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ANTHROZOÖS

VOLUME 26, ISSUE 2 PP. 237–252

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Walking Sole Mates: Dogs Motivating, Enabling and Supporting Guardians’ Physical Activity Joan Wharf Higgins*, Viviene Temple*, Holly Murray†, Ellen Kumm‡ and Ryan Rhodes*

ABSTRACT Dog walking is receiving increasing attention in the public health literature as a strategy to improve dog guardians’ physical activity levels. Quantitative research suggests that dog guardians walk more often and for longer than non dog-guardians, and offers suggestions as to the reasons for these differences. The purpose of this study was to qualitatively explore dog guardians’ walking practices and relationships with their dogs, to better understand how and why dog walking might become an intervention point to enhance physical activity levels. Five focus groups and two interviews were conducted with 16 adult dog guardians. Following an initial analysis of the results, 10 additional dog guardians were individually interviewed to review and confirm the findings. Four themes emerged to explain the dog-walking phenomenon: Transcending the human–animal distinction; Dogs as walking sole mates; Activity/health benefits; and Dogs as social conduits. We argue that an empathetic stance benefits dog guardians because, as valued family members whose health and happiness they are responsible for, their canine companions serve to motivate, enable, and sustain walking behaviors.

Keywords: dogs, family member, physical activity, qualitative data, walking Even with mounting evidence of the health benefits of moderate to intense physical activity, including moderate walking (Jakicic et al. 2008; Blair and Morris 2009), physical inactivity remains a population-wide plague around the world. According to the World Health Organization (2002), 60% of the world’s population are

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Address for correspondence: Joan Wharf Higgins, School of Exercise Science, Physical & Health Education, University of Victoria, PO Box 3012, STN CSC, Victoria, British Columbia, V8W 3P1, Canada. E-mail: [email protected]

Anthrozoös DOI: 10.2752/175303713X13636846944286

*School of Exercise Science, Physical & Health Education, University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada †Behavioural Medicine Laboratory, School of Exercise Science, Physical & Health Education, University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada ‡Department of Health Education and Health Promotion (HEHP), University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, Wisconsin, USA

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insufficiently active to reap health benefits. In North America, fewer than 5% of American and 13% of Canadian adults meet national physical activity recommendations (Troiano et al. 2008; Shields et al. 2010). The most oft and consistently cited internal and external barriers to being active include lack of: time and skills/knowledge to engage in physical activity, social support, motivation, and enjoyment; costs associated with exercise programs or facilities; difficulty integrating physical activity into the daily routine; advancing age; poor health; and inclement weather (Chinn et al. 2006; Reichert et al. 2007; Silva et al. 2008; Brinthaupt, Kang and Anshel 2010; Choitz et al. 2010; Burchfield, Fitzhugh and Bassett 2012). Dog walking has been recognized as one of the world’s most popular recreational activities (Banks and Bryant 2007), and offers a solution to address many of these obstacles (Johnson and Meadows 2010). In fact, health promotion research in Australia, Britain, and North America has recently turned its attention toward dog walkers, and the potential for dogs to act as motivators and supports for people to engage in moderate physical activity through daily walking (Chan et al. 2005; Schofield, Mummery and Steel 2005; Coleman et al. 2008; Oka and Shibata 2009; Johnson, Beck and McCune 2011; Reeves et al. 2011). What we do know from cross-sectional and longitudinal research is that dog owners1 are more active than non-dog owners (Brown and Rhodes 2006; Thorpe et al. 2006; Coleman et al. 2008; Yabroff, Troiano and Berrigan 2008; Oka and Shibata 2009; Christian, Giles-Corti and Knuiman 2010; Lentino et al. 2012; Westgarth et al. 2012) and cite exercising through dog walking as a benefit of dog ownership (Duvall Antonacopoulos and Pychyl 2010a). While not all dog owners admit to be the persons responsible for dog walking, about half are physically active with their dog (Bauman et al. 2001). Though promising, this line of inquiry has relied on self-report accounts from, and observational data on, dog walkers and non-dog walkers (Cutt et al. 2007; Temple, Rhodes and Wharf Higgins 2011). Despite a comparatively large evidence base on the salutary mental, physical, and social benefits of dog guardianship and the human–companion animal bond (Serpell 1991; Beck and Meyers 1996; Tastchl, Finsterer and Stöllberger 2006; Heady and Grabka 2007; Barker and Wolen 2008; Walsh 2009a; 2009b; Epping 2011a), there is less available to explain how dogs can serve as daily prompts for their guardians’ walking behaviors. What is it about dogs that serve as important stimulators for their guardians to engage in physical activity? Quantitative data from the physical activity literature point to dog owners’ perceived social norms from family, other owners, and veterinarian expectations (Cutt et al. 2008a), as well as encouragement from dogs to walk (Christian, Giles-Corti and Knuiman 2010), and higher perceived benefits of dog health (Hoerster et al. 2011). Others have argued that dog walking may support and motivate physical activity by providing companionship, support, and creating expectations for care or sense of obligation (Brown and Rhodes 2006; Ham and Epping 2006; Johnson and Meadow 2010; Salmon et al. 2010; Oka and Shibata 2012). The People and Pets Exercising Together study (Kushner et al. 2006) found that two-thirds of total physical activity (mostly walking) among overweight owners was spent with their dogs, thanks in part to their pets serving as initiators of activity and walking buddies. A longitudinal study of diabetics’ physical activity practices found dog walking to be the sole type of physical activity maintained over four years (Peel et al. 2010) because of the extrinsic incentive that even the “self-professed naturally lazy” (p. 574) patients believed that dogs provided. Perceived social support, companionship, and motivation offered by dogs, as well as accessible and appropriate dog walking infrastructure, were found

