Dog sitting my sister's dog gets me walking. Now we want one

A walk with Chewy runs 10 to 20 minutes, and it's often the only exercise I get in the day. Small wins.

Chewy is my sister's dog, and I've been dog sitting him. He's a great dog: fairly big, and some sort of poodle mix with "Australian" in the name. I can never remember exactly what. It's not a cockapoo; I know that much.

I wish I could say the walks were daily. They're not. Having him around prompts me to get out of the house, just to give him some exercise, and of course I get some of that exercise at the same time. Anecdotally, I'm getting out on more walks because of him.

Having him around prompts me to get out of the house, just to give him some exercise, and of course I get some of that exercise at the same time.

That made me wonder whether dog owners in general get more exercise than people without dogs, so I asked Bonzai to look at the research. One study it pointed to, published in BMC Public Health in 2017, used activity monitors to compare 43 older adults who owned dogs with 43 who didn't, matched in pairs. On average, the dog owners walked about 22 more minutes a day and took about 2,760 more steps.

That comes with two big caveats. A study like that shows an association, not proof that the dog is the reason for the extra walking; people who already like to walk may be more likely to get a dog. And it's about older adults who own dogs, not someone looking after his sister's dog for a while. My walks with Chewy fit the pattern, but they're one person's experience with a borrowed dog.

Still, those 10 to 20 minutes add up to more than I'd get on my own. Getting a dog of our own has gone to the top of our priority list.