Use of pedometers to measure physical activity in dogs

Abstract

Objective—To determine whether pedometers can be used to measure physical activity in dogs. Design—Cross-sectional study. Animals—26 dogs. Procedure—To determine pedometer accuracy, number of steps recorded with the pedometer as dogs walked, trotted, and ran for a distance of approximately 30 m (100 ft) at each gait was compared with actual number of steps. Dogs and owners then wore pedometers for 7 to 14 days, and dog pedometer output was compared with body condition score, owner-reported activity of the dog, and owner pedometer output. Results—Most owners classified their dogs as active or quite active and indicated that their dogs exercised 3 to 7 days/wk. For all dogs, body condition score was 5, 6, or 7 on a scale from 1 to 9. At a walk, pedometers overestimated actual number of steps by approximately 17% in large and medium dogs and underestimated actual number of steps by approximately 7% in small dogs. No significant differences between pedometer-recorded and actual number of steps were detected when dogs trotted or ran. Number of steps per day for the dogs was significantly correlated with owner-reported activity of the dog (r = 0.305) and number of steps per day for the owners (r = 0.469) and was inversely correlated with body condition score (r = −0.554). Conclusions and Clinical Relevance—Results suggest that pedometers can measure physical activity in dogs with reasonable accuracy. A lower number of steps per day was associated with a higher body condition score, and less active owners generally had less active dogs. (J Am Vet Med Assoc 2005;226:2010–2015)