If you’ve never pictured yourself owning a pet stroller, you should. Once upon a time I thought that I would never push my dog Lexi down the street in one but, alas, here I am—a stroller dog mama! Okay, so when can you use a pet stroller? For more occasions than you might initially think…

I live in an urban area where parking is hard to come by (and just plain unaffordable) so public transit is the best choice for ease of movement. But my local transit authority doesn’t allow dogs on the bus unless they are in a fully enclosed pet carrier (Note: All transit authorities have different rules, check with your local authority first). Given that my tall, 22 pound Rat Terrier is too big for traditional hand-held pet carriers, a pet stroller is the obvious winner. Now I can take her with me anywhere—fully enclosed and comfortable—without the pain of carrying her manually. Plus, with models like the Gen7Pets G7 Jogger stroller (pictured with Lexi here), you can even run to catch the bus thanks to the stroller’s highly maneuverable, rugged terrain wheels specially designed to handle jogging, and stow your bags in a storage below the pet compartment to take a load off of your shoulders.

What if you don’t need to take your dog on public transit? A pet stroller is awesome to have in case your four legged friend gets injured and finds it hard to walk long distances or suffers from medical ailments that limit mobility. There’s no need to keep fido couped up inside—grab the stroller and off you go for your daily stroll as usual! And, if you like to travel, I can definitely see a pet stroller coming in handy at an airport or ferry terminal.

So don’t let the initial strangeness of using a pet stroller prevent you from giving one a try. I didn’t and now I’m never going to give my Gen7Pets G7 Jogger stroller up!

Check out Gen7Pet’s G7 Jogger pet stroller and more out here.