Dogs with more active owners may get more exercise – EurekAlert

International study also suggests active owners report their dog’s body weight as healthier
PLOS
image: Compared to inactive owners, active dog owners report exercising their dogs more and report their dogs’ weight as healthier view more 
Credit: Diego Perez-Lopez, PLOS, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
A new, international study suggests that dog owners who spend more time exercising themselves tend to exercise their dogs more, and more active owners are also more likely to perceive their dog’s body weight as being ideal. Sydney Banton of the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on August 24, 2022.
Obese dogs may face a number of health problems, such as diabetes and cardiac disease, and concerns about dog obesity are increasing worldwide. Earlier research has identified associations between dogs’ body weight and diet, exercise, and sociodemographic factors. However, those studies tended to be small and focused on individual countries.
For a broader, international perspective, Banton and colleagues analyzed results from a survey of 3,298 dog owners living in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States. The survey included questions about both owners’ and dogs’ diet and exercise routines, and each owner’s perception of their dog’s body weight.
Analysis of the survey responses showed that dogs were more likely to get more exercise if their owners spent more time exercising themselves. More active owners were also more likely to perceive their dog as having an ideal body weight. Compared to owners in other countries, owners in Germany tended to exercise their dogs for a longer time, were more likely to perceive their dog’s body weight as ideal, and were less likely to report having been told that their dog was overweight.
Among dogs who were 5 years old and older, owners were less likely to perceive their dog as having an ideal body weight if they had been told their dog was overweight, if they reported attempting to control their dog’s weight by limiting food intake, and if they reported giving dogs other foods, such as treats, every day.
The findings suggest that many owners may attempt to control dogs’ body weight through diet, but not through exercise. The researchers therefore call for veterinarians to be given more resources to help owners develop exercise routines to avoid weight gain in dogs.
Sydney Banton adds: “Results from the survey revealed that feeding practices play a main role in owner perception of their dog being overweight, while exercise practices play a main role in owner perception of their dog being an ideal weight. While many weight loss strategies for dogs focus on feeding, this data highlights the need to incorporate exercise into weight loss regimens.”
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In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS ONE: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0272299
Citation: Banton S, von Massow M, Pezzali JG, Verbrugghe A, Shoveller AK (2022) Jog with your dog: Dog owner exercise routines predict dog exercise routines and perception of ideal body weight. PLoS ONE 17(8): e0272299. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0272299
Author Countries: Canada
Funding: This research was funded by Rolf C. Hagen, Inc. (Grant 053974, website: [[http://ca-en.hagen.com)] and awarded to AKS. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
PLoS ONE
10.1371/journal.pone.0272299
Survey
Not applicable
Jog with your dog: Dog owner exercise routines predict dog exercise routines and perception of ideal body weight
24-Aug-2022
The authors have read the journal’s policy and have the following competing interests: A.V. is the Royal Canin Veterinary Diets Endowed Chair in Canine and Feline Clinical Nutrition and declares that they serve on pet industry related scientific advisory boards and have received honoraria and research funding from various pet food manufacturers and ingredient suppliers. A.K.S. is the Champion Petfoods Chair in Canine and Feline Nutrition, Physiology and Metabolism, a Champion Petfoods consultant, receives research funding from private industry and provincial and federal grant agencies, and was a former employee of P&G Petcare and Mars Petcare. This does not alter the authors’ adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. There are no patents, products in development or marketed products associated with this research to declare.
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Media Contact
Hanna Abdallah
PLOS
[email protected]

Expert Contact
Sydney Banton
University of Guelph, Canada
[email protected]

PLOS


Copyright © 2022 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Copyright © 2022 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

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