A dog walking machine is necessary to keep a dog always fit and greyhound trainers often use it to prepare their dogs for the races. But you’re a professional dog walker or dog parent. Why would you consider some dog walking machine? The best reason is convenience for you and an amusing experience for you dog. Plus, if you’re a professional dog walker, another reason is to ensure for yourself a new source of income for your dog walking business. How so?
Your dogs want to walk. It’s an instinct in them. Dogs were meant to roam, not lie idly by all day long. Even if weather isn’t ideal, in the wild when hungry, a dog must walk to stay alive, instead of getting his daily feed without effort and growing fat and unhealthy for lack of movement for days on end. Ideally, you want to take your dog for a walk outdoors every day, where it can meet its friends, the occasional squirrel and chase a frisbee. But only too often it is wholly impractical to step outdoors with your canine for a walk.
How Never To Be Too Busy Again To Keep Your Dogs Healthy
There is more to keeping a dog indoors than knowing which indoor dog enclosure to consider for it or how to keep a dog healthy inside an indoor dog pen. And when you’re too busy, sick or injured, the dog misses out. Even if there are times when the dog is the one sick, or the temperature outside is below freezing, or it is raining or there is snow and slush everywhere, there has to be opportunity for healthy activity. When it is not convenient for either of you to step out for a walk for weeks, maybe even months, then the dog gets anxious. It can turn destructive, digging into things, making confetti out of Kleenex boxes.
How do you substitute the street for a good exercise habit that will help your friend in good spirits indoors for the long haul? How do you guarantee to do this for neighbors or clients for a fee to earn easy income during the harsh weather season, when you can’t or don’t want to go dog walking outside? You use a dog walking machine.
What Is A Dog Walking Machine?
Not unlike humans going to a gym, sometimes dogs require equipment to exercises indoors with. These machines range from sophisticated systems to simple gear that you can buy or make at home if you have the right materials. A dog walking machine generally gets categorized under one of three types of apparatus:
- Dog walker treadmill
- Dog carpet mill
- Dog slat mill
When a dog is new to these types of training equipment, you must introduce it correctly. Naturally, you wish to avoid injury. But more often, you want the dog to enjoy using it. Therefore, you don’t want to rush the animal to a dog walking machine only for a scare. Sometimes it requires a lot of treats and encouragement for the dog to give the tool a try. But more than anything it takes a bit of patience. In the long run, it is all worth it your dog and yourself or your clients for the dog to embrace its dog walking equipment.
A Word About Dog Walker Equipment And Canine Endurance
Just as we use treadmills at indoor gyms to work our legs and cardiovascular system, there are specially designed treadmills for dogs. They are often used for rehabilitation and therapy but can come in handy when your dog is also an overzealous runner. These are the types of dogs, in fact, that even professional dog walkers know that simply walking is simply not enough for them. They must run!
A dog walker treadmill can either be electrically powered or mechanically operated. They require different performance from its users. It’s enormously important to understand, therefore, the significance of this technical difference. In a mechanically operated dog walker treadmill, the dog controls his own pace. In an automated treadmill, unless there are sensors, the machine is in control. Therefore, you cannot leave a dog unattended, else you will risk severe injury to the animal.
Always be keen to the signs of stress for a dog that has had too much walking. Dogs naturally slow down their pace when they near the end of a walk. Some may even start limping. Different dogs require different distances to travel at different speeds for different time frames. If the dog is in control, you have more flexibility in your use of a dog walking machine, including a dog walker treadmill. But if the dog is not in control, then it is you who must remain in control always. Know your dog.
Electric Dog Walker vs Mechanical Equipment
When it comes to electric dog treadmills, during the initial stages of a fitness program, you may consider slowly working up your dog to walk about 1 mile in as much as 15 to 30 minutes per day depending on your dog’s breed, age and size. And be sure your dog is healthy to begin with. Overweight or older dogs and puppies have less tolerance to extended distances even on machines. Be sensible and always alert.