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to be important correlates of dog walking among Australians (Cutt et al. 2008b; Christian, Giles-Corti and Knuiman 2010). Perhaps more compellingly, even when adults walked shelter (Johnson and McKenney 2011) or therapy dogs they did not own, the “most commonly stated reason for adherence was that the dogs ‘need us to walk them’” (Johnson and Meadow 2010, p. 387). Is such an ethic of care for our pets a “biological side effect of our innate drive to care for our young” (Horowitz and Bekoff 2007, p. 31)? Research from other literatures offers considerable insight into the dog–human relationship (Veevers 1985; Robins, Sanders and Cahill 1991; Sanders 1993; Marston and Bennett 2003; Beck and Madresh 2008; Greenebaum 2010), and though it remains almost silent on understanding how dogs can facilitate human physical activity practices, does tender some avenues to pursue. For example, others’ data suggest that peoples’ sense of attachment to dogs as companions (Beck and Meyers 1996; Enders-Slegers 2000; Holbrook et al. 2001; Duvall Antonacopoulos and Pychyl 2008; Knight and Edwards 2008; Archer and Ireland 2011; Dotson, Hyatt and Clark 2011) “profoundly affects [their] lifestyles” (Dotson and Hyatt 2008, p. 458), including buying them birthday and Christmas presents, welcoming pets in their beds, referring to themselves as their pet’s parents and adapting their own schedules and health issues to accommodate their pets (Phillips Cohen 2002). This is not insignificant given that 94% of US dog owners consider their relationship to their dog as “close” (Charles and Aull Davies 2008), and many consider them to be a member of their family (Marston and Bennett 2003; McNicholas et al. 2005; Taylor, Funk and Craighill 2006). Sociological research of the human–animal relationship suggests that “guardians” endow their pets with “personhood status” (Greenebaum 2010, p. 130) when the dog, cat, or horse is perceived as a subjective being actively engaging in meaning making with them. Drawing on Serpell’s (2003) definition that anthropomorphism is “the attribution of human states (thoughts, feelings, motivations and beliefs) to nonhuman animals” (p. 83), such a strong inclination to attribute human qualities to pets, comment Horowitz and Bekoff (2007), “ … is not only prevalent, it is the nearly exclusive method for describing, explaining, and predicting animal behavior” (p. 24) among lay people, and may be the foundation of rewarding pet relationships. To our knowledge, there has been minimal qualitative understanding of the dog walking experiences and motivations in the public health or other literatures (the exceptions being Kushner et al. 2006 and Cutt et al. 2008c). If indeed there exists “a powerful human tendency to assign human qualities to animals such as our pets” (Horowitz and Bekoff 2007, p. 31) that may play an important role in defining our relationship to them, it is at least understudied if not entirely neglected with regards to dog walking as a physical activity intervention. The purpose of this article is to describe our qualitative findings exploring motivations for, and experiences of, dog walking, including the nature of the guardian–dog relationship and how this influenced, if at all, reasons for, and feelings about, dog walking. Wishing to generate a deeper understanding of the dog walking experience, focus groups and interviews were selected as a fitting method (Crabtree and Miller 1992). Given the exploratory nature of the study— at least in terms of the qualitative evidence base of dog walking as a form of physical activity—we did not enter our discussions with a specific a priori theoretical framework. However, based on the existing dog walking and physical activity literatures, we expected that an “ethic of obligation and care” and sense of social support emanating from a strong bond or relationship with their dog, would represent the primary reasons for dog guardians’ walking practices. The former reflects an individual-cognitive-behavioral construct for understanding physical activity, and the latter a broader manifestation of social influences (Bauman et al. 2011), and the attachment and bond established between guardians and their dogs (Charles and Aull Davies 2008).

