The Ru/C catalyst prepared by impregnation method was used for hydrogenation of 3,5-dimethylpyridine in a trickle bed reactor. Under the same reduction conditions (300 °C in H₂), the catalytic activity of the non-in-situ reduced Ru/C-n catalyst was higher than that of the in-situ reduced Ru/C-y catalyst. Therefore, an in-situ H₂ reduction and moderate oxidation method was developed to increase the catalyst activity. Moreover, the influence of oxidation temperature on the developed method was investigated. The catalysts were characterized by Brunauer–Emmett–Teller method, hydrogen temperature programmed reduction H₂-TPR, hydrogen temperature-programmed dispersion (H₂-TPD), X-ray diffraction, energy dispersive spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, O₂ chemisorption and oxygen temperature-programmed dispersion (O₂-TPD) analyses. The results showed that there existed an optimal Ru/RuO_x ratio for the catalyst, and the highest 3,5-dimethylpyridine conversion was obtained for the Ru/C-i1 catalyst prepared by in-situ H₂ reduction and moderate oxidation (oxidized at 100 °C). Excessive oxidation (200 °C) resulted in a significant decrease in the Ru/RuO_x ratio of the in-situ H₂ reduction and moderate oxidized Ru/C-i2 catalyst, the interaction between RuO_x species and the support changed, and the hard-to-reduce RuO_x species was formed, leading to a significant decrease in catalyst activity. The developed in-situ H₂ reduction and moderate oxidation method eliminated the step of the non-in-situ reduction of catalyst outside the trickle bed reactor.