Treadmill Fun

[Dooney's Mom]

ok- so someone on here suggested I get a treadmill to exercise my dog. I had to watch my 3 yr old nephew, jack, last night and Dooney always goes with me. Well my mom has a treadmill- so I decided to see if I could even get Dooney on it.

I was standing with my feet apart on the sides and had it on low speed when I called Doo over- she put just her front paws on it- but perpendicular to the tread mill, so she kept moving her feet sideways- Jack is doing that full on innocent child like belly laugh, so she gets off to go lick him- so I call her back, now she is facing the treadmill and trying to get on and biting at the belt. Jack is back to laughing hystrically- Doo looks around at him while still trying to walk and barks at him as if to say "shut up or you can try this!"

So she gets off of it that way and I finally manage to get her to get on it the right way- i have my arm under her belly helping to steady her while I am increasing the speed- she does good for about 15 seconds and then puts her front feet up on the treadmill so just her back feet are "running" - Jack is on the floor laughing- Dooney is barking, I am laughing so hard I can't see straight, and my mom walks in to this chaos and just shakes her head while laughing.

We turn off the treadmill- Dooney jumps off completely looks at me- barks once- looks at treadmill barks again once. then goes to Jack and barks at him once- then licks him- we are all laughing at her and I swear she rolled her eyes and went and laid down under the table with her back to us.

All in all she was a very good sport- she just doesn't like to be laughed at- later on she was over there standing on it and looking down- like "well- come on lets try it again"

I wish I had caught it on video- it was hilarious watching her trying to be serious and learn something new while the "kid" was distracting her...

[ILGHAUS]

If you ever decide to use a treadmill for your dog's exercise make sure you get one built for a GSDs stride (animal) vrs. one built for a person. A medical engineer friend of mine who looked into getting one for her dogs went over her findings with an ortho vet and he concurred with her that one for a person could very likely damage the GSDs spine. I don't know if the newest models have longer strides now. I don't know the little details on angles and pounds of pressure etc. just that I remember the fact - no human treadmill for a GSD. I've heard of different people doing so but no follow up on if there were any problems shortly after or years later. Just something to think about.

[jprice103]

Too cute! And yes, wish you had your video camera available!! I have a treadmill, and really should try this with Cheyenne. There are so many rainy days here lately (and Cheyenne just HATES the rain) and I am at a loss for ways to get all of her energy out on those days...that if I could get her on the treadmill, that would be awesome!