How to exercise with your dog, for humans who want their pets to be as healthy as they are

Almost everyone feels time challenged, particularly in how they spend leisure (non-employment) time. Perhaps yours includes doing something away from home – such as exercise, intended to enhance your health and well being – yet that would mean less time with your homebound dog or cat. You know, their health and wellbeing depends on how much time (love, attention, exercise) and treats they receive from you. How do humans sort their priorities in situations such as this?

Smart humans look for the win-win. Yup, that can only mean you should exercise with your pet.

I do this with my dog. My canine is a two-year old with energy to burn. So it only makes sense that energy be used effectively. Also, we’ll all sleep better if she’s exhausted at the end of the day.

Animal-human exercise is not hard to do and can be engineered in almost any home. All you need are the following:

1. Dumbbells

2. Soft or carpeted floor

3. A sofa

4. An animal that hangs with you every waking moment

5. Optional: Stairway or stairwell

6. Extra credit: Water access (beach that permits dogs)

Preparation

Before your interspecies workout begins, you need to explore certain fundamentals about your pet relationship. Can your dog run as fast as you? Will your cat walk on you if you are on the floor? Can you lift your animal? Will at some point the pet lose interest in your gyrations and retreat to a corner to lick or chew things? Is it time for a walk and accompanying bowel movement?

Don’t expect true cooperation. The animal has no idea why you’re exercising or even that it is a health-directed activity. Indeed, you lack a shared objective. Yet, animals simply like to play, sometimes with their sharp teeth and claws. You see them do this with members of their own species (well, dogs anyway; I’m not sure if cats and cat people ever even congregate, much less what they do communally). It's that playful tendency in most pets that you can and should work to your benefit.

Also, be sure to consider which of you or your dog would win a wrestling match. Key point.

The human-pet exercise routine (#1)

Assuming your assessment green lights this idea, get to work on any or all of the following:

Stairway chase. Run up the stairs. Run down the stairs. Will the dog win? Do it again. What if you carry some dumbbells or other weights with you? Keep going for five minutes or more. A good dog will never quit and neither should you.

Supine bicycles with dog hovering over you. Lie flat on the floor, raising legs and pedaling them as if on an upside-down bicycle. Invite/allow dog to stand over you and either rub her belly, massage her back hindquarters and/or allow her to lick your face as you continue this exercise to fatigue (two to five minutes).

Push up canopy over the dog. Break from the “plank” position used in classic push ups, instead arc your legs and torso over the animal, largely holding a rigid body that hinges off one or two feet as you push up and down with the arms. Be sure to consciously shift most of your body weight onto the arms, and to not disturb the relaxed pet.

Couch-lean chest press/dog avoid. Sit on floor in front of sofa, with dumbbells in both hands, elbows spread wide and on cushion edge. Press weights out or up. After one or more repetitions, the animal may walk up and want to lean on a shoulder or otherwise get in the way of the weights. To avoid an injurious collision, continue lifting dumbbells on different paths, which adds great variety to your exercise. Adjust as animal walks constantly in the way, around and in front of you. This qualifies it as an adaptive, functional exercise that builds strength needed for real life situations, such as pushing anything around and over a dog that is at your face level.

Paris Handbag-Dog Hold. A certain overexposed socialite reportedly has popularized "pocket dogs," which can be transported in contraption that holds the animal with canvas looped under its torso while back and front ends dangle out of both ends. It's like the dog is being airlifted, but by your arm and not a helicopter. While this may strike some as disturbing, for a variety of reasons, one should not ignore the exercise benefit. Holding any weighted object (groceries, dumbbells, dumbstruck animals) in a static position for a period of time such as when posing for photographers qualifies as an isometric exercise. A bit removed from the seven minute Tai Chi ring-arm hold, perhaps. This technique is only limited by your strength, relative to the weight of your dog, and your self respect.

Run time. Your dog needs to run. You need to run. Do this together as much as possible. On a leash, of course. If your dog is a robust hunter and the presence of squirrels, rabbits or deer* sends her into mad delirium, you at least get a full body resistance workout (arms, shoulders, core and leg muscles) in the context of a cardiovascular exercise. As long as your arm isn’t pulled out of the shoulder socket. Prong collars are great tools for such circumstances. The steamer pickup also makes for a great mid-run stretch – try to keep legs straight and knees locked out as you reach toward the ground with that plastic bag. No one said this was dignified.

Animal swim. If your dog is a swimmer and you have beach/body of water access, your human-canine workout can expand considerably. Wade out to where the water is high enough for where your hound must swim, then walk backwards as his or her leader. You you get resistance training walking backward (try replicating this in another environment -- it's almost impossible) while the pooch gets good swim training without venturing too far away from the beach.

Get creative with your human-dog workout. The possibilities are as endless as that critter’s love for you. Of course, members of both species should first consult with a physician or veterinarian, as appropriate, on baseline fitness before beginning these and all other forms of exercise.

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*No lie, we had a deer visit our highly populated area of Chicago last fall and my dog behaved as if there seriously was something in it for her.