Outdoor leisure with dogs: an empirical evaluation of visiting shared outdoor leisure spaces in the UK

ABSTRACT

This study examined visits to shared outdoor leisure spaces (SOLS) with dogs, such as parks, woodlands, and beaches in the UK. Based on past qualitative and descriptive data, hypotheses and a conceptual model were developed. An online survey of dog guardians (n = 602) was analyzed using partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to test the impacts of human intrinsic motivation; dog well-being; the community benefit; and social bonding on the components of leisure involvement (attraction, centrality, and self-expression), and subsequently intention and visiting behavior in relation to SOLS. The results showed that human intrinsic motivation and community benefit had a positive impact on all aspects of leisure involvement, while dog well-being only affected attraction, and social bonding impacted centrality and self-expression. These findings contribute to a better understanding of dog guardians’ behavior of visiting SOLS in the UK, providing insights for stakeholders responsible for designing, managing, and promoting these spaces.

Résumé

Cette étude porte sur les visites d’espaces de loisirs partagés extérieurs (SOLS en anglais) avec des chiens, tels que des parcs, des forêts et des plages au Royaume-Uni. Des hypothèses et un modèle conceptuel ont été élaborés en fonction des données qualitatives et descriptives antérieures. Un sondage en ligne auprès des gardiens de chiens (n = 602) a été analysé à l’aide de la modélisation par équation structurelle des moindres carrés partiels (PLS-SEM) afin de vérifier les effets de la motivation intrinsèque de la personne, du bien-être du chien, de l’avantage pour la communauté et des liens sociaux sur les composantes de la participation aux loisirs (attraction, centralité et expression de soi) ainsi que sur l’intention et le comportement de visite par rapport aux SOLS. Les résultats ont montré que la motivation intrinsèque de la personne et l’avantage communautaire avaient une incidence positive sur tous les aspects de la participation aux loisirs, tandis que le bien-être du chien n’avait d’incidence que sur l’attraction, et que les liens sociaux avaient une incidence sur la centralité et l’expression de soi. Ces résultats contribuent à une meilleure compréhension du comportement des gardiens de chiens qui visitent les SOLS au Royaume-Uni, et fournissent des informations aux parties prenantes responsables de la conception, de la gestion et de la promotion de ces espaces.

KEYWORDS:

• Leisure involvement
• dogs
• leisure spaces
• outdoor leisure
• partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM)

MOTS-CLÉS:

• Participation aux loisirs
• chiens
• espaces de loisirs
• loisirs en plein air

Introduction

Shared outdoor leisure spaces (SOLS) in the UK such as parks, woodlands, and beaches are commonly visited by people with dogs to foster the physical and mental well-being of both dog guardians¹ and dogs. These leisure spaces are often close to people’s homes; however, some people will visit more distant spaces if they offer a safe place for their dogs to run and play freely (Lee et al., 2009). SOLS are used for recreational activities such as walking, running, cycling, games, meditation, and picnics. They are vital community spaces, and research suggests that to maintain and improve societal health and well-being, walkable areas and SOLS should be planned, developed, and preserved to be attractive, inclusive, and accessible for all (Dashper & King, 2022; Nordh et al., 2017). In addition, dogs need sensory, physical, and mental stimulation and opportunities to express their ‘dogness’, such as the ability to exercise their sense of smell, run freely, and participate in natural dog behaviors (Bekoff & Pierce, 2019). Therefore, many people with dogs in the UK (8.2 M people or 34% of UK households (Statisica.com, 2022)), frequent outdoor environments such as SOLS, especially those near their homes (ONS [Office of National Statistics], 2021; Zijlema et al., 2019). However, because these leisure spaces are shared by multiple users, such as families, cyclists, runners, walkers, and those playing sports, along with dogs and their guardians, these spaces must cater to the needs of all users (Nordh et al., 2017; Veitch et al., 2018).

