How does someone teach a dog to walk on a treadmill?
I have an 11 month old Parson Russell Terrier that is smart and seems interesting in learning…
One of our dogs (a terrier mix that looks like a large Yorkie, BTW) would just start trotting away happily if you put him on it, and after a minute he’d get tired of it and hop off. Then one day he walked on it for a bit, vomited, and never got back on again.
Our other dog is terrified of it and won’t even consider it.
I’d like to teach my big dog to do it, hook up a battery and generator and let her walk to heat and cool the house while I’m gone. She could earn her keep!
BTW, the reason why I want to do this is because I normally take him for 45 to 90 minute walks twice a day, but because I live in Montana the weather can be iffy so I need a way to exercise him even if it’s nasty outside…
No matter how fast a dog can run on a treadmill, he’ll never take off.
:smack:
In my experience, dogs do not, primarily, want to go on walks because they want to walk, they want to go on walks to have the opportunity to smell lots of interesting smells. The exercise may be good for them, but from their point of view it is not the point at all. A dog has essentially no reason to want to walk on a treadmill.
Exactly. Dogs aren’t going on a walk, they’re patrolling their territory.
I put my dog outside to run on the porch treadmill. Instead, he took off.
Googling “dog on treadmill” produces lots of links, including to instructional videos and sites selling doggy treadmills.