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Methods Research participants in this study were initially invited to be part of an intervention study to promote dog walking, recruited through posters and advertisements disseminated to veterinary offices, pet stores, and online dog blogs/forum (Rhodes et al. 2012). Of the 108 adult dog owners who responded, 62 were excluded from participation because they met or exceeded the intervention study’s exclusion criterion regarding “regular” dog walking. Regular walking with their dog was defined as the minimum of the Canadian Guidelines for physical activity (i.e., more than four times per week for a minimum of 30 minutes at a brisk pace) at the time of the study. Because these 62 interested dog owners regularly walked their dogs, they were sent an email invitation to participate in this study to qualitatively explore their dog walking experiences. Sixteen of these individuals agreed to participate, and over a six-month period they came to one of five focus groups. Personal interviews were conducted with two individuals, as their schedules did not permit attending one of the focus groups. Participants were predominantly Caucasian (89%), female (93%), and with a mean age of 47.3 (SD = 13.8) years, and half of them had a post-secondary education and earned between $75,000 and 100,000 annually. Participants were offered refreshments and a chew toy for their dog as appreciation for their involvement in the qualitative phase of the study. Focus groups lasted between 1.5–2 hours, while interviews were no longer than 45 minutes. Both were digitally recorded and transcribed verbatim. Participants used their dogs’ names as pseudonyms to protect their identity. The study was approved by the Human Ethics Board of the University of Victoria. Questions asked in the five focus groups and two interviews are presented in Table 1. Data analysis began with open coding strategies using constructs from animal-companionship literature as an initial conceptual orientation for data analysis (Patton 2002). For example, using an editing analysis approach (Crabtree and Miller 1992), open coding of concepts related to dogs as family members, as a source of social support, health benefits of walking, and so forth, were identified as a strategy to condense the data and create broad categories. This was followed by a thematic analysis (Grbich 1999) conducted by two of the authors (JWH, EK) using a reciprocal coding approach (McDonnell, Lloyd Jones and Read 2000), where we engaged in open dialogue about themes and data interpretation. Finally, grounded theory analytic strategies (axial coding, memoing, clustering and factoring) were used to more deeply interpret patterns and relationships among, between and bridging the codes in order to collapse and group them more conceptually (Strauss and Corbin 1990). In doing so, we examined the categories for higher-level concepts to transform the data from categories to themes (Morse 2008). This inductive process generated one core thematic category capturing the central phenomenon (Schreiber 2001), and three sub-categories each described in the next section. At this point, an additional 10 dog guardians, recruited through snowball sampling, were consulted through personal interviews as a means of member checking the trustworthiness of the findings (Guba and Lincoln 1989). They were asked to read the findings, organized into the themes and categories including the quotes from the original 16 participants, and comment as to the authenticity with regards to their own experiences. All 10 individuals supported the results themes, confirming that for them, “the findings ring true” (Lucy). Excerpted quotes gathered through these interviews are also included in the results section. To move the data beyond a classification of themes, we then recontextualized data with existing theory (Morse 2008), to comment on the relevance of the findings for practice and advance our theoretical understanding of motivations for dog walking.


Table 1. Focus group/interview questions. 1. We are interested in finding out about your dog walking experiences. Can you begin by telling us how often and for how long you usually go for walks? Can you tell me about a typical day of dog walking? (prompts) ■

How many walks, for how long, and where?

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Is your dog on/off leash, chasing a ball, playing with other dogs?

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Who do you encounter when walking—are they familiar or new to you?

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Do you know the names of other owners and their dogs that you meet?

2. How would you characterize the dog walk as it relates to other physical activities you do in your typical week? Does your dog get other exercise in addition to or instead of walking? 3. What are the benefits and downsides from dog walking, for both you and your dog? 4. Do you experience any barriers to walking your dog? (weather, traffic, lack of sidewalks etc.). 5. Why is it important that you walk your dog? 6. What motivates and supports your decision to take your dog for a walk? 7. How do you perceive your dog as fitting into your family or household? 8. How would you characterize or describe the relationship between yourself and your dog? Do you see yourself as a “dog person”? What does this mean exactly?

