reported that 59%
of children aged 5–6 and 10–12 years who owned a dog walked their
dog . In support of our findings,
they also found that neither child-report frequency of dog walking/
week or ‘family dog walking’ was associated with increased
accelerometer-measured moderate-vigorous physical activity (Salmon
et al., 2010). Based on findings from adult studies, we hypothesized
that dog walking rather than dog ownership per se would be associated
with children's physical activity behaviors, however this was not
supported in terms of levels of weekly walking and physical activity.
Our findings differ to the handful of studies reporting positive associations
between dog ownership (vs. dog walking) and children's physical
activity .