Habituation of healthy dogs to treadmill trotting: repeatability assessment of vertical ground reaction force.

To assess the repeatability of kinetic gait analysis with a treadmill, 28 sound adult dogs were made to trot on an instrumented system. Vertical ground reaction force variables (Peak PFz and Impulse IFz) were collected by 10-s recordings, once a week, 4 weeks in succession. Data were analysed using a repeated-measures two-way ANOVA to investigate habituation to treadmill locomotion. Recorded data were stabilized from the end of the first and second sessions for IFz and PFz, respectively. The percentages of variance attributable to dogs, weeks, minutes and repetitions were, respectively, 72%, 10%, 7%, and 11% for PFz and 84%, 7%, 3%, and 6% for IFz. Habituation occurred after a single training session. Good repeatability was determined by a low coefficient of variation (3.4-4.7%). Adding a treadmill to kinetic gait analysis deserves consideration: reliable data are easily recorded using appropriate habituation and statistical model.