Results The overall narrative of focus group participants’ experiences with dog walking was initially confirmed by Dotson and Hyatt’s (2008) framework of underlying dimensions of the human– canine relationship. For example, we found evidence that our participants: increased their activity levels because of dog guardianship; perceived and treated the dog more as a person rather than a pet; and, willingly adapted and changed their patterns of living to accommodate their dog. As well, we found evidence of Holbrook et al.’s (2001) elements of pet “ownership,” (p. 7), specifically that dogs provide their owners companionship and opportunities to be nurturing, caring, and to be a parent. Finally, the idea of dogs as exercise buddies, as identified by Kushner et al. (2006) was also revealed in our data. Further analyses resulted in collapsing and reorganizing some of these dimensions, producing one primary theme and three sub-categories that we found to characterize motivation for the dog walking experience: Transcending the human and non-human animal distinction; Dogs as walking sole mates; Shared activity/health benefits; and Dogs as social conduits. Each of these is explained below with excerpted quotes. Although distinctions are made between these themes, we feel that the notion of “Transcending the human and non-human animal distinction” is the core and primary category that underlies and connects the other three.

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This was the dominant theme into which most of the reflections about living and walking with dogs fit, and from which the remaining three themes derived in explaining participants’ specific motivations of dog walking. All participants described their dog walking routines in terms of this orientation to dog guardianship. Initially, in extricating participants’ explanations for routinely walking their dogs, we first discerned participants’ strong tendency to describe their dogs as sentient family members (particularly children). This question from Molly typifies participants’ comments: “Why would you get a dog if you weren’t going to treat them like part of the family?” We understood participants’ accounts of their relationships with their dogs—their inclusion of, and referral to, their dog as a family member—as transcending the distinction or boundaries between humans and animals. This included ascribing human emotions or

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Transcending the Human and Non-Human Animal Distinction


characteristics to their dogs that placed participants in an empathetic relationship and underscored their motivation and commitment to dog walking: Well [the dog] just feels so happy when she’s had her walk. You know, you feel good about that, the dog is happy, she comes back and she’s tired. (Heidi) When asked why it was important to them to walk their dogs, some participants found it difficult to articulate beyond explaining, “I think it’s just because they are part of the family” (Molly). Added Lulu, “[because] I respect them.” While previous research has found obligation and/or companionship to be motivating factors for dog walkers (e.g., Brown and Rhodes 2006; Johnson and Meadows 2010), some participants in our study framed such a sense of duty and bond as caregivers for their beloved family members: It’s important to me that I walk my dogs because they enjoy it and they want to go outside and they want to be walked and that’s important to me. It’s kind of like when you have a child, you want to do things for your child and that’s important to you and they’re my children—I want to do things for them. (Baxter) To me, it’s not even really a choice, it’s like feeding your children and getting them ready for school, it’s kind of along the same lines. It’s fun and it’s really nice but that’s the main motivation, I think, is that you just got to do it. (Nellie) But it’s surprising how much he’s my son, and what I do and the choices that I make. There is a sacrifice, and that time [for walking] could be doing other things, for sure. But, with him I have to go out. I have to tailor my [routine] to him. There are some days that he will pull me out first out of a sense of duty. (Finnegan) Participants also exhibited a tendency to interpret their animals’ behaviors, personality, or body movements (e.g., wagging tail, ears laid back) in the form of human emotions, in what Arluke and Sanders (1996) described as a reflection of the intimacy of the relationship so that “the owner can effectively discern what is on his or her mind” (p. 67): Guilt! [The dog] has this look and does a body check that says “let’s go.” I think it’s a responsibility. When we got her we knew we had the responsibility to get her exercise every single day. One way or another, she needs to get it, and if we don’t do it we’re not being responsible. She loves it, so why wouldn’t we go for a walk? (Buffy)

