So you want to invest in a slatmill for your dog, and you are trying to figure out which one to buy. Maybe your dog tried one, or maybe they have walked on your treadmill before, so you figured it would be a wise investment to give your dog the ability to get exercise inside the house. These are good reasons for considering buying a slatmill, but I would caution you before making that investment to think of a few things first. We have been using slatmills for dog exercise for many years, and run thousands of dogs of every breed, temperment and age. They are al different, and before you go spending a considerable amount of money on a slatmill I would like to bring a few things to your attention.
Not every dog likes a slatmill.
What that means is that a dog walking or running on a moving platform is not a natural thing, and dogs are going to have to learn how this works before they enjoy it. There is going to be a certian amount of discomfort or fear when they are put onto the mill the first time, and how that is handled is going to play a big part in how they do in the future. A dog that is fearful of new things is going to shrink away from walking or even standing up. They might panic and try and run off the end. How you handle that discomfort is going to be the deciding factor in if the dog is imprinted to be afraid of the machine or not. If they are in a fearful state when you bring them down, there is a good chance that “single event learning” will take place. This is the irrational fear that dogs have of inanimate objects like a carpet, stairs or their bowl. This happens when a dog feels uncomfortable or afraid when that inanimate object is around them. They interpret it that the object is bad and scary, and they do not think that something else might be what scared them. They remain afraid of that particular object, and it is very hard to then expose them enough to forget to be afraid. When a dog has been conditioned to fear something like a treadmill or slatmill, it will be very hard to ever get them to embrace it enough to love it. These types of dogs never truly enjoy it, they monght do the exercise reluctantly, but they will never lean into it the way you really want them to. For this reason, we always suggest that you allow a professional with lots of experience do the introduction sessions. If they end up afraid, you probably just got a really expensive coat rack because you will never use it.
Quality is key.
The slatmill is going to be expensive, and usually the more expensive it is the better materials it was made with. The better built the slatmill is, the less noisy it will be, and the less it will wobble around. These types of things make the dog have a less productive experience, which trains the dog to go slow on the mill. The more things that make them unsure of the track beneith their feet, the worse they will do. Think about if I was to ask you to run on a track suspended in the air, the more it wobbled around under your feet the less likely you would be to run full speed. This is why you will almost never see dogs running on cheap slatmills the same way you see them running in our videos. Our equipment is smooth, solid and quiet. Our experience has shown that the louder it is and the more it vibrates, the more poorly the dog will do. The more chewed up the slats get, the more they hurt the dog’s feet. God forbid something breaks on the mill while the dog is running, if that happens there is a really good chance your dog will be afraid of it moving forward. The lesson to be learned is you get what you pay for.
This isn’t convenient.
Many people see videos online and think that a slatmill is something that you just put your dog on and he/she runs. While there are cases that this will happen, for the most part they are interested in chasing things, so you have to lure them to run. If there is nothing to chase, they just slow down or stop. This means you are going to have to be actively involved in every run. You can’t just put them on the slatmill and go make a cup of coffee, if you do that the dog will get bored and stop exercising. You need to constantly engage with your dog and not be boring. If you are a low energy individual then this will probably not work for you. Imagine if you went to a spin class and the instructor just sat there on their phone. You would hate the experience because it is boring. The same is true for your dog. The coach is 90% of the experience, the machine is only 10%. If you don’t think you could teach a spin class and make it fun, don’t bother investing in a slatmill.
You can hurt your dog.
Overworking a dog is a real thing. Heavily exercising a dog before their body has fully recovered from the last workout causes them to actually get weaker, rather than stronger. They will also be more sore and irritable, which can lead to bad behavior and biting. Because you need to allow their body to rest in between session, we never suggest heavily exercising a dog more than twice a week, and possibly only once a week. This will depend on their ability to recover, which has a lot to do with their age, breed and constitution. A 9 year old dog will take a lot longer to recover than a young dog who is in good shape. You will need to pay attention to their recovery, and understand that just because they are full of energy again the next day, their muscles are not recovered yet. It always drives me crazy when I see people heavily exercising their dog every day. That dog will probably be crippled by the time they are six years old, and at that point they are too beat up to reverse the damage. Just because a tool is available and the dog wants to use it doesn’t mean that it is a good idea to use all the time. People who buy slatmills to reduce a dog’s energy because they are irritating are probably going to harm their dog in the long run. If you throw them on a slatmill every time they are full of energy, you are going to destroy their body. Don’t hurt your dog in the long term just to make them more calm in the short term. Do not use this as a way to reduce their energy every day if they are a heavy worker or an intense dog, use it to give them periodic high-intensity exercise and rely on less physical ways to reduce their energy for the rest of the time. Don’t use a slatmill as a way to neglect your dog, they still want all the walks, hikes and daily play.
What you see in the videos isn’t necessarily what you will get.
In our videos, you see dogs going crazy and running like they are possessed. This is a combination of a high-drive dog, an experienced and exciting coach, lots of practive and well built, professional equipment. We show these videos to illustrate what can happen if everything is perfect, and the social media algorithms love excitment. This means that what you see on the internet is very rarely what you are going to get if you try and do it yourself. We aren’t trying to talk you out of giving it a shot, but if you spend six thousand dollars on a slatmill that your dog slowly walks on you are probably not going to be happy. In many cases, our experience and equipment helps us to get way better performance fom a dog than you can. The takeaway is to go into this purchase with expectations that match reality. Always remember that we rarely show the slow, boring runs!
Good luck!