Why Dogs Make You Healthy

As a self-described computer geek who works from home, you could say I have an aversion to the outdoors. I abhor exercise, and I've been known to (more than) occasionally forget what day it is.

Lately, however, I find myself trotting off around the block several times per day, for alas! I decided to marry a woman....with dogs!

Well, that's not quite accurate. I decided to marry a particular woman; the dogs just came along for the ride. I'm not even sure if they should technically be called dogs - they're dachshunds. One regular, one miniature. "Brit," I said to her, "when you were a little girl and the cowboy sang about getting a long little doggie, that wasn't what he meant!"

Now, since I work from home and Brit works away from home, and since the dogs need to be walked frequently so they remember to only pee outdoors...well, you can see where this is going!

Of course, it's not just the walking that helps keep you in shape. Sure, I'm doing a lot more of it than I used to, but face it: it's not like a ten-pound dog is going to make you run. You can set a nice, leisurely pace. At least, you can do that until one of two things happens.

The first is that the dog sees someone. Now, if this is the little dog, it's not much of a problem..he'd like to go over and say hello, but it's easy enough to turn his attention to someone else. The bigger one, though, is a barker. Brit taught him to speak before finding out that teaching dachshunds to speak is a bad idea, and, well...let's just say his little body can exert a LOT of pressure on that leash, and he has a powerful set of lungs in there! That reduces your options to either sitting down and holding on to him, or picking him up and carrying him home, squirming all the way.

The second thing, of course, is the main reason you're out there. Small dogs poop. A lot. This is wonderful exercise (for the human), because it means not only do you go on walks several (by which I mean many) times per day, you also do a lot of bending over. The larger one, in fact, always has to release two loads; he'll go once, wait for you to pick it up, wait and see if you'll throw the bag away, and then drop the rest of it. The small one can go all at once, but first he needs to walk around the entire complex, and if he gets too excited he might forget to go until after you get back to the house. Oops!

Which, of course, leads into the next section: how your dogs help you get exercise inside..

My dog articles, written from the dog's perspective, are now appearing on A Dog's Journal. Feedback is welcome!