Depends on the dog. If the dog is pulling you down the road with your alarm locked at the elbow and the lead banjo string tight then hand walking is as effective an any thing out there. On the other hand if the dog is walking along beside you with slack in the lead (and he is fit and in somewhat good shape) you will have to walk him hours on end to see the positive effects of hand walking. For no more reason than they were built for that type of travel. The average dog man can't/won't put that much time in walking a dog. (A large percentage can't walk)

Anytime a dog will run all out with his feet on the ground it beats equipment. Regardless of how impressive a dog looks running a mill it is simply unnatural for him to do so. A dog who will continually chase a ball all out is hard to handle.

Hand walking and tread milling are pretty much just two tools in the shed. The more tools a dog will use the better all around he will be long term.

At the end it is not the same thing. A dog on the ground is propelling all of his body weight with each step. He presses his foot to the ground and the ground does not move. The dog moves. When he presses his foot against the slats, the slats move and at top speed he is pretty much spinning the mill/keeping up with the mill.

The combinations usually end up with better results.

If you have the dog that will drag you down the path that is great. If he will kill the mill for really hard runs and then walked for a distance then back and forth to the mill. The combination of the two will out perform either of them as individual tools.

Great topic. it was 40 degrees this morning and the dogs were bouncing off the walls. They know.

EWO