Does the Company of a Dog Influence Affective Response to Exercise? Using Ecological Momentary Assessment to Study...

This study used ecological momentary assessment (EMA), a real-time self-report strategy, to examine (1) whether dog owners were more likely to be physically active when they were with their dogs and (2) whether being with a dog amplifies positive and dampens negative affective response during physical activity.

Electronic EMA surveys for 12 days.

Free-living.

Seventy-one adult dog owners.

The EMA survey included 1 question about current activity, 3 questions about positive affect (Cronbach α = .837), 4 questions about negative affect (Cronbach α = .865), and 1 question about the presence of dog.

Multilevel modeling.

The company of a dog did not increase the likelihood of being active versus sedentary at any given EMA prompt. However, greater positive affect during physical activity was reported in the company of a dog. Negative affect did not differ between active and sedentary activity, regardless of being with a dog or not.

This study demonstrates the utility of electronic EMA as a promising methodology to study dog-accompanied physical activity. Future studies may use EMA to collect further contextual information about dog-accompanied activity to inform the development of innovative physical activity interventions.