People often participate in leisure activities with their dogs, including visiting SOLS, because they believe it will be enjoyable and provide well-being benefits for themselves and their dogs. Being outdoors impacts human health and well-being through air quality, physical activity, social contacts, and stress reduction (e.g. Hartig et al., 2014; Lawton et al., 2017; Pretty et al., 2005; Twohig-Bennett & Jones, 2018). Participation in outdoor leisure may not bring conscious awareness of improved well-being, but people report ‘feeling good’ (Henderson & Bialeschki, 2005) and the value of green spaces for outdoor leisure was highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic (King & Dickinson, 2022). Companionship and mood enhancement derived from leisure activities with dogs can contribute to reported human happiness and enjoyment which can lead to the desire to continue to participate in the activity (Guay et al., 2000; Tang et al., 2013). Additionally, people regularly visit SOLS, because of the well-being benefits they believe their dogs receive (Ying et al., 2021) through exercise, training, and interaction (Westgarth et al., 2017).

Participating in leisure activities with dogs can also provide social and community benefits through improved human social capital, defined as bringing people to social situations that provide benefits such as interaction, relationships, emotional support, networks, and outdoor enjoyment (McNicholas et al., 2005). Dogs often act as social facilitators and catalysts, increasing and enhancing social interactions, accelerating contact, conversation, and cooperation especially between strangers; counteracting loneliness and isolation (Graham & Glover, 2014; Lee et al., 2009; McNicholas & Collis, 2000; McNicholas et al., 2005). Indeed, as frequent SOLS users, people with dogs often strengthen a community through a sense of social cohesion and neighborhood connections (Gómez et al., 2018; Graham & Glover, 2014; McConnell et al., 2011). These opportunities to socialize and build networks facilitate personal connections, interpersonal interactions, and the development of place attachment and place loyalty (Gómez et al., 2018; Graham & Glover, 2014; Lee & Shen, 2013). As such SOLS also provide community benefits through opportunities for outdoor recreation, community attachment, and interaction between like-minded people (Allen, 1991; Arnberger & Eder, 2012; Trentelman, 2009).

Leisure involvement is a multi-dimensional construct defined as ‘an unobservable state of motivation, arousal, or interest toward a recreational activity or associated product’ (Havitz & Dimanche, 1997, p. 246). Various personal (e.g. personality) and environmental (e.g. social bonding opportunities) stimuli and situations are responsible for eliciting people’s level of leisure involvement, which subsequently drives their leisure participation behavior (Havitz & Dimanche, 1997; Iwasaki & Havitz, 2004; Kyle et al., 2003). This complex construct is conceptualized through the three facets of attraction, centrality, and self-expression (McIntyre, 1989). Attraction reflects the perceived importance and enjoyment a leisure activity offers someone; centrality indicates how important a leisure activity is to a person’s life; and self-expression describes the opportunities for expressing oneself to others through leisure participation (Kyle & Chick, 2004). Overall, leisure involvement, including in the leisure activities done with dogs, is seen as an important source of pleasure and provides well-being benefits, such as higher leisure satisfaction, life satisfaction, and subjective well-being (e.g. Havitz & Mannell, 2005; Hoy et al., 2023; Matte et al., 2021; Stebbins, 2018). Furthermore, intention plays a key role in actual behavior and provides a good indication of how much effort people will exert to perform a behavior such as visiting SOLS (Ajzen, 1991). Intention has also been shown to be a good predictor of future behavior including in studies related to leisure participation with dogs (Peng et al., 2014).

Previous literature related to dog walking, dog parks, and visits to urban parks with dogs have often been conducted in spaces where dogs are required to be leashed and have largely been qualitative or descriptive in nature (e.g. Lee et al., 2009; Westgarth et al., 2017). This study aims to incorporate the findings from previously mentioned studies into a conceptual model in the context of guardians’ visits to SOLS with their dogs in the UK. A better understanding of what drives visits to SOLS with dogs, can help community, health, government, and animal charity organizations to make better development and maintenance decisions regarding these spaces, and help to guide communication encouraging leisure participation for human and dog well-being.

Therefore, the following hypotheses are proposed:

H1:

Feelings of intrinsic human motivation to visit SOLS with dogs impact the human leisure involvement components of (a) attraction, (b) centrality, and (c) self-expression.

H2:

The belief that dogs receive well-being benefits from visiting SOLS impacts the human leisure involvement components of (a) attraction, (b) centrality, and (c) self-expression.

