Hi everyone, We have a (human) treadmill, and I was wondering if it was possible to train Daisy (1 year old black lab) to use it? Obviously she'd be given regular walks and such, but we live in a cold climate and most of the time its hazardous to walk outside during the winter (My Mom's broken her arm on one occasion), so I was thinking that Daisy can use the treadmill on those really bad days. Supervised so she doesn't hurt herself, of course. Is it possible to treadmill train a labrador? How would you go about doing it? Thanks
Yeah, I think it would be possible. Naturally you'd make it voluntary so she could jump off any time. I wouldn't use a treadmill for actual exercise before the age of 12 months (important to avoid too much repetitive movement) but you could start introducing it before then to get her used to short bursts. Can you and a dog fit on it together?
Possible, yes, I suppose so. You'd do a program of desensitisation to make her happy approaching it, standing on it, eventually have it moving. I'm not sure it would be safe, though, even with supervision, and keeping her on it would probably be rather challenging. I live in a cold climate, too, and every now and again have a day in the winter when it's too dangerous to go outside (blizzards, high winds, sheet ice etc) and on those days, I find it far more beneficial to give my dogs activities to tire out their brains, rather than their bodies. So lots of indoor training games. This thread has lots of ideas: http://thelabradorforum.com/threads/things-to-do-for-dogs-on-restricted-exercise.10654/
They have a treadmill at the dog gym that we sometimes take Harv to. He loves it! It is supervised by the trainer for the whole time and it is for a relatively short period of time - only 7-8 mjnutes at the most. There is no real running on it - it's all at a gentle trotting pace. Harv remains 'on lead' for the whole time to make sure that his attention doesn't drift and that he stays on the treadmill until it comes to a complete stop during the gentle wind-down at the end. Caveat: Not at all sure whether there are different types of treadmill for humans and for dogs ...
Yeah, I have my Jackie pretty used to my own treadmill. I don't have him on lead, and at an energetic walking pace at most. Honestly I use it mostly to get his guts working if he hasn't pooped on our normal walks. By bedtime, a few minutes on there and out on the patio will usually fix that, if he wont poop on the patio first. Sounds a bit silly, I know, but it works for us. I don't know if I'd use it for actual exercise, though he does love watching me take a run.
I have Yaktrax. I got them for ice (they're great) but find they are also good for slippery wet snow. http://www.yaktrax.ca/ There is another hazard to ice and it applies to the dog. Salt. It can hurt their feet and it's not good ingested so it's good to wash feet off once back home. Some people put booties on so the salt doesn't get into their feet in the first place. My boy did use an underwater treadmill as part of his ortho rehab. He just walked in and on but they told me some dogs freak out which may be partly from the water rising around them. You would not have the water but you wouldn't have the glass sided "cage" either. Have you considered Doggy Day Care? Or a dog walker? My friend is a very active, outdoors person but she's also a full time nurse with shift hours. Her dog goes to DDC a couple of times a week and has a dog walker for other days, depending on my friend's schedule.
I have similar and they're great. There is the occasional day, however, where it is so slippery the dogs keep falling over. This generally happens when there has been rain and a freeze or a heavy thaw which has then refrozen. Luckily, it's very rare as it's obviously very dangerous. I use Musher's Secret with my two. The salt hurts their paws - especially with Willow - and this helps to block it getting into their pads. Then they have a foot bath when they get home.
While your pup may get some exercise on a treadmill it will be a lot less interesting to him/her than going outside or playing with you in the house. Think about how you would feel walking on a treadmill with no sensory inputs, and no idea why you were doing it. I'm an old guy (73) but I can't imagine the weather being so bad that I can't take the dogs out. Sometimes I'd rather go to the bar, but unless it is boiler plate ice, you can walk on it, and the dogs can get around on most anything. The pups will be ok on boilerplate, but you might need some yak-traks. If you can let them off lead, so much the better. Salt could be an issue, but we don't use it here. Just sand, gravel and snow tires. You can wash the salt off if it is an issue.
This isn't my experience. My dogs slip and fall on it. It's scary to see, and too dangerous. If possible, on days like this we go out in the car to somewhere we don't have to walk on the tarmac. Extremely high winds (roof tiles being blown off etc) also make it far too dangerous to go out. Luckily, it doesn't happen often. We had one morning this winter where I couldn't get out, but it was fine by the afternoon. So I just did a training session indoor with them in the morning.
I will get my Mom some yaktraks, thanks, and try to encourage her to walk Daisy outside during the winter. She just doesn't want to fall again and break another arm, or get a concussion like she did one winter. That being said, she was walking a husky, so maybe Daisy won't pull as much, but still. Her fear is still there. Thanks for the advice. I think I'm still going to go ahead and treadmill train Daisy, but its mostly for my Mom's safety.
If it is blowing roof tiles off, I'll stay inside too! We mostly have metal roofs, but I start to worry about trees coming down. We have lost two windshields due to snow bombs falling from a tree over our driveway. I've seen our dogs skid around on ice a little but hey seem to figure it out and know what they can do. I have seen Cooper jump off a snow bank and go flat when she hit the road. Real glare ice is not too common here. Sometimes the worst conditions are in my driveway, because it has southern exposure. If I can get around with a pair of ski poles the dogs are generally ok. We occasionally use snowshoes for the ice, because the MSR shoes have good ice cleats on the bottom.
Where do you live? I'm trying to picture the nasty weather. Pulling on a lead, definitely makes it more challenging. Using ski poles or treking poles with carbide tips is a big help for people. If you can, having the dog off lead takes care of the pulling problem. I normally don't use yaktraks, just vibram sole boots, but boiler plate ice is not that common here.
Yes, pulling is a real problem. If it's slippery, I can struggle. My two aren't bad pullers, but they also aren't perfect and will tug towards a smell, especially when first out the door. So I tend to just walk places they don't need to be on lead, or if we do need to be on lead, give them a little off-lead run first. You have to be pretty strict on not allowing them to sniff at all on-lead at other times - my two are mainly off lead, so I don't feel too bad not allowing them to sniff at the times when they're on-lead and walking to heel.
Me too it looks wonderful. Sorry @SolitaryHowl I don't have any advice to offer as we don't get much in the way of snow.
I've broken my shoulder falling in a flat well mown golf course so at least I owuld be aware of the danger of snow i would go anywhere to get away from heat
I bought my labrador a dog treadmill. I am slowly training him because he's not used to exercise, he gets tired easily. But my pet is slowly improving. Next time I'm going to take him out for a stroll. It was a good decision on my part to buy a dog treadmill.
Why wouldn't you just take him out for a few minutes then, instead of use a treadmill, to build him up? Anyone that runs knows that it's very different running on a treadmill to running outside, so I'd say a treadmill is a rather poor way of preparing your dog for walking outside.