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Even the few participants (two only) who did not characterize themselves as “dog people,” went on to portray their relationships with their dogs as family members. Initially, Penny remarked that, “I don’t think I’d say that I am a dog person even though I have two of them.” But, she went on to say: So [my dog] has her sad eyes looking at me and is whimpering and I just feel so bad and it’s just like I am letting a person down. And she’s very expressive so I just feel so guilty if I don’t take her out. That’s really the main motivation. Just makes me feel so bad or sad! In fact, this ethic of care was often easily dismissed when considering simply her own needs: Like, I think because it’s right in front me, the dog is like a physical manifestation of “I need to get exercise,” whereas when I am by myself, it’s like, “oh it’s OK if I don’t go today, I’ll just go tomorrow.” So it’s easier to pass up and justify in my head. (Penny)


As beloved members of the family, dogs occupied important companion roles in the lives of participants, offering a strong emotional connection that, as others have noted, can match those in human relationships (McNicholas et al. 2005). With an empathetic mindset, participants identified their dogs as fictive kin (Charles and Aull Davies 2008) and described how this relationship influenced not only dog walking, but their lives overall: I just feel like I really, really love my dog—especially the one, well both of them, but I really, really have a connection to the one I go hiking with because we spend so much time together. It’s sad to go without her; I always want to have her [because] it is a lot of fun to take her along. (Penny) As a result of embracing their dogs as important family members whose care was entirely their responsibility, participants then went on to describe how this relationship played out in terms of their walking practices. The following three themes offer additional insight into participants’ motivations for walking their dogs, all firmly grounded in the proclivity to perceive their pets as family: dogs’ behavior as the impetus, reminder and support to walk; the common health benefits of walking together; and the social bonding and bridging aspects that walking with their dogs secured.

Dogs as Walking Sole Mates Participants spoke, often in humorous and poignant ways, how their dogs acted as corporeal stimulus cues to, and supportive buddy for, walking: They’re good companions and motivators [for walking], especially when you are by yourself. If we haven’t walked by 11, then she [dog] starts bugging me around the house. Literally, stalks me around the house. (Heidi) She’ll [the dog] ask to go out a lot. She’ll come and stand by the door and ask to go out. (Emma) My husband passed away three years ago . . . so he had an illness and I had to be with him all the time and he ended up in a care home and it was pretty stressful. [My] girls suggested we got a dog somewhere in there. And he was great for getting me out [walking] and visiting people in the care home as well. (Viking) The commitment to walk their dog was further evidenced by participants’ disregard for weather or their own health concerns, their own activity preferences, or schedules. Walking the dog was an important and habitual part of each day but not necessarily because it met participants’ own exercise needs. Indeed, some described in length how they tempered their own activity levels to accommodate their dogs’ needs:

Further, and unlike other adults for whom weather is an inhibiting factor to their walking (Burchfield, Fitzhugh and Bassett 2012), participants were compelled to dismiss foul weather as an excuse in order to satisfy their dogs’ twice daily needs for exercise:

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I would go for a bike ride or a swim [without the dog] if I didn’t spend the time going on three walks a day. (Emma)

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… without him, I would tend to be more active. Just because I run a lot and I’ve always run a lot—mileage wise—and I can’t take him all the time. There’s only so many hours in the day and I’m responsible for him, so that may take precedence over me sometimes. So, I may just end up doing the walk with him, as opposed to a run. (Finnegan)


When we go for a walk, we go for a walk, it doesn’t matter what the weather is. (Frankie) Thus, for our research participants, dogs not only served as a daily prompt for physical activity, but with whom they bonded as “sole mates—as in the sole of your foot” (Emma). Owners relished spending time with their dog, importantly, in an activity that their dog enjoyed. Daily walking was not only a manifestation of attachment to their pet but, as the next theme explains, a practice that contributed to their own wellbeing and their pet’s health.

Shared Activity/Health Benefits Not surprisingly, it was easy for participants to recount and describe the activity and health benefits from dog walking, both for themselves and their canine charges. For Roxy, exercising with the dog was a family activity: “We take the dog on our runs, our son takes her, our daughter walks her, so we all get healthy as a family.” The benefits participants experienced reinforced the importance of walking in their lives: Definitely I think it’s beneficial for keeping physically strong. (Elly) I have some back issues so I really shouldn’t sit for very long. So, if I’ve done a bunch of gardening or something; if I’ve done two hours of gardening and it’s been digging and I want to kind of get the kinks out, then I’ll grab the dog [and go for a] walk. (Viking) By inferring “a subjective sense of self in the other” (Irvine 2004, p. 144), the benefits participants described for themselves were frequently the same for their dogs: I think the more your dog is active, the more active your dog is, the longer they will live unless they get a disease but it keeps her, like it keeps us better, too. It’s like the more activity that we do the better that we are, and I think it’s the same for our dogs, too. (Molly) Keeps their weight off, keeps [them] at the ideal weight. Keeps their heart and everything like that in shape. And it’s important to keep up their social skills, too. (Lulu) For some participants, dog walking was either their only or primary source of activity and they readily acknowledged the role of their dogs in keeping them moving: Dog walking is it for me. That’s what gets me out, because if I don’t do that than I am just sitting too much and not really getting any exercise. (Snack)