H3:

The level of perceived community benefit of dog-friendly SOLS, impacts on the human leisure involvement components of (a) attraction, (b) centrality, and (c) self-expression.

H4:

Visiting SOLS with dogs has social benefits that impact on the human leisure involvement components of (a) attraction, (b) centrality, and (c) self-expression.

H5/H6/H7:

The level of attraction/centrality/self-expression that humans feel toward visiting SOLS with their dogs impacts their (a) intention and (b) behavior of visiting SOLS with their dogs.

H8:

Intention to visit SOLS with dogs impacts the behavior of visiting SOLS with dogs.

Methodology

Survey measures

In terms of the drivers of visiting SOLS with dogs a four-item scale adapted from Guay et al. (2000) was used to assess the human intrinsic motivation; four-items borrowed from Ying et al. (2021) measured the perceived dog well-being benefits; a five-item scale by Lee et al. (2009) assessed the community benefits; and three items adopted from Lee et al. (2009) assessed how people perceived social benefits. The leisure involvement scale from Lee and Shen (2013) was modified to assess the leisure involvement dimensions of attraction, centrality, and self-expression of visiting SOLS with dogs. Two items related to intention, and two visiting behavior items were adapted from Peng et al. (2014). A six-point Likert-type scale (1=Strongly Disagree to 6=Strongly Agree) forced respondents to choose a non-neutral point on the scale, in line with suggestions from multiple Rasch modeling studies evaluating the quality of Likert scales (e.g. Moors, 2008; Yamashita, 2022).

Data collection and analysis

A market research company collected data from UK homes with dogs in March 2021. Quota sampling was used based on data provided by the company. An attention check question confirmed that participants were actively involved in completing the survey. After data cleaning, the online survey produced 602 valid questionnaires: a sample size above suggestions for robust PLS-SEM estimations (Kock & Hadaya, 2018). To account for skewed and leptokurtic data, non-parametric partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to evaluate the conceptual model with SmartPLS 4 software (Ringle et al., 2022). PLS-SEM was also used due to its ability to estimate complex models, explore new or theoretical extensions of existing theory, and prediction capabilities (Hair et al., 2019).

Results

Descriptive findings

A one-way Chi-Square test confirmed the representativeness of the sample compared to the quota in terms of gender (χ² (1, N = 602) = 0.082, p = 0.774) and age (χ² (1, N = 602) = 0.989, p = 0.583). Respondents were 54.2% female and 45.8% male. Respondents’ ages ranged from 18–82 with the mean age of 47 (SD = 15.5). Most were employed full-time (47.0%) or part-time (13.5%), and 15.4% were retired. Most participants lived with one (75.4%) or two dogs (21.3%); 81.7% lived with one or more adults; almost half had children (48.4%). Respondents’ outdoor leisure time with their dogs was most frequently spent using/visiting parks, woods, the countryside, and beaches. Most reported spending over an hour of quality time per day with their dogs: <30 minutes (8.5%); 31–59 minutes (42.7%); 1–2 hours (28.7%); and >2 hours (20.1%).

Measurement model evaluation

We followed accepted assessment methods to evaluate the measurement model (e.g. Fornell & Larcker, 1981; Hair et al., 2019). Indicator loadings were used to assess item reliability, and all were above the threshold of 0.708 (Hair et al., 2019), with significant factor loadings (p < 0.001). All internal consistency values, i.e. composite reliability (Jöreskog, 1971) values were above the minimum of 0.70 (i.e. below 0.95 threshold), indicating good levels of reliability (Hair et al., 2019). Cronbach’s alpha (α) assessed internal consistency reliability – all values were above 0.80 (Hair et al., 2017). Finally, ρ_A assessed construct reliability and values were between the lower and upper recommended thresholds of 0.80 and 0.95 respectively. Percentile bootstrap confidence intervals were calculated and indicated that the ρ_A was lower than 0.95 at the upper bound of 95% confidence interval (Hair et al., 2019). Convergent validity was assessed using average variance extracted (AVE) and all values (0.688 to 0.865) were over the minimum value of 0.50 (Fornell & Larcker, 1981). See Table 1 for full measurement model analysis results. Finally, discriminant validity was established confirming both the Fornell-Larcker Criterion (AVE value > inter-construct correlation) and the heterotrait-monotrait ratio (HTMT <0.85 for conceptually different constructs, HTMT < 0.90 for conceptually similar constructs) (Hair et al., 2019; Hensler et al., 2015).

