Pet Pedometers Pay Off

Ever wonder what frisky Fido or cuddly little Snuggles does while you’re at work?

Using a pet pedometer, ASU exercise and wellness researcher Catrine Tudor-Locke found out the details. She learned that her dog, Martin, was inactive the majority of the day. The revelation made clear to her the importance of walking him in the mornings and evenings for increased health.

Learning about Martin’s inactivity spurred Tudor-Locke to conduct an additional study of 26 dogs. She wanted to determine just how reliable pedometers are for measuring canine physical activity.

As part of her study, the dogs were fitted with collar-pedometers. Their steps were measured while trotting, walking, and running over a distance of 100 feet. The pedometers showed slight over- and under-estimates depending on the size of the dog. But the findings suggests that pet pedometers do provide a reasonable degree of accuracy.

The ASU scientist’s study also revealed a moderate correlation between Fido’s activity level and that of his owner’s. Both owner and pet wore pedometers over 14 days. It was easy to see that less active owners had less active dogs.

“There is a modest relationship between dogs’ steps and their masters’,” says Tudor-Locke. “That makes sense, because if they’re going for a purposeful walk, they’re doing it together.”

Tudor-Locke has phase two of her pet pedometer research ready to go. She plans to assess dog-walking as a possible contributor to healthy physical activity in humans.

“We’ll be looking at a daddy-doggy physical activity intervention to increase activity for both master and dog health,” she says.—Melissa Crytzer Fry