The secret is out: Dogs make good exercise partners.
Every so often I hear from someone contending that the best piece of fitness equipment they’ve ever encountered isn’t some flashy treadmill or 5-in-1 infomercial machine. It can’t even be found at a well-stocked club.
The ultimate exercise machine, they say, is a dog.
Last year the ever-practical Men’s Health magazine came up with a rundown on which breeds were best suited for particular recreational activities. (See summary at end of this story.)
Most matchups might hold true, though a friend questioned whether any Irish setter would spend more time running alongside or biting a mountain bike’s tires.
Dogs make good exercise partners because even people with a limitless supply of excuses for not exercising themselves usually can’t put off the obvious:
The dog needs a walk.
Some need a run, some need to fetch, some to dig, a few crave a swim, but walking covers many of them, most of the time. And–wouldn’t you know it–the same holds true for humans.
A dog well-walked is a dog well-adjusted, less likely to drive its family crazy from hyperactivity or chewed-up slippers.
A human well-walked (say, 30 minutes briskly each day) reduces its risk of death by 50 percent, though it still might find other ways to drive the family crazy.
Some lucky pet dogs get to do what their breeding tells them to do: I have a friend who feigns drowning off their dock on Seattle’s Lake Washington so their Newfoundland has a chance to rescue her and swim while pulling a load.
At Green Lake in North Seattle one recent Sunday I talked with Maia Halvorsen of Bellingham, Wash., who was visiting her brother and jogging with his dog, a shepherd-Labrador mix that liked jogging better than walking.
Back home, Halvorsen had another jogger, a German shepherd, but also an Alaskan malamute-Chesapeake Bay mix. “She just likes a dead run,” preferably in the lead, ideally pulling something.
So Halvorsen has rigged a harness the dog can wear while pulling her on in-line skates or, in the winter, on skis. “She just loves to pull,” Halvorsen says. “The hard thing is teaching her how to heel.”
Look in a book on dogs, and it’s obvious that exercise is part of their life’s blood.
Breeds are grouped under “sporting,” “hounds” and “working.” Even terriers are bred for specific active purposes.
Prospective dog owners might browse a bookstore or two for “exercise requirements” before committing. “The Roger Caras Dog Book,” for example, rates most sporting dogs 6s to 10s on a scale of 1 (needs little exercise) to 10 (many long walks and free runs), and hounds get mostly 9s and 10s. Terriers can vary from the Australian (4) to the Airedale (10), as can toys: Chihuahuas get a 1, toy poodles a 6.
Individual temperaments also figure in, as with a Pomeranian I saw at Seattle’s Green Lake.
According to Caras’ book, Jasmine was a 2, for whom “even a brief walk with her short legs seems likes miles.” But Jeanne McCarthy and John Schreuder walk her three times a day, about an hour total, and say she keeps up with about a 7-minute-mile pace. On a recent 8-mile hike, she did fine–“Just if the rocks are too big, we’ve got to help her over,” says Schreuder.
“The only thing you can’t do with her is sit-ups,” McCarthy says, “because she’ll get in the way–she wants to play.”
A lucky few come upon a dog that can exercise itself. My friend with the Newfie also has a golden retriever, which is not renowned (among humans) for its intelligence. But this dog, Natches, although happy enough if someone throws a ball or a stick for him to retrieve, doesn’t need the human intervention.
He’ll find a tennis ball, roll it off the dock, jump in after it, swim ashore, and promptly roll the ball off the dock again.
Only in the summer.
Who’s the smart one here?
Men’s Health dog matchups
Running: Australian cattle dog. Also-rans: Brittany and other spaniels, Siberian husky, Saluki and Belgian sheep dog. Avoid: Smaller dogs such as dachshund and Shih Tzu.
Fishing: Basset hound. Also-rans: Bloodhound, mastiff. Avoid: Dalmatian, poodles, Chihuahua.
Frisbee/fetching: Retrievers. Also-rans: Cocker spaniel, Shetland sheep dog, Australian shepherd, Rottweiler. Avoid: German shepherd, Saint Bernard, other large dogs.
Camping and hiking: Pointer. Also-rans: Boxer, retrievers, Rhodesian Ridgeback, vizsla, Weimaraner. Avoid: Shih Tzu, other non-runners.
Mountain biking: Irish setter. Also-rans: Golden retriever, whippet, greyhound. Avoid: Small, low-to-the-ground dogs.
Cross-training: Flat-coated retriever. Also-rans: Labrador, Belgian sheep dog. Avoid: English bulldog.