Table 1. Measurement model analysis.

Construct		Cronbach’s α	CR	Rho_A	AVE
Human Intrinsic Motivation		0.901	0.904	0.931	0.772
I visit shared outdoor leisure spaces with my dog(s) because …
1. I think that it is interesting	0.808
2. I think that it is pleasant	0.897
3. It is fun	0.903
4. I feel good when doing this activity	0.902
Dog Well-Being		0.923	0.924	0.946	0.813
1. I think taking dog(s) to shared outdoor leisure spaces can enhance their lives	0.922
2. I think participating in leisure activities in shared outdoor spaces is a good opportunity for physical exercise and skill building	0.900
3. I believe visiting shared outdoor leisure spaces with my dog(s) enhances human-dog interaction	0.886
4. I think participating in outdoor leisure activities with my dog(s) makes them happy	0.897
Leisure Space’s Community Benefit		0.909	0.910	0.932	0.734
Dog-friendly shared outdoor leisure spaces …
1. are important community amenities	0.851
2. are places I recommend to other dog owners	0.876
3. increases my overall satisfaction with where I live	0.895
4. are something I would consider if I moved to another place	0.847
5. influence whether I recommend my community to others	0.811
Leisure Space’s Social Bonding		0.922	0.923	0.950	0.865
Shared outdoor leisure spaces provide people with dog(s) opportunities to …
1. socialize with others	0.926
2. meet neighbors	0.923
3. form social connections	0.941
Leisure Involvement		0.925	0.926	0.947	0.817
Attraction
1. Visiting shared outdoor leisure spaces with my dog(s) is important to me	0.896
2. I really enjoy visiting shared outdoor leisure spaces with my dog(s)	0.914
3. Visiting shared outdoor leisure spaces with my dog(s) is one of the most satisfying things that I do	0.887
4. Visiting shared outdoor leisure spaces with my dog(s) interests me	0.917
Centrality		0.849	0.853	0.898	0.688
1. Visiting shared outdoor leisure spaces with my dog(s) plays a central role in my life	0.801
2. I enjoy talking to my friends about the shared outdoor leisure spaces that I visit with my dog(s)	0.847
3. I know many people who own a dog/dogs	0.837
4. I have many friends who own a dog/dogs	0.831
Self-Expression		0.906	0.907	0.941	0.841
1. Visiting shared outdoor leisure spaces with my dog(s) is when I can really be myself	0.912
2. As a dog owner, others see me the way I want them to see me	0.898
3. Visiting shared outdoor leisure spaces with my dog(s) says a lot about me	0.941
Intention (R^2 = 0.286; Q^2 = 0.233)
1. I am willing to take my dog(s) to shared outdoor leisure spaces	0.924	0.816	0.818	0.916	0.845
2. I am planning to take my dog(s) to shared outdoor leisure such as parks, beaches, or woodlands	0.914
Visiting Behavior (R^2 = 0.494; Q^2 = 0.405)
1. Compared to other people, I very often take my dog(s) to shared outdoor leisure spaces	0.917	0.806	0.807	0.912	0.838
2. I spend a lot of time taking my dog(s) to shared outdoor leisure spaces	0.913

Structural model evaluation

The variance inflation factor (VIF) values were all well below the critical threshold VIF ≤ 5 (Hair et al., 2017) with the maximum value of VIF = 3.326, indicating no critical collinearity issues in the structural model (Hair et al., 2019). Furthermore, R² values indicated that the endogenous variables were moderate predictors of leisure involvement. The model explained 28.6% of the variance in the intention and 49.4% of the behavior of visiting SOLS with dogs. Blindfolding was used to assess the explanatory power and predictive accuracy of the model using Q² (Geisser, 1974; Stone, 1974) values with an omission distance of eight (Hair et al., 2017). All Q² values leisure involvement and visiting behavior exceeded 0.50 indicating large predictive relevance, with only intention having a smaller predictive relevance (Hair et al., 2019).

