Introducing a Dog To a Stroller - a personal experience
- Jun 28
- 3 min read
Our gorgeous boy Glen is 11 today. He’s a great dog, he’s calm, polite with other dogs, relaxed and quite confident in most situations (barring firework season 😖) and enjoys his walks. We live near a beach and he enjoys doing zoomies there and digging holes in the sand which he then sits in, and he loves a visit to a cafe or a friend’s home. However, he soon gets bored when walking to and between these exciting places, puts his brakes on and looks fed up! So we decided to buy him a stroller. We wanted to buy him a good, long lasting one so took advice from Karla about where she’d bought hers for the lovely Betty; she recommended the company K9 Wagons
The company couldn’t have been more helpful and we chose the InnoPet sporty EVR which has solid wheels as the best model size-wise, and for the variety of terrains and surfaces that we usually encounter. We wanted one that was large enough for Glen to lie down in if he wanted to, and was comfortable for him and easy to push. We took the option to hire the stroller for 2 weeks prior to purchasing in case Glen absolutely hated it, because you never know do you? He’s a dog with firm opinions about many things!
The stroller arrived a couple of days later and once we’d unpacked and assembled it we just left it parked in the sitting room for Glen to sniff and look at. The next day I encouraged him to jump in with a reward of a tasty treat. So far so good!
Over the next few days we kept this up and could tell that he was quite comfortable sitting inside the stroller when it was stationery … next step, moving it with him inside 😬
It was fine weather and we have a drive, so the next step was a little push up and down the drive several times a day, with a little food reward each time, as I wanted all his associations with the stroller to be positive ones.
As things were going pretty well we decided that we were going to keep / buy the stroller so we took it out for our first test drive on a proper walk.
Glen had his walk first, said his usual hello to some other dogs and did lots of his favourite roly-polys on the grass, and then when he looked a bit tired we encouraged him to hop into his chariot, and he made his first public appearance on wheels!
From then he’s gone from strength to strength, he’s perfectly happy to jump in to give his legs a rest for a while, and he knows that if he wants to come out again that’s fine too. When we go into a cafe he sits or lays down in his stroller and has a nap, and is as good as gold.
Important note here, Glen seemed to accept and like his stroller quite quickly but it’s important to go at your own dogs pace. You might need to leave the stroller ‘parked up’ inside for a week or so until your dog is comfortable with it being around. This applies with the next steps too, go as slowly as your dog needs. The last thing you want to do is to rush these steps and create any negative associations with the stroller. We were lucky that Glen took to his quite quickly, but some dogs will need a little longer.
A couple of weeks ago (yes, we gave him his birthday present a bit early!) he made us laugh when he wouldn’t get out to enjoy the grass when we’d finished the pavement part of the walk as he was so comfy!
So, for us and Glen the stroller has been a great purchase. We don’t use it every day, it just depends on where we’re going to be taking him . It means that we can take Glen on longer walks, almost anywhere without overtiring him. He’s quite a fit boy, but as the years progress I guess that we will get even more use from it hopefully over many more years to come 🤎
Written by E. J. Wass for No Bull, Just Natural Health for Dogs 29/06/26
