THE TREADMILL DOESN’T MAKE A DOG AN ATHLETE
Why the treadmill belongs in therapy and not in training
You see it all the time on social media: a dog on a treadmill, and underneath it proud comments about how fit and athletic this is making it. The impression forms quickly. Set up the treadmill, put the dog on it, and a good dog becomes a better athlete.
I think that is wrong, and I advise against training healthy dogs on a treadmill. For me the treadmill belongs in therapy, under professional guidance, and nowhere else.
For this article I read the studies, including the ones that seem to speak against my position. Afterwards I had to drop one sentence: that the treadmill has no measurable effect at all. That is not true as stated, and I will show you why further down. My recommendation has stayed the same all the same. The reasons are set out here, separated into what is supported by evidence and what I have observed over many years with dogs in sport.
That is what this article is about: what 16 weeks of treadmill training at the University of Munich achieved, the study with the 28 per cent, and what I have seen in sled dogs.
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