Experts are speaking out to warn senior citizens that dog walking could be hazardous to their health after the results of a recent study were released.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania found that in the last few years, the number of seniors asking for medical treatment for injuries related to dog-walking has dramatically increased, from about 1,700 in 2014 to about 4,400 in 2017. Since dog ownership among older people has been stable in recent years, the researchers say that senior citizens’ increasingly active lifestyles could be the main reason behind this.

The study found that one of the more common injuries is hip fractures, and that nearly 80 percent of the patients have been women, since they tend to have lower bone density than men. Susan Bush, 69, said that while she has had multiple injuries walking her dogs. One such injury was a broken leg that happened while stopping her dog from chasing a bear. However, Susan believes her pets give her purpose.

“Old people need our dogs,” she said. “We need our soulmates.”

Many senior citizens agree, but the study’s lead author Dr. Jaimo Ahn, an orthopedic surgeon, said that seniors may be underestimating how dangerous walking dogs really is for them. He said that one of the biggest problems is what he called a “small person/big dog” scenario, in which a pet is simply mismatched with its owner’s ability to handle it.

Ahn also said that seniors might not be as equipped to train dogs as they think they are.

“Some of them are really well-trained, but others are really poorly trained,” he said.

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