Build the dog’s stamina slowly. Remember that a mile walk for a short-legged dog is immensely different than for a long-legged dog. It will take each vastly different amounts of time and effort to accomplish the same end. So, set the appropriate performance parameter for each dog. The goal is to exercise them, not exhaust them.
Individualize the fitness plan for each dog. If you ever wonder whether you’re pushing a dog too far on a dog walking machine, keep your eyes on the dog’s back. The maximum speed that would be suitable for a dog on a walker is that which keeps the animal from bouncing. If you see the dog’s backline going up and down, then you got the dog walking machine moving too fast.
Dog Walker Treadmills: The Yellow Brick Road For Canines
You want your dog to think your taking it on a trip to Emerald City whenever you switch that treadmill button on. So, be sure the sound alone doesn’t scare it. Big, bulky dog walking machines can be intimidating to big and small dogs alike. You want to encourage your dogs to get used to the equipment. Let it sniff it on and off. (Don’t let it mark it, though!) Turn it on in at a low speed and slowly introduce the equipment. Don’t force the issue. Ease into it as this video will show you.
Dog Walker Treadmill Advantages:
- Because treadmills can be pricey investments, they come with comprehensive trainer materials and user manuals.
- Some treadmills come with expertly crafted workout programs that mix up walking and running to make the activity more enjoyable for the dog.
- Some can be folded up or disassembled to store when not in use. This way you can save up in storage space.
- Treadmills are less noisy than slat mills.
Dog Walker Treadmill Disadvantages:
- I could be challenging to train a dog to run on a treadmill. It may require Zen-like patience and lots of treats.
- There are dogs that may never get the hang of walking on a treadmill. If you are buying one for only one dog, lease the equipment to test it before spending a great deal of money to buy an equipment that your one dog won’t use.
- Your dog may not mind the noise, but some treadmills can sometimes be noisier than you can tolerate.
- The dog does not control his own pace.
Dog Carpet Mill: The Dog As Sovereign
Carpet mills have been around for a long time and were very popular in the 1970s. A carpet mill is in most cases made of wood and rarely has even a single metal part. To put it simply, it comprises of two wheels with a board joining them and a carpet moving around the board for the dog to run on.
When it runs on this dog walking machine, it pulls its own weight against the track to make the machine turn. It is tougher for the dog to run on it than on a free-wheeling machine. Since it is taxing on the dog’s body, it is often used to condition and tone an animal in preparation for a dog show or competition.
Most dog carpet mills are not free-wheeling due to the friction between the carpet and the track. To minimize this friction, some people wax the board and the underside of the carpet to ease the dog’s effort. However, with technological advances, these methods are becoming obsolete.
Dog Carpet Mill Advantages:
- The dog runs at his own pace.
- Dog carpet mills are light in weight and generally smaller than treadmills; therefore, they save on space.
- They are generally cheaper than slat mills and treadmills.
- They’re quieter than other dog walking machines.
- They can be used to condition dogs and build muscle and endurance, if you are into dog shows and competitive sports for sporty dogs.
Dog Carpet Mill Disadvantages:
- They are potentially dangerous if not used properly. They can cause injury and damage to internal organs. You must be careful not to overwork your dog because carpet mills are harder on your dog’s cardiovascular system. (This is why a motorized version is optimal!)
Dog Slat Mill: Better Than A Carpet Mill, Cheaper Than A Treadmill
Some people refer to a treadmill as a slat mill and vice versa. They are two distinct pieces of equipment. Dog slat mills are free-wheeling hence they are easier to run on than carpet mills. A dog can expend the same energy running on a slat mill as it would be doing on a carpet mill for a quarter of the time. For example, a 20-minute run on a slat mill is equivalent to 5 minutes on a carpet mill.
Why is this of any significance? In a word, stress. Do you want your dog to build endurance or strength? Carpet mills are great for building muscle mass while slat mills are exceptional for boosting stamina. As is the case with dog carpet mills, nonetheless, technological advances are making certain types of designs obsolete. Whether you want to achieve one fitness objective for one dog or another, the same type of equipment may be able to achieve both.
