DogJoggers does. Calculate how your dog's pull changes your training targets — then use proper running coaching built for both of you.
Most running apps understand pace, heart rate and distance. They do not understand the dog attached to you.
The pace on your watch gets faster — but that does not automatically mean your fitness produced the speed.
Use a solo pace target on a pulled run and an "easy" session can become the wrong session for the pair of you.
Choose pulled, off-lead or solo and Dog Boost adjusts the target for how you are actually running that day.
DogJoggers brings structured running training into a world where pace, effort and safety change when a dog is involved.
5-zone 5K/10K+ programmes, session-specific targets, guided intervals and honest post-run analysis.
Weather welfare checks, recovery-aware coaching and guidance for puppies, seniors and breeds needing extra care.
Run guided sessions on Apple Watch, send structured workouts to Garmin and bring runs back through Apple Health.
The calculator is the "aha". DogJoggers turns that insight into day-to-day coaching.
Targets adjust for pulled, off-lead and solo running rather than treating them as identical.
Conditions are checked before a dog-running session, with safety taking priority over the plan.
Ask about heat, progression, breed considerations and readiness — with dog-running context built in.
See whether you actually hit the workout, with rep-by-rep splits and context from your own history.
The plan can back off after demanding efforts rather than blindly pushing the next session.
Each dog gets its own training history, load and recovery instead of one mixed-up account.
Enter a recent solo 5K and a 5K with your dog. Thirty seconds, no app needed.
Built from your solo fitness — because that's what your fitness actually is. The on-lead column is the same effort, just at the speed your dog drags out of you.
Repetition pace is for short, fast reps with full recovery only — it's a speed and running-economy zone, not something to hold. Treat the number as a ceiling, not a target.
A dog pulling on the line does some of the work for you. That means at any given speed, you're working less hard than you would solo.
So if you run your threshold session at your solo threshold pace while being towed, you're not actually doing a threshold session. You're doing something easier — and wondering why you're not getting faster.
Same lungs. Same legs. Same effort. Two different numbers on your watch — and only one of them is right for the run you're actually doing.
Your dog doesn't pull the same on every run. Fresh vs tired, cold vs warm, a trail full of squirrels vs the same boring loop — the assist moves around a lot.
Which is why heart rate is the one that doesn't lie. It reads what your body is doing regardless of what's towing you. On any run with your dog:
Nothing here paces your dog. A fit dog's aerobic ceiling is roughly double an elite human's — on almost every run, you're the limiting factor, not them.
What does limit your dog is heat, paw condition and joint load. Those are hard stops, not training targets: build volume slowly, watch the weather, check the pads, and take the rest days. The zones above are yours. The welfare rules are theirs.
How this is calculated. Your solo 5K is converted to a VDOT value using Jack Daniels' published oxygen-cost regression, and each zone is the pace at its share of that VDOT — the same method used by coaches worldwide. Your dog contribution is the measured difference between your solo and on-lead 5K, not an assumed multiplier, and the on-lead column applies that same ratio across every zone. Heart-rate bands are the standard percentages of maximum for each zone. Retest every 6–8 weeks: these numbers should move as you do.
Guidance only, not medical advice. If you or your dog are new to running, build up gradually — and check with your vet before starting structured work with a young, senior, or recovering dog.
Then let DogJoggers build training around the pair of you — with proper targets, structured sessions and safety built in.