Which improves your fitness more: walking with your dog or walking with a friend? Researchers at the University of Missouri’s College of Veterinary Medicine conducted a 12 week study of 54 assisted living residents, 35 of whom were assigned to a walking program for 5 days a week, while 19 served as the control group.

The residents could choose to walk with a friend or be bussed to a local animal shelter where they were assigned a dog to walk. Of the 35 adults in the study, 23 chose to walk with a friend or spouse while 12 chose to walk with a dog.

The results showed that those who walked with a dog had a 28% improvement in walking speed and were more likely to be consistent about their daily walk than those who walked with a friend/spouse. Why?

Rebecca A. Johnson, the nursing professor and director of the Research Center for Human Animal Interaction at the University of Missouri stated humans were much more likely to discourage each other from walking claiming the heat was too much. There may be other factors that contributed to this as well such as the emotional connection between the person and the dog.

What was interesting about this study was that the dog group reported  better gains in balance and walking speed and actually stopped using their walkers and canes. You can read more about this study by following this NY Times link: The Best Walking Partner: Man vs. Dog by Tara Parker-Pope.