hunters in tropical and subtropical climates - Africa, etc. However, when humans started moving into cold places, we were so unfit for it that not only did the body shape change, humans came to use dogs for help, actually coming to DEPEND on dogs for survival.

There is no question that on soft ground and in cool conditions, trained sled dogs and even a good number of hounds could drop 26.2 in under 2 hours. I don't question that for a second. Heat changes the game. Humidity changes the game. Running on asphalt/concrete changes the game. Let's say you put an Alaskan husky and the guy above's blue heeler in the race with Geb in Berlin when he ran 2:03:59 with these on their feet:

http://www.rei.com/product/747456

. Well.....maybe.

It's hilarious to read conjecture that directly contradicts one's actual experience.

I'll say it again--my mutt did it NO PROBLEM in about 1:30 , small break, water, in about 50 degrees F. I repeat: NO PROBLEM.

I can't believe that other commenters here haven't taken their dog for a marathon-distance run. Come on, surely SOMEBODY else has done it?

How about somebody up north with a husky and a snowmobile?

Definitive Answer wrote:

It's hilarious to read conjecture that directly contradicts one's actual experience.

I'll say it again--my mutt did it NO PROBLEM in about 1:30 , small break, water, in about 50 degrees F. I repeat: NO PROBLEM.

I can't believe that other commenters here haven't taken their dog for a marathon-distance run. Come on, surely SOMEBODY else has done it?

How about somebody up north with a husky and a snowmobile?

Your dog wouldn't break 3 hours in 90 degree weather.

I didn't disagree with you. And I don't doubt your story. I've had dogs, have a dog, and run and biked with dogs. They are phenomenal athletes. Even "non-running breeds" like my pit bull kept up with me on my bike on trails. He loved that shit, and then would chase his toys at full sprint afterward.

I said if it was cool, a dog could go under 2 hours no problem . 50F is cool. In 100F with 90% humdidity (like July in FL) running on blacktop, no f-ing way.

With that we can all agree, as she died about 15 years ago.

Like I said before, I took her on ALL my marathon distance runs. I did stop in the middle for a drink/food break for maybe 15-20 mins, and I used to do it in about 3:15-3:20.

Yes, even in 90 degrees, with some brief stops for water from 2 water spouts in the second half, and running through some irrigation sprinklers. I even did it in nearly 100F once.

She was there every time, and never had a problem.

I should mention that it was actually mostly shaded, there were large deciduous trees overhanging most of the route beside the road, with only occasional blasts of direct sunshine.

Every time we went, she would veer off into the ditch to grab a drink a couple of times--she did actually wade in quite deeply, so that her legs and her belly were in the water. I kept her pretty closely shaven, but she still had a good amount of fur.

By the way, when we stopped, we would stop at a Mac's convenience store, and I would pull the sweat-soaked bill out of the tiny pocket in the front of my shorts. All she would have to drink would be WATER. For food, we would split a couple of packs of STRING CHEESE and a bit of BEEF JERKY, and I'd have a banana if they had it. For my part, for a drink I would have, of all things, CHOCOLATE MILK!!!!!!!!!

Classic teenage training and diet regimen. I never once puked, and I could have gone faster.

Also classic teenage ridiculousness: the whole reason that I started running the distance was because I had a crush on this girl who lived about halfway, and I thought that I might accidentally get to talk to her if she was around as I was impressively running by her place!!!!!! The whole reason I took my dog in the first place was to improve my chances with this girl if I ever saw her!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, the dog could easily have done it in under 3 hours in 90 degrees.

well, clearly "definitive answer" = "animalistic"

How many times have you posted on this thread under different names? Did you start the thread, too, like those others about how fast a pronghorn could run a marathon and how much could a gorilla bench press?

None of the dog breeds mentioned here would be the best at running the marathon. I am positive that the best breed would be the Saluki.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saluki

"Although the greyhound is the fastest dog breed with a top speed of around 45 mph (72 km/h), the Saluki's strength lies in its great endurance and stamina. They may not be the fastest sighthounds, but they can run for much longer than the sprinting breeds."

http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/saluki.htm

"Saluki run at top speeds of 40 mph (55km./h) or more with their feet barely touching the ground. These top speeds are reached in short spurts, but they also have exceptional endurance. They are not great for jogging because they will run faster than humans. An excellent way to exercise them is to trot them alongside your bike."

Yes, Definitive Answer = Animalistic.

I did start the Pronghorn thread, as I though the whole concept of comparing animal performances over arbitrary human distances was absurd.

That's also why I started the Gorilla bench thread. I started those 2 threads under the name Animalistic because I thought it was an appropriate name.

I was here as Definitive Answer because I had exactly that--a definitive answer to the question originally posed, whether a dog could run a marathon in under 2:00.

Here's a more interesting question generally, one that I've thought about before:

When an animal "tries its hardest", it's effort is the result of the pursuit of some goal other than simply the pursuit of excellence or maximal performance--e.g. the pursuit of food, the pursuit of escape, etc..

What do they lack, if anything, psychologically? Cognition? Ego? A particular type of self-awareness?

And could we ever find a way to overcome this deficiency, so that we could get them to pursue maximal performances for their own sake?

Has it ever been tried?

I was thinking of getting a Saluki quite a few years ago, but they really need a lot of room to run, more than just a big back yard. I went to look at some and a woman had 6 of them plus a litter inside of her house. She trained them for show dogs.

It is surprising the article says they are intelligent, as they are quite flighty and easily distracted.

They can definitely run like the wind.

The answer, definitively, is abstract thought. Or rather the lack of it in animals. Distances are abstract and invented by us humans basically. Time, in the sense of minutes, seconds, hours (as opposed to days and seasons) are abstract, and invented by us humans. These concepts are not understood even by young children, and are therefore not understood by dogs or other animals we put through sporting rigors. Although, I do understand that many dogs and horses do, indeed, want to be in front of all the others that surround them. This makes sense as far as wanting to be the alpha in the dog pack, but I've heard horse trainers say that there are horses who are genuinely competitive like we humans are...not against the clock, but against other horses. Whether this is also a dominance display that is interpreted by us to be competitiveness, I don't know.

Animals do have a sense of time on a smaller scale then days, seasons or years. A rat can learn to time a response very accurately. You, for instance, can train a rat so that he will only get a reward if he pushes the lever say 5 minutes after he last got rewarded. If you then look at his response rate you can clearly see that he can estimate 5 minutes very well. If you then give the animal speed, his estimate of 5 minutes becomes shorter (as if time is going faster). Conversely if you gave the animal Valium he responds as if time is moving slower.

You don't know much about dogs. I will speak for one breed, and I am sure there are other capable breeds.

Most german short-hair pointers can cover 10 miles in about 55 minutes, cross-country, without any motivation whatsoever. It might be tough keeping them focused, but if you had people running along and keeping them focused, they could go much faster. If you slapped a GPS on one before they go bolting out into the woods/fields for an hour, it would probably come back reading about 8-10 miles.

For a sub 2 hour marathon, speed and endurance is not the issue for a short-hair, I would say keeping them focused on the course would be the challenge, they are liable to get interested in something else along the way (chase another animal for fun, go swimming for the hell of it, etc). Someone with a well-trained short-hair, which spends its time outdoors could do it.

The question often asked, is whether dogs or other animals, would do this for fun, on their own. They would not, that would just be humans.