If he isn’t afraid to stand on the treadmill, chances is that he needs more time to get used to it. Try to get him stand on the belt for a longer time without starting. Make it a 3-minutes daily routine just standing on it, then slowly increase the time to 5 mins. Only then, you start on the a very slow speed for one or two minutes.

For a start, don’t push him to do a 5-minutes slow walk even if he’s beginning to enjoy it. Stop at the approriate time allocated for his daily routine. The trick is not to allow him to quit before you say quit. Rinse and repeat with slow increment. This will help him to look forward to pleasant experience.

HTH

Try to break down the treadmill exercise regime to thrice daily. Each walk should last about 15-20 minutes, and increase the speed gradually up to 2.4 m/h.

As to food, it does matter what type of food you are giving her. Not all dog foods are created equal. Have you read my article on dog’s daily calories intake?

If you need to give some snacks to the male dog, do it during her absent. It may seem unfair or sneaky, but for the benefit of her health, you have to be cruel to love her.

When you said diet pill from the doctor, I’m assume it comes from a vet’s prescription??? It’s very important that you DO NOT give your dog human diet pill. Even the mildest one can be fatal. BTW, has your vet done a test on your dog’s thyroid gland? If she has underactive thyroid hormones (hypothyroid), that could explain why she can’t metabolize the food faster than usual.

What I found to be the most effective way to sled excessive fats is put your dog on a detox program. There are many health benefits, including maintaining healthy thyroid functioning.

Hope this helps!

Has he investigated (sniffed) your treadmill? Has he seen you exercising on the treadmill? Have you tried the mock up exercise (day 4 – 5)? If these experiences are pleasant to him and practice over a period of time, he will get the idea gradually.

Generally, most dogs are quite natural walking on treadmill especially when they are introduced to this form of exercise at a early age. Of course there will always be a few skeptics and this is natural. Again, the key as I said above is to be patient and not make a fuss about it. It is the unspoken words (your tension on wanting to him to walk on the machine, quickly) make the task much more harder.

Good luck!

Miniature Schnauzer is classified as small dogs. What this means is that small dogs mature faster than their larger counterparts. So at the age of 6 months, they are considered adolescents.

Also, dogs learn best from 4 weeks to 18 months (plus and minus between breeds and sizes). So yes, this is the best time to introduce her to treadmill exercise.

Good luck.