Treadmill?

[AdrianneIsabel]

Originally Posted by SaraB

What the heck is a carpet mill?

http://www.grandcarpetmill.com/

It's designed for muscle building over cardio. The dog powers it themselves and its harder to over do it because of this.

They're much cheaper and shipping is much more reasonable now that I kick myself for buying a Dogpacer. I may consider selling the Dogpacer and buying a carpet mill, the only downside is space/storage, my DP can be hidden pretty easily with a few screws taken out.

[PWCorgi]

Originally Posted by AdrianneIsabel

http://www.grandcarpetmill.com/

It's designed for muscle building over cardio. The dog powers it themselves and its harder to over do it because of this.

They're much cheaper and shipping is much more reasonable now that I kick myself for buying a Dogpacer. I may consider selling the Dogpacer and buying a carpet mill, the only downside is space/storage, my DP can be hidden pretty easily with a few screws taken out.

I have no need for this. I still want one.

[SaraB]

Very cool.

So what's the difference between that and a regular manual treadmill with an incline? Other than the obvious side panels?

[AdrianneIsabel]

The dog powers it themselves and the carpet mills have resistance. The idea is muscle building over cardio without the over doing it potential of a treadmill that "forces" a dog to keep up or fall off. Also, in the same school of thought, the dog cannot set their own pace on a treadmill which is more natural to a dog.

But the downside is noise for sure, they're super loud.

[stardogs]

So timely - was just looking at treadmills last night on CL and was wondering if I could get by with a manual one!

[AdrianneIsabel]

Oh and a lot of show people I know say treadmills can ruin gaits but I know Aleron uses one so I would ask her if that's a concern. The clients I had who worried were dobe (refuse any incline and only allowed to go at a certain speed) and GSD (certain speed and specific time).

Erin, slant, carpet, and treadmills are the three options. Check out pit bull forums, it's a great resource, they've been using them forever.

[SaraB]

Originally Posted by stardogs

So timely - was just looking at treadmills last night on CL and was wondering if I could get by with a manual one!

That's what I was wondering.. the manual ones I've seen have inclines and seem to be the same idea as the carpet ones. Powered by the dog/human.

[SaraB]

Other question: how long/how often do you run them?

[BostonBanker]

I've been thinking about trying to get Gusto using ours. He has been known to jump on it and "slide" off the end when I'm using it, but I haven't actually tried him on it intentionally. Do you have a collar/leash on? Harness? I'm having a hard time picturing just how you get them from standing on it with the treadmill turned off to actually understanding that if they walk along, they won't fall back.

[AdrianneIsabel]

Originally Posted by SaraB

That's what I was wondering.. the manual ones I've seen have inclines and seem to be the same idea as the carpet ones. Powered by the dog/human.

Oh, I didn't even think that's what you meant by manual, sorry. I was thinking you still meant automatic. I presume it's pretty similar minus the resistance but if you're not looking to build a lot of muscle (which with a speed dog I doubt you are compared to a bully dog for WP) then it's not a big deal.