Quote Originally Posted by Crofab
I thought the idea of conditioning a dog for a show was to get the dog in the best possible shape? If that is the objective, and a person can do such a thing without any harm to the dog, exactly how is it not worth it? If a person is there with the dog the entire time it's on the mill, and they are monitoring the dog's progress, to me it seems it's exactly worth it.

A dog that's able to run at 10mp for 1 hour or 2 hours even is going to be in better shape than one that can't. I think the onus is on the conditioner to prove that there are better ways to condition dogs simply because a man doesn't agree with it. I personally don't believe flat out running a slat or a carpet mill is better than an emill. While the dog does control the speed at which they run, they're not the conditioner whose sole job is to have the dog in the best possible condition for the upcoming event. So in that aspect, if the dog feels like slowing down or stopping when it's not to the dog's advantage to do so, it can. With an emill, a person can work their dog up higher and higher speeds for longer amounts of time if they have the brain power to do so.

I don't own an emill. I definitely see the benefit of having one for a variety of reasons. In the end, if the dog that was worked on the emill is in better shape than his opponent that was worked a variety of ways, I'd say it was worth it. Ultimately, the choices of one's conditioning methods will be tested within the squared walls of truth. However a person chooses to condition their animals, I hope they're doing it right, emill or not.
Simply because the gait would be much more unnatural and a chance for an accident much higher with an emill ripping away at that speed. Have you ever conditioned a dog using this method?