If you were looking for another reason to love your pup, then you can add “makes me exercise” to the list.

At least that is what we’re learning from this new study looking at how dog ownership affects your exercise habits.

British scientists gave in-depth questionnaires to 700 people from all different walks of life, though they all lived in similar neighborhoods.

Then they broke down the numbers and found, according to this article:

…most dog owners spent close to 300 minutes each week walking with their dogs, which was about 200 more minutes of walking per week than people without dogs…Due primarily to these walks, most dog owners met or exceeded the standard guidelines for exercising for health, which call for at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise every week…dog owners also spent slightly more time than other people jogging, cycling and visiting the gym solo, without their dogs, indicating that walking Fido had not bumped other activities from their lives.

This data implies that getting a dog and taking it for walks will make you exercise way more than your dog-less friends.

There were some anomalies, and we’ve learned to be skeptical of questionnaire-based studies, but this seems to make a lot of sense to us. And we’re also happy to come up with any other reason to convince people they should get their own personal wag machine.

-Shane M.