I'm a big fan of hand walking as well, especially the dog that pulls you down the road keeping your elbow locked and the lead banjo sting tight.

I can run with him for awhile and then lean back and let him pull the load. Somewhat interval like.

I think the combination of several training methods work best than any of them used alone. If that makes sense.

Back in the day I had a carpet mill that was a piece of sanded plywood with two pieces of PVC pipe on each end. The carpet was a heavy shag carpet and the dog had to really put out with each step, driving the mill. The carpet moved with each step but if it had a tad more resistance the dog would have to sink his claws in and pull the carpet back.

It was hard run for the dog. Where I lived there was not a lot of room to hand walk and the only slat mill I had access to sounded like a train coming thru. I used an electric mill with a cage built around it. I would speed it to a pretty good clip for the dog and when he was winded pretty good I put him on the hard turning carpet mill. When he was just about spent on the carpet mill I would put him back on the e-mill at a much slower pace so he could recover while putting forth effort.

When I moved to the country and bought some land I started using hand walking a little more, pulling some chains, etc. I got away from the e-mill but maintained the use of the carpet mill.

EWO