According to LATimes.com, a new survey out of the U.K. has shown that dog owners are significantly more active than the poochless. According to the report, a group of 3,000 dog owners spent an average of eight hours and 11 minutes exercising their pets each week while 2,000 people without dogs reported an average of only one hour and 20 minutes of exercise per week.
This doesn’t surprise me. As a dog owner, I suffer from what I like to refer to as “walking guilt.” If I can feasibly walk somewhere, I have to do it to allow my dog to get in a walk, too. It feels like a waste to me to drive, and the whole time, I picture him peeing in my shoes staring at the door, dejected, waiting for me to come back.
Now, granted, this actually makes me not walk places sometimes. I can’t take him to the grocery store, for example, because he’s too big to carry and I’m scared he’ll get swiped if I leave him outside. More often than not, though, I will drive the whole way home, leash him up, and walk to the bank or the post office, instead of swinging through on my way home.
Researchers are smart, and the walks are important, but there are some other ways my dog, Porkchop, a Rat Terror Terrier, helps make my gym membership obsolete.
When he bolts out the door at 3:45 in the morning, before I can put on his tether, and I have to chase him through the neighbor’s backyard, that’s extra calorie burn — especially during winter when I’m barefoot and in my PJs. Perfect replacement for sprints on the treadmill.
1) I am forced to play tug o’ war with him daily, fighting over a tiny, squeaky doughnut. He will not let go for the life of him, and I can lift him up off the ground repeatedly, while we wiggles, adding extra resistance. Perfect replacement for dumbbell curls.
2) Porkie has a gluten intolerance, which means he cannot eat table scraps without getting sick. Every once in a while, he will snag something, but not eat it right away, forcing me to chase him under tables and over beds to get it away from him before he scarfs it down, negating the really expensive dog food I have to buy for him. Perfect replacement for circuit drills.
3) I have to pick up all 25 pounds of him and cuddle with him about a million times a day because, well, he’s just that gosh darn cute. Perfect replacement for weighted squats and antidepressants.
Cats are cool, too, I guess, but I think they promote laziness. I always stare at my boyfriend’s cat, who never moves, and think, “man, that’s the life.” But his cat is mean, bites and is morbidly obese, so maybe he’s a bad role model.
I can’t say that dogs are cheaper than gym memberships, but they are a hell of a lot cuter, and according to the experts, more effective too. Don’t buy new, though — there are plenty of dog’s that need a home this holiday season. To find a dog that needs adopting in your area, visit the ASPCA.org or your local animal shelter.
As a husky owner, I tend to agree. I used to walk a total of about 2.5 hours in the summer each day. 1.5 of those hours was spent exercising the energy machine. Dogs: They Do a Body Good! Pass it on.