What sort of equipment do I need?
Forget the leash and collar if you want to burn some serious calories with your dog. Collars can compress the trachea (windpipe) when pulled, causing difficulty breathing or even a neck injury. Choke chains or any other collars that work by applying a constrictive pressure around the neck are especially dangerous. Your safest choice is a head halter (Gentle Leader®, etc.) or walking harness (Ultra Paws® Harness, Gentle Leader® Easy Walk, etc.). Look for wide, soft, padded straps and breathable materials.
A leash of a relatively short length is preferable. Retractable leashes are not preferred as they pose a danger to the dog walker and the dog. You will be keeping your canine companion close to keep up a steady pace. Save the long leash for casual strolls around the neighborhood or explorations at the park.
For long winter walks in cold climates, protective booties and dog coats may be required. If you will be walking in hot weather (above 80-85°F or 26-29°C for most dogs), or if you will be walking longer than 30 minutes, do not forget to carry water for both you and your dog. If you want your dog to be fashionably equipped, there are many different styles of portable water bottles available for dogs on the move.
Few dogs will naturally walk at a pace that generates the elevated heart rates needed for sustained aerobic activity and weight loss. Based on observations, the average pace of people walking with their dogs is 25 minutes per mile (15 minutes per kilometer), which is actually a slow stroll. They make frequent pauses (on average every one to two minutes) for the dog to smell an interesting object or mark territory.
Walking for weight loss is very different than walking for pleasure. Make your objective to walk briskly from the beginning of the walk. Too often, if you start slowly, allowing the dog to sniff and smell everything, you may have a challenging time getting them to speed up. It is not necessary to warm up before a walk or a slow jog; as hunters, dogs have adapted to be able to accelerate rapidly with very little risk of injury.
Draw your leash close – generally within two to four feet (about 0.5-1 meter) of your body – and set off at a pace you feel comfortable sustaining. This should be about a 12-15 minute per mile pace (7-9 minute per kilometer). It should feel like a brisk walk and you should break into a light sweat. The key is to keep it up!
Do not look down at your dog when they inevitably want to stop and smell something or mark a fire hydrant. Continue moving straight ahead, tighten the leash (but do not jerk it) and give a command such as “No stop”, “Come”, or “Here.” Head halters are a great method for training dogs to heel during a brisk walk. If your dog sits or refuses to walk, you may have to return home. If this happens, you should crate him or put him in a quiet space without your attention and try again another time. However, this is rare, since most dogs take readily to this new form of exercise.
For most overweight or obese dogs, providing they have normal heart and lung function and no other pre-existing medical conditions, we recommend starting with 30-minute walks at least five times a week. Ideally, you should do the walking for exercise seven days a week. A sample schedule follows:
Food is key, but no weight loss plan, or health maintenance plan, is complete without exercise. The most obvious, and important, activity for your dog is walking. Regular walks don’t just exercise your dog’s body, they provide crucial mental stimulation and and that all-important opportunity to sniff. The amount of walking your dog needs, or wants, depends on their breed and general health. But while conventional wisdom says that some dogs need less exercise than others, all dogs need to move.
For dog owners who have active lifestyles, it’s easy to overestimate the impact of physical activity on weight maintenance. So even for active dogs, it’s important to establish clear guidelines for daily caloric intake.
If you’ve established and are staying within caloric boundaries and you’re and still not having any luck helping your dog lose weight, a visit to the vet could be in order to rule out a medical condition. Weight gain and lethargy can be symptoms of conditions like hypothyroidism and Cushing’s Syndrome. The latter, also known as hyperadrenocorticism, usually occurs in older dogs, and can also cause frequent urination, hair loss and weakness.
When it comes to determining the ideal caloric intake, it’s important to consider a number of factors. “We take a couple of things into consideration—we look at body condition score, we look at muscle condition score, we look at lifestyle, and any concurrent medical conditions,” Dr. Ward says. “We start by determining, ok, how many calories should you be feeding?”
Dog owners who feed their dog healthy food yet still feed highly processed, high-carb, high-calorie treats are potentially missing a big source of weight gain and health issues. And if you feed your dog too many treats (more than 10% of their daily intake of food), you can undo the benefits of the balanced diet you’re feeding.
Can You Really Lose Weight by Walking Your Dog?
Of course you can! You probably already know that it can benefit you both, and now it has been proven. A study at the University of Missouri showed that walking your dog was actually more effective for weight loss than having a membership in a gym or joining a diet plan.
If you weigh about 150 pounds and try to walk briskly, you can burn up to 135 calories for every 30 minutes you walk. You might burn less (based on your weight and the speed at which you walk), but the point is the same. The more you walk, the more you will burn.