For some the change in the rules banning canicross from parkrun is devastating, it hurts and it feels a bit like an attack on those of us that run safely and have done for years. These are however rules that are coming in to place regardless of how we feel about it and because of that we have a few choices, we either donโt go to parkrun anymore, go dogless or try and teach our dogs to run next to us on a handheld lead.There are a lot of people out there suggesting that it is wrong or impossible to teach a dog to canicross and run next to you on a handheld lead. In the end neither of that is true, plenty of dogs do and can be taught to run on a loose lead next to an owner as well as being taught to pull in their canicross harness. There are ways to teach this but the most important part of it is to make the two types of running look very different, so the first rule of teaching your dog to run next to you is ๐๐ข ๐ก๐ข๐ง run them next to you in their canicross harness!!! Whether you want to run them in a harness (ideally a short one, such as the non stop short or arctic wolf adventure harness) or on the collar is your own personal choice, if they are running on a loose lead then it wonโt harm them either way.