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You know, it really is the most, other than the hiking that I do, it’s really the only exercise I get all week; so that’s good for me. I don’t think I’d ever go and just walk by myself. Like, I am not a gym person, I don’t think I’d feel compelled to walk if I wasn’t walking [the dog], you know? (Penny) In addition to the personal, mental, or psychological benefits participants cited from walking their dogs, including relaxation and stress relief, many mentioned that their dogs served as social lubricants to strangers or were an integral part of their social support network, as detailed in the final theme below.

Dogs as Social Conduits This final important benefit of walking for participants was the informal connection with others that their dog afforded. The social consequences, from informal chats with other park users


to establishing long-term walking groups, were perceived as enjoyable and rewarding aspects of dog walking: We always meet new people. It’s like they say, “oh, I’ve never seen that dog, before!” I like meeting the people. And you know, just a little bit of chit chat. I enjoy that part of it. (Baxter) Because I am retired and when we moved down here, I didn’t know that many people. My husband is not very social so I joined a newcomer’s club and that’s how the people I dog walk with sort of branched off and formed our own groups and that’s how I met the people that I dog walk with. (Snack) This too functioned as motivation for participants to walk, with their dogs serving as “social catalysts ... facilitating positive encounters” (Knight and Edwards 2008, p. 439). Moreover, dogs served as a “third party” facilitator of social support networks for some participants (Wood and Christian 2011) who might not otherwise have an obvious reason to begin a conversation, become acquainted, or develop a relationship. As social agents (Charles and Aull Davies 2008), dogs were seen as contributing to their owners’ social relations with other humans through their walking experiences: I’ve talked to some older people that I’ve met on walks, they stop and asked about the dog. How old, and what type, and all that stuff. And, with kids too who want to pat the dogs. So, I’m getting a lot of social contact. (Oreo) You just talk to people you wouldn’t talk to otherwise. I mean, people think you’re crazy if you’re on the street and you just went up and start talking to them but with the dog, with the dog, seriously you can! (Viking) In summary our findings, although specific to dog walking and from a small and specifically recruited group of dog guardians, confirm the assertion of McNicholas et al. (2005) that “people do not own pets specifically to enhance their health, rather they value the relationship and contribution their pet makes to their quality of life” (p. 1254). No participant in this study told us that they acquired dogs for the single purpose of being more physically active, but their strong bond to, and ethic of care for, their dogs translated into routine walking as an expression of their affections.

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We entered this phase of our dog walking research agenda informed by our earlier experiences and the literature. Previous self-reported data suggested that dog owners walked more frequently and for longer durations than non-dog owners (Brown and Rhodes 2006; Ham and Epping 2006; Cutt et al. 2008a), including those who live with dogs, but walk without them (Cutt, Knuiman and Giles-Corti 2008). Observational data (Temple, Rhodes and Wharf Higgins 2011) have confirmed this and extended the hypothesis regarding an ethic of care. The idea that people walk their dogs out of a sense of responsible pet ownership was reinforced through the observational snapshot of park use: dog walkers maintained their walking practices through fair and foul weather. But why? As with Kuhl’s (2011) account of the trusting and respectful partnership between mushers and their sled dogs, our participants’ direct experience caring for their dogs enabled them to immerse themselves “into the perspectives of the dogs with whom [they] have relationships” (Sanders 1999, p. 147). As noted by Duvall Antonacopoulos and Pychyl (2010b),

