How can I ensure that my dog is only focused on running
About a year ago, I adopted an 8-year-old Malinois. Last March, I decided to take up running again. At first, I went running without her to build up some stamina. And then I started taking her with me. I took it slow in the beginning by just doing some laps in the local park so that she could get used to running and the rules that come with it (no peeing, pooing, sniffing or saying hi to other dogs, only running). Before I start running, I always walk a lap or two around the park so she can pee, poo and sniff. We even play a bit of fetch. During this warm-up lap, the leash is attached to her collar. Before starting to run, I attach the leash to her harness, tell her the ground rules and then we're off. It's always the same ritual. It took, of course, a few times before she understood the ground rules, but at a certain point she got the hang of it. Or so I thought. There are days that she runs perfectly and then days like today, when she just insists on greeting other dogs in passing and even stops to poo half-run. She pooed not even 20 minutes earlier. I know she didn't really have to go.
Does this mean that the other runs that go perfectly are just a matter of luck? Does she understand that we're running and that during running, there is no room for anything else?
At the moment, I am just running 5k, but I aim to run 10k by the end of summer. But I can't make any progress if she messes up halfway through our run. Any idea on how to tackle this? Does she just need more repetition?