Encouraging Dog Walking for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention

Abstract

Regular physical activity is associated with numerous health benefits, including the prevention of many chronic diseases and conditions or a reduction in their adverse effects. Intervention studies suggest that promoting dog walking among dog owners who do not routinely walk their dogs may be an effective strategy for increasing and maintaining regular physical activity. Strategies that emphasize the value of dog walking for both dogs and people, promote the context-dependent repetition of dog walking, enhance the social-interaction benefits, encourage family dog walking, and ensure availability of public space for dog walking may encourage increased dog walking. Research also supports organizing buddy systems via "loaner" dogs to facilitate informal walking by dog owners and non-dog owners. Given the number of homes that have dogs, strategies that promote dog walking could be effective at increasing physical activity levels among a significant proportion of the population. Maximizing the potential for dog walking to positively influence the health of individual people (and dogs) will only occur through implementing programs with broad population-level reach. Policies that facilitate dog walking at the community and population levels, such as "dogs allowed" places, off-leash zones, and dog-friendly built environments and parks, may contribute to greater physical activity through dog walking.

Slower, shorter, sadder: a qualitative study exploring how dog walks change when the canine participant develops osteoarthritis

“…These data also demonstrate how owners' emotional attachment to their dogs may act as both a motivator and a barrier to dog walking exercise. These findings have important implications for those advocating dog ownership or dog walking as a route to improved public health [5,[7][8][9]; those benefits may be negated when the dog becomes physically incapacitated. Osteoarthritis is just one example of a canine health problem that limits mobility, and it is likely that a wide range of other prevalent canine conditions including cardiac disease [18] and obesity [19,20] will have a similar impact.…”

“…Dog walking research has predominantly focused on health gains associated with walking exercise. Benefits to owners' physical and emotional health as a result of dog walking are well documented [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. A meta-analysis of dog walking literature [10] identified that dog owners walk for more minutes per week than non-dog owners, and that acquisition of a dog could lead to a sustained increase in physical exercise.…”

“…A meta-analysis of dog walking literature [10] identified that dog owners walk for more minutes per week than non-dog owners, and that acquisition of a dog could lead to a sustained increase in physical exercise. Subsequent research with similar findings has led some authors to suggest dog ownership, and dog walking, could be a positive public health intervention to tackle human obesity [5,7,8] and to improve physical and mental health [9]. Around 50% of dogs visiting veterinary practices in the UK dogs are currently estimated to be overweight or obese [11], and there is an ongoing dog overpopulation problem [12].…”

Dog Ownership and Walking: Perceived and Audited Walkability and Activity Correlates

“…It is possible that community design might compensate by providing dog-friendly parks or policies. For example, dog parks might encourage more use [29], or "loaner dogs" might accommodate the needs of those who cannot keep dogs [51]. Other suggestions relate to getting more physical activity with dogs, which might involve dog walking groups, more mass media campaigns, and supporting national policy statements that encourage dog walking [32,[51][52][53].…”

Slower, shorter, sadder: A qualitative study exploring how dog walks change when the canine participant develops osteoarthritis

“…Benefits to owners' physical and emotional health as a result of dog walking are well documented [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. A meta-analysis of dog walking literature [10] identified that dog owners walk for more minutes per week than non-dog owners, and that acquisition of a dog could lead to a sustained increase in physical exercise.…”