The bias corrected bootstrapping method (with 10,000 sub-samples) was used to evaluate path coefficients and test hypotheses (see Figure 1). The results revealed that 10 of the 14 hypotheses were supported. Structural model assessment and hypothesis testing results are shown in Table 2.

Figure 1. Partial least squares regression paths with R² values (bold paths are statistically significant).

Table 2. Estimates of path coefficients, effect sizes, and hypothesis testing.

	Path Coefficient (β)	T Statistic	Supported?
Hypothesis 1a Human Intrinsic Motivation→LI: Attraction	0.329***	7.389	Yes
Hypothesis 1b Human Intrinsic Motivation→LI: Centrality	0.232***	5.750	Yes
Hypothesis 1c Human Intrinsic Motivation→LI: Self-Expression	0.218***	4.341	Yes
Hypothesis 2a Dog Well-Being Beliefs→LI: Attraction	0.405***	8.228	Yes
Hypothesis 2b Dog Well-Being Beliefs→LI: Centrality	0.035	0.827	No
Hypothesis 2c Dog Well-Being Beliefs→LI: Self-Expression	0.029	0.606	No
Hypothesis 3a LS’s Community Benefit→LI: Attraction	0.227***	3.924	Yes
Hypothesis 3b LS’s Community Benefit →LI: Centrality	0.387***	6.812	Yes
Hypothesis 3c LS’s Community Benefit→LI: Self-Expression	0.378***	5.920	Yes
Hypothesis 4a LS’s Social Bonding→LI: Attraction	−0.024	0.649	No
Hypothesis 4b LS’s Social Bonding→LI: Centrality	0.247***	5.879	Yes
Hypothesis 4c LS’s Social Bonding→LI: Self-Expression	0.216***	4.387	Yes
Hypothesis 5a LI: Attraction→Intention	0.536***	9.110	Yes
Hypothesis 5b LI: Attraction→Visiting Behavior	0.012	0.232	No
Hypothesis 6a LI: Centrality →Intention	0.013	0.185	No
Hypothesis 6b LI: Centrality→Visiting Behavior	0.134*	2.438	Yes
Hypothesis 7a LI: Self-Expression →Intention	−0.015	0.232	No
Hypothesis 7b LI: Self-Expression→Visiting Behavior	0.251	4.258	Yes
Hypothesis 8 Intention→Visiting Behavior	0.467***	13.090	Yes

Significance level: ***p≤ .001; **p≤ .01; *p≤ .05.

PLSpredict was run 10 times with 10 folds (Shmueli et al., 2019). All Q²predict (Shmueli et al., 2016, 2019) values were positive indicating the PLS path model outperformed the naïve benchmark. The PLS-SEM model produced lower prediction errors for the main endogenous variables of intention and visiting behavior, which indicated that the conceptual model has high predictive power if applied to other samples (Shmueli et al., 2016).

Fit indices for the one to five segment solutions revealed through FIMIX-PLS (Hair et al., 2016) showed that unobserved heterogeneity was not at critical levels in the data and the model analysis can be limited to the aggregate data (Sarstedt et al., 2020).

Discussion

Participating in outdoor leisure activities, including visiting SOLS, provides multiple mental, physical, and social well-being benefits for humans and dogs. Results indicate that human intrinsic motivation, which is closely linked with human well-being (Deci & Ryan, 1985), had a positive impact on all components of leisure involvement. Previous research found that personal antecedents like values, attitudes, motivation, needs, and constraints impact on leisure involvement (Iwasaki & Havitz, 2004) and that people derive happiness from dog walking (Westgarth et al., 2017). Similarly, our research found that when people feel visiting SOLS with their dogs is enjoyable, they are more likely to have high leisure involvement, leading to the intention and actual behavior of visiting SOLS with their dogs. This could boost human physical activity and be especially valuable for encouraging the estimated 36.9% of the UK population who do not currently meet the UK Chief Medical Officer’s recommendation of doing 150 minutes, or more, of moderate intensity physical activity per week to improve health (Sport England, 2023). Therefore, communication campaigns appealing to people’s sense of enjoyment of leisure activities with their dogs could encourage participation and help to save the UK government billions in avoided healthcare costs (ONS [Office of National Statistics], 2022).

