Everything in Moderation on Your Dog Treadmill

When training your dog to use the dog treadmill, the key to ensuring you train it correctly is moderation. Regardless of whether you are speeding up the dog treadmill for the first time, or teaching your dog to use it for longer, or increase the incline in order to allow your dog more of a workout on their back muscles, you still need to ensure that you are only making these changes a little at a time until your dog is used to the difference.

This is because dogs are associative creatures. They condition themselves to people, things, smells and sounds by associating what they feel with the stimulus.

Training your dog on the dog treadmill works the same way. If you change something about the dog treadmill for the first time, you risk a change in association.

For example, let’s say your dog has been using the dog treadmill for a few months but only on the most basic speed. You have decided your dog needs more of a workout, and since you know your dog is very fast and healthy, you decide you want to see if your dog can run on the dog treadmill rather than walk and bump the speed up several notches.

If your dog should find this stressful – or worse, fall and hurt itself – the dog treadmill will forever be associated with that pain and it will be very difficult to teach your dog to use it again. However, if you gradually lead into the speed, your dog will be less anxious (and less likely to notice the change), and will not associate the dog treadmill with fear.

Even if your dog trips and hurts itself in the future, however unlikely, if there is no difference in the dog treadmill (i.e. you did not change anything) then your dog will associate the mistake with itself rather than with the treadmill. But a rapid change that the dog is not expecting risks negative associations. Keep everything in moderation and you are much more likely to see the results you want.