Found out my dog walks 5x farther than I do on our morning route

I strapped a tracker to my golden retriever last week and realized he covers 6 miles while I only walk 3. He's darting back and forth sniffing every bush and fire hydrant. Has anyone else mapped their dog's actual distance?

3 comments

3 Comments

harper_foster7d ago

Started off thinking a tracker was overkill, but now I'm totally convinced. Watched my lab run about four extra miles just sniffing and backtracking on our usual loop, and it honestly made me feel less guilty about cutting our walks short sometimes. Idk, it's kind of cool to finally see what they're actually doing out there.

alicehernandez7d ago

I heard some dogs cover double the human distance just from zigzagging.

wells.olivia5d ago

Wait, is that actually a bad thing though? Like yeah they might cover more ground but that doesn't mean the walk is better for them. I've seen my neighbor's husky run himself ragged zigzagging and then he just collapses the rest of the day. Seems like they're burning energy in a way that isn't productive. Plus if you're trying to train loose leash walking or focus, letting them zigzag everywhere kinda reinforces pulling and scanning for smells instead of just enjoying the walk. Not every step needs to be maxed out you know? Sometimes a calm structured walk is way more beneficial for their brain than a frantic sniff-fest.