In our study, dog well-being only impacted visiting SOLS through the attraction component of leisure involvement and intention, which may go some way to explaining why some people say they have the intention to walk their dog but do not (Rhodes & Lim, 2016; Westgarth et al., 2017). This was the strongest relationship in the model, indicating that dog well-being is important to people and results in a strong attraction to visiting SOLS. Thus, people might be attracted to the idea of visiting SOLS, especially to benefit their dogs’ well-being, but if constrained by time, physical ability, or the unattractiveness of local SOLS, they may never move past the intention to visit.

The community benefits of SOLS positively impacted all components of leisure involvement while the leisure space’s social benefit impacted only the leisure involvement components of centrality and self-expression. Previous research has found purpose-built ‘dog parks’ are used frequently and provide socializing and community-building opportunities (Lee et al., 2009). Our findings indicate that for people with dogs in the UK, having adequate SOLS influences their perception of their neighborhoods and their level of participation and commitment toward leisure with dogs. Furthermore, dogs are widely recognized as catalysts for human social interaction (e.g. Graham & Glover, 2014; McNicholas & Collis, 2000). Our results indicate that if people believe their nearby leisure spaces provide socializing opportunities, especially with like-minded people, then visiting SOLS with their dogs is seen as central to their lives and identities.

Our study also found that only the leisure involvement component of attraction requires intention before visiting behavior results. Conversely, leisure involvement centrality and self-expression have direct impacts on visiting behavior, not requiring intention. Hence, attraction to visiting SOLS with dogs is influenced by human and dog well-being factors and the presence of high-quality community spaces, however this does not directly result in visiting SOLS. Instead, when it comes to enjoyment or interest in taking dogs to SOLS, intention is a prerequisite to behavior. Conversely, if visiting SOLS plays a central role in the guardian’s life and/or the guardian identifies as someone who takes their dog to these kinds of spaces, visiting directly results.

Based on our study, we present suggestions for how those responsible for planning and maintaining SOLS, government, and animal charity organizations can better design and manage SOLS and communicate the benefits of leisure participation in SOLS with dogs. SOLS designers and managers should consider the human and dog users in their designs and maximize opportunities for activities. To boost community benefits of SOLS, designers can facilitate more frequent and longer social interactions for users with dogs by providing amenities such as benches, cafes, toilets, water sources, garbage bins, and spare poo bags. Managers need to ensure that paths, fences, and any equipment (e.g. playground equipment and fitness equipment) are well maintained and that garbage bins are frequently emptied, to maintain their safety and attractiveness to the community. To ensure cohesiveness of the wider community, planners and those who maintain SOLS should focus on ways to reduce any conflict between users. For example, if there are restrictions on use of a space, such as no cycling or dogs are required to be leashed, these restrictions need to be clearly stated in multiple places with easy to read and understand language and visuals.

When it comes to public health promotion, the government should increase their focus on dog/human well-being and communicate the social interaction opportunities provided by participating in leisure activities in SOLS with dogs. Promotions should focus on the attractiveness of leisure participation with dogs including physical health benefits such as easing joint pain, lowering inflammation, and boosting the immune system (Harvard Health Publishing, 2022) or mental/emotional benefits such as lowering stress levels, strengthening the dog-human bond, and enhancing mood by playing together (Tang et al., 2013; Westgarth et al., 2017). Moreover, to alleviate loneliness, government bodies should actively encourage the formation of networks, groups, or events for people with dogs to create socializing opportunities. This could include providing financial support and promoting the activities of groups that create opportunities for socializing and community engagement via activities such as regular walk-and-talk dog walks or dog-friendly events in SOLS. Lastly, because not all people who enjoy spending time with dogs are able to welcome a dog into their home, the government may wish to consider partnering with groups such as Borrow My Doggy (https://www.borrowmydoggy.com), which is a dog sharing community that connects people who enjoy spending time with dogs with local dog guardians for the purpose of facilitating human and dog interaction. This would allow people without dogs to spend quality time with dogs including visiting SOLS, help and support guardians to care for their dogs, and provide dogs with more opportunities for socialization, exercise, and play – thus benefiting both dog and human well-being.

