There are many dog owners. Dogs are wonderful friends, but also require a lot of care. They encourage owners to have a more active lifestyle because they themselves need constant exercise. However, different owners use different dog exercise equipment – there is a huge variety of collars, halters and harnesses available and it may be hard to choose the best one. Now scientists from the University of Adelaide are conducting a research in order to provide dog owners with a better advice about dog equipment.
Dog owners may be overwhelmed with a choice of collars, halters and harnesses available at the pet stores. Now scientists will try to see if this choice can affect the quality and frequency of exercise dog is getting. Image credit: Photos-public-domain.com
Scientists are wondering how important dog exercising equipment actually is. The question researchers are trying to answer is if the type of exercise equipment being used may have an influence on the frequency and quality of the exercise dogs receive. To answer this question scientists are conducting a survey of dog owner about what collars, halters or harnesses they commonly use to walk their dogs.
Petra Edwards, one of the authors of the study, said: “Go to any pet store and you’ll see there is a huge array of dog collars, leashes and harnesses available. This could be overwhelming for many, especially for novice dog owners, and can make their choices daunting. If dogs are difficult to walk, owners may be less likely to take them out. Specific types of equipment could work better with some dogs, and we hope to learn more about this with our survey”.
This is actually a bigger problem than it may seem to be. Dogs need a proper exercise according to their breed and size. All dog owners want their pets to be as healthy and as happy as possible. However, if dog is not getting a proper exercise and mental stimulation that comes with it through changing environment and playing, it may lead to behavioural problems.
Because of lack of knowledge how to deal with such problems, inexperienced dog owners may give up on the dog when solution is very simple – more exercise. For this, proper equipment is needed and scientists hope that after this research is concluded they will be able to give good advices on which exercising equipment is better in each case.
Source: adelaide.edu.au