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Discussion

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this relationship increasingly resembles our own with other humans such that “the role of companion animals involv[es] strong anthropomorphic attributions” (p. 380). Adopting the animals’ point of view rather than dismissing it (Horowitz and Bekoff 2007; Kuhl 2011) served as a motivational prompt for participants to walk their dogs as “loving owners fulfill obligations to act on their pet’s behalf to ensure a quality of life consistent with other family members” (Hill, Gaines and Wilson 2008, p. 561). Charles and Aull Davies (2008) suggest the terminology “humans and non-human animals” (p. 16) to reflect such a shift toward more empathetic relationships. Our findings support this and suggest that, behaving in selfless ways to ensure their dogs’ health and happiness, guardians benefit as well (Duvall Antonacopoulos and Pychyl 2008). Our data supported four themes that we argue contribute to dog walking. The primary and central theme revolved around owners’ sense of subjectivity of their dogs (Kuhl 2011) and how this mindset served to blur and go beyond the human and non-human animal distinction. While living with, loving, and embracing dogs as family members, research participants poignantly expressed their motivation for dog walking in terms of human emotions and values. We concur with Beck and Madresh’s (2008) assertion that the structure of relationships with pets resembles that of relationships with humans, particularly those of us with “exercise buddies” who help to motivate and sustain our physical activity practices (Ham and Epping 2006; Kushner 2008). There is a long evidence trail demonstrating the importance of social support on humans’ physical activity (Courneya et al. 2000; Trost et al. 2002; Molloy et al. 2010), and it occupies a central premise in several theories of physical activity (Ajzen 1991; Courneya and MacAuley 1995; Deci and Ryan 2002; Bandura 2004; Silva et al. 2008). In the physical activity literature, the concept of social support includes both having someone to encourage activity and to be active with (Molloy et al. 2010), but the social influence need not be just another human (Salmon et al. 2010; Bauman et al. 2011). While McNicholas et al. (2005) note that, conceptually, a sense of companionship with one’s pet provides intrinsic but not extrinsic support, and so it is “theoretically distinct from social support” (p. 1253), our findings support recent cross-sectional data (Westgarth et al. 2012) to suggest that this notion of camaraderie and attachment to dogs serves to motivate, enable, and support their guardians’ walking practices. While humans need not look far to justify the decision to defer exercise—poor weather, no time, lack of equipment or facilities or companions, other competing tasks—notwithstanding our acknowledgement of the importance of physical activity (Brinthaupt, Kang and Anshel 2010), it becomes more difficult to ignore when our canine companions expect and depend on us for their daily activity (Epping 2011b). We argue that our participants engaged in what Irvine (2004) calls critical anthropomorphism: understanding the exercise needs of their dogs as animals whilst regarding them with “human tendencies” (p. 74). This “consistent initiating” (Kushner et al. 2006) motivates owners to exercise their dogs, most often in the form of walking in their neighborhood or local park, helping to diminish the “super barrier” of perceived lack of time or inconvenience (Brinthaupt, Kang and Anshel 2010, p. 260). Neither is there a need for specialized equipment or honed physical skills, and despite weather and a lack of human company there is mounting evidence that dog walking becomes habitual (Kushner et al. 2006; Knight and Edwards 2008; Epping 2011a; Lail, McCormack and Rock 2011; Temple, Rhodes and Wharf Higgins 2011). Guardians’ empathetic attachments to their dogs may also explain why their walking behaviors are maintained and offer a source of extrinsic motivation in the form of introjected (avoiding guilt) and identified (doing something based on desired consequences) regulation (Silva et al. 2008), and behavioral co-regulation (where each individual in a relationship serves


as the primary behavioral regulator for their partner) (Molloy et al. 2010). Unlike some formal and facility-based exercise activities, which have been identified as non-purposeful, walking fulfills the resolute activity of caring and connecting with dogs (Johnson and Meadows 2010), and is not merely done for the activity itself (Ham and Epping 2006; Coleman et al. 2008). At the same time, the routine and enjoyment of walking with their companions was consistently noted. These benefits serve to sustain guardians’ dog walking practices because, as Coleman and colleagues (2008) note, “ ... dogs need to be walked every day for several years” (p. 311). Dog walking as a means to improve human and dog physical activity levels has been recommended by the veterinary (German 2006; Lund et al. 2006; Roudebush, Schoenherr and Delaney 2008), medical (Tastchl, Finsterer and Stöllberger 2006; Kushner 2008), and public health (Epping 2011a) fields. Mirroring the literature, participants in this study effortlessly recognized multiple physical health (Stephens et al. 2011) and social benefits (McNicholas et al. 2005; Charles and Aull Davies 2008; Wood and Christian 2011) of walking, and offered an explanation for the reinforcing nature of dog walking behavior. This is not surprising given findings of previous, though primarily quantitative, studies (McNicholas and Collis 2000; Wood, Giles-Corti and Bulsara 2005; Kushner et al. 2006), but warrants noting given the relatively low levels of physical activity across North America.