An excellent example of this is served by this German mill that combines free-wheeling design with motorized technology that keeps the dog safely in control of its own pace whether to build strength or endurance.
Dog Slat Mill Advantages:
- It is excellent at conditioning and increasing dog stamina.
- It is more economical than a dog treadmill.
- The dog gets to set the pace at which it will walk or gallop on the machine.
Dog Slat Mill Disadvantages:
- Depending on design, it can be very noisy. In fact, of the three dog walking machine types, it is the noisiest.
How Much To Spend On Dog Walker Machines?
When winter comes knocking, you want to be prepared to meet it with a dog walking machine. A durable dog walking machine is not cheap. You can check pricing for the Dog Pacer in the picture below at Amazon to get an idea. A solid, used dog treadmill can go for as low as $500 or as much as $2,000 new. Budget close to $1,000 for an average model. Slat mills are more economical at around $750, but this is not a cheap piece of equipment either. Dog carpet mills run approximately $400 and, being a simpler design, you find many do-it-yourself videos on YouTube showing you how to build one for time and materials.
Whichever direction you take, if your goal is to put the machine and not only a dog on it to work, then you should look at these figures as investments. The dog walking machine should pay for itself when you start charging dog owners for its use. If you combine access to it with a customized fitness program for your clients’ dogs that include fitness goals, balanced routines, activity log and scheduled activities that your client could track, then you will have a complete service offering that can pay for your equipment in no time.
How To Track A Dog’s Health While Exercising It
Consider using a tool such as FitBark to guarantee visibility to your customers about their dog’s health while under your care. FitBark is a small and unobtrusive bone-shaped device that a dog wears to help monitor its lifestyle activity and guide owners through the experience of owning a pet as if it nearly were an offspring of theirs. FitBark’s mobile app allows pet owners to check up on their dogs remotely at any time to learn whether there is anything they need to do to keep the dog healthy and happy.
According to FitBark, if you’re already using some kind of messaging app to send texts and pictures to your clients to report a dog’s play time, you might be facing some inconvenience even if you’re re-purposing the use of human GPS trackers or your smartphone’s GPS location to send out client reports. FitBark, on the other hand, helps you provide transparency to your clients by build your reputation to get you more 5 star reviews through your smartphone.
You 1) create a user account via the FitBark Mobile App or Web Dashboard, 2) you ask your clients to share their dog with you as a follower and 3) you use the the FitBark Mobile App to evaluate each dog at a time to create journal posts. And the cost? Well, the software is free because you’re a professional dog walker and FitBark wants you using its app. There are no hidden or monthly fees.
Building Your Own Dog Walking Machine
But let us assume that you have a knack for putting puzzles together and like working on wood and metal. Well, perhaps you might want to attempt building your own dog walking machine. The process goes like this:
- Buy the parts: You can buy them online or at the local hardware store.
- Measure the stride of your dog: This is done to ensure that the dog fits in the treadmill with a bit of wriggle room.
- Assemble the parts: I know this is the toughest part that calls upon your handyman skills but thanks to the internet, you can find very helpful tutorials on YouTube.
The best thing about making your own equipment aside from enjoying the craft is that it saves you a lot of money. When you assemble a dog carpet mill on your own, you will literally save hundreds of dollars. Below you see a sample of one in action and a follow-up video on how to build one like it by
A Dog Walking Machine Produces Lasting Benefits
If you run maintenance on your equipment it is bound to last you a long time and will maintain its resell value. Occasionally, you should do a thorough cleaning of the device and lubricate its moving pieces where necessary. Don’t dismiss a dog walking machine simply because it is pricey. It is a superb means to keep your dog healthy when it’s most inconvenient for you to walk outside, and that has a price as well. Plus, if you walk dogs professionally, dog walking machines are excellent tools for expanding your service offering during the low-season. Think of it as an investment in your dogs’ health and well as your bottom line.