title: Factors associated with daily walking of dogs.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Regular physical activity is beneficial to the health of both people and animals. The role of regular exercise undertaken together, such as dog walking, is a public health interest of mutual benefit. Exploration of barriers and incentives to regular dog walking by owners is now required so that effective interventions to promote it can be designed. This study explored a well-characterised cross-sectional dataset of 276 dogs and owners from Cheshire, UK, for evidence of factors associated with the dog being walked once or more per day.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Factors independently associated with daily walking included: number of dogs owned (multiple (vs. single) dogs negatively associated); size (medium and possibly large dogs (vs. small) positively associated); and number of people in the household (more people negatively associated). Furthermore, a number of factors related to the dog-owner relationship and the dog's behaviour were associated with daily walking, including: having acquired the dog for a hobby (positively associated); dog lying on furniture (positively associated); dog lying on laps (negatively associated); growling at household members (negatively associated); and playing chase games with the dog (negatively associated).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that the strength and nature of the human-dog relationship incentivises dog walking, and that behavioural and demographic factors may affect dog walking via this mechanism. Future studies need to investigate how dog demographic and behavioural factors, plus owner behavioural factors and perceptions of the dog, influence the dog-human relationship in respect to the perceived support and motivation a dog can provide for walking.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Institute of Infection and Global Health, and School of Veterinary Science, University of Liverpool, Leahurst Campus, Chester High Road, Neston, Cheshire, CH64 7TE, UK. carri.westgarth@liverpool.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Carri
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Westgarth
authors.affiliation: Centre for the Built Environment and Health, School of Population Health, and Telethon Kids Institute, The University of Western Australia (M707), 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia. hayley.christian@uwa.edu.au.
authors.forename: Hayley E
authors.initials: HE
authors.lastname: Christian
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Institute of Infection and Global Health, and School of Veterinary Science, University of Liverpool, Leahurst Campus, Chester High Road, Neston, Cheshire, CH64 7TE, UK. robc@liverpool.ac.uk.|NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Emerging and Zoonotic Infections, Liverpool, L69 7BE, UK. robc@liverpool.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Robert M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Christley
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003625:Data Collection; D004285:Dogs; D005260:Female; D001841:Human-Animal Bond; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D010805:Physical Conditioning, Animal; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016138:Walking