Limitations of the Research The small sample size and recruiting strategies in this study meant that participants represented (mostly female and Caucasian) dog guardians interested in dog-related research, and thus may be extremely attached or bonded to their dogs. In addition, participants may not be representative of dog guardians with diverse and/or less favorable demographics. A broader range and larger sample of dog walking and dog guardian perspectives is needed. It is likely that individuals who own “working dogs” (on farms, as police dogs etc.) may not hold the same view of their dogs as family members as did our research participants. Secondly, it may be that dog walkers living in Victoria BC, Canada, actually do walk more because of climate and geography, relative to other parts of North America. This may reflect this region’s higher levels of activity among the general population overall (Statistics Canada 2006). Examining dog guardians residing in different climates and urban/rural settings is needed.

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Our exploratory findings pose at least three new directions for research: 1) As related to the dog walking and physical activity research agenda, future studies should examine dog guardians whose dogs are not regularly walked to determine the nature of the human–dog relationship in those households and its influence (if any) on dog walking. Can dogs be an intervention point for physical activity (Christian, Giles-Corti and Knuiman 2010; Hoerster et al. 2011; Reeves et al. 2011; Yam et al. 2012), and if so, how can this be accomplished ethically? Because the initial months of living with a new pet can often be stressful, we need to understand how to negotiate the frustrations experienced in the early days with the later benefits to be realized, lest our advocacy for dog walking contributes to abandoning or relinquishing pets to shelters (Greenebaum 2010); 2) We have found glimpses of how empathetic relationships of guardians with their dogs may relate to theoretical constructs in the physical activity literature. Further and more specific examination is required to see if dog walking practices contain elements of such motivational and social support concepts; 3) Because our data echo previous human–animal studies (e.g., Beck and Meyers 1996; Holbrook et al. 2001; Duvall Antonacopoulos and Pychyl 2008; Dotson, Hyatt and Clark 2011; Kuhl 2011),

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additional work is needed to examine how other aspects of the pet–human relationship benefits or detracts from adopting the perspective of the family pet. Finally, investigating theoretical nuances that distinguish empathetic attachments to companion animals from “sentimental” and “critical” anthropomorphism (Irvine 2004) may offer further insights into how our relationships contribute to motivating, enabling, and supporting dog walking.

Conclusion The purpose of this study was to explore and offer, qualitatively, an explanation why some dog guardians may be more successful at walking than non-dog owners. Confirming the qualitative results of Cutt and colleagues (2008c), social support, motivation, and companionship accounted for dog walking by our participants. Expanding on this, our findings suggest that dog guardians’ empathetic stance renders their canine companions as valued family members whose health and happiness they were responsible for, and thus served to motivate, enable, and sustain walking behaviors. Further, our findings offer possible avenues for more direct and distant intervention points. In a more immediate sense, because dog guardians are known to follow veterinary advice (Cutt et al. 2008a), clinical guidelines encouraging guardians to understand their pets as subjective and sentient beings may improve dogs’ (and thereby their guardians’) physical activity levels. Walking programs coordinated through shelters and recreation centers, or other community partners (e.g., hotels) may habitualize walking behaviors for humans while expanding the volunteer base for shelters. Drawing on research from specific consumer markets and the hospitality industry in accommodating vacationing dogs (Dotson, Hyatt and Clark 2011), makes it clear that being cherished as family members can be successfully used to frame competing perspectives as a way to satisfy dog guardians and improve the bottom line. Baumann and colleagues (2001; 2011) have calculated that increases in physical activity from dog walking would curb between 5 to 9% of the incidence of chronic diseases, estimating annual healthcare savings of $175 million, should Australian dog owners walk their dogs on a regular basis. If indeed the promise of dog walking is to be realized as “ . . . an untapped health promotion resource waiting to be let off the leash” (Cutt, Giles-Corti and Knuiman 2008, p. 125), leveraging owners’ commitment to their pets as adored family members (Beck 2011; Stephens et al. 2011) and orienting their perspectives to that of their pets (Kuhl 2011) may be a dog training technique beneficial for dogs and their guardians.

Acknowledgements JWH is supported by a Canada Research Chair award from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. RR is supported by investigator awards from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and Canadian Cancer Society.

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Note

1. The physical activity literature uses the term dog “owner” when reporting on research about dog walking. In this paper, we refer to a dog owner as a “guardian” when not referring to the physical activity research to better reflect the relationship characterizing the human-nonhuman animal literature.

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