Finally, animal charities often focus on communicating ways to improve animal care and welfare through ensuring adequate exercise, stimulation, and interaction. In doing so they should encourage people to participate in leisure activities with their dogs, especially in local dog-friendly SOLS, by focusing on the benefits to both dogs’ and humans’ well-being. Visual cues should show people and dogs interacting in attractive leisure spaces where dog and human body language implies enjoyment. Another possibility is for animal charities to focus on well-being and social interaction in their fundraising activities (e.g. fundraising dog walk) where dogs, humans, and their friends can participate in a physical event which allows meeting new individuals and socialization. Furthermore, animal charities/shelters may want to consider having volunteers take dogs to SOLS so that the benefits of these spaces can be enjoyed by dogs and humans who may not otherwise visit these spaces. A focus on the design and maintenance of SOLS that are attractive because they facilitate socialization and community activities, while communicating the potential well-being benefits, will attract dog guardians who enjoy and are highly involved in regular visits to SOLS with their dogs, along with broadening the appeal of these spaces to more users.

Limitations & future research

In this study, we evaluated a conceptual model based upon previous qualitative and descriptive data which creates a more comprehensive understand UK guardians’ behavior of visiting SOLS with their dogs and provides valuable information for those responsible for designing, maintaining, and promoting these spaces. However, as with all research, limitations and opportunities exist. Utilizing positively framed items adapted from existing literature, the study assessed the constructs of human intrinsic motivation, dog well-being, and the community benefits and social bonding opportunities within leisure spaces. Future research may wish to explore the inclusion of reverse-coded questions or alternative scales to ensure a more comprehensive understanding. Furthermore, dogs and their guardians have unique attachment styles and bonds. Future studies may want to consider this by measuring and analyzing constructs such as attachment style, pet attachment, human-dog symbiotic relationship, and/or human-dog bond. Finally, further insights could be gained by investigating how age, life stage, and relationship status may impact the human behavior of visiting SOLS with dogs. This could aid in a more comprehensive understanding of the usage and value of SOLS to various groups and allow for improved targeting of communication to enhance human and dog well-being.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lori S. Hoy

Lori S. Hoy is a PhD researcher exploring the factors impacting dog guardians’ leisure and tourism decisions. Lori has worked in Marketing for over 20 years in various industries including advertising, consumer products, corporate litigation, recruitment, and hospitality. Previously, she had the opportunity to work for various international hotel groups where she created marketing strategy, managed marketing campaigns, and worked extensively on digital and social media marketing initiatives to achieve commercial objectives. Lori also enjoys spending her free time walking and travelling with her rescue dog, Princess Buttercup, who inspired an interest in her research about how dogs impact leisure and tourism decisions.

Brigitte Stangl

Brigitte Stangl holds a doctorate from the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU Vienna). She specialized in Marketing, Tourism, and Small Business & Entrepreneurship. After her doctorate she worked as a Project Manager at the Institute for Tourism & Leisure Research, HTW Chur, Switzerland. In 2012, she joined the School of Hospitality & Tourism Management. Her main research interests are related to e-tourism and lie in the areas of decision making, web design, innovative pricing, and online distribution. Her research is interdisciplinary, mainly relating to the fields of tourism, marketing, information systems, and psychology. She uses mixed method approaches.

Nigel Morgan

Nigel Morgan is Professor of Social Sustainability at the University of Surrey. His research focuses on the connections between inclusion, social justice, and the visitor economy and on the development of sustainable, resilient places that promote human flourishing. He has sought to ‘make’ as well as ‘mark’ differences through his research, teaching, and advisory interventions, working at the intersections of transformative learning, evidence-based research, and community activism. He has led consultancy projects for clients in the UK, Europe, the US, and Asia and his research funders include the ESRC, British Academy, Leverhulme Trust, the EU, and the Norwegian Research Council.

Notes

1. We refer to the participants in this report as ‘guardians’ rather than ‘owners’ to acknowledge the research that supports the view that dogs are conscious, sentient individuals and not objects/property to be owned. This term also better reflects the multispecies leisure spaces being investigated.