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This study aimed to examine the habits of dog walking in Japan using an internet survey of insured dog owners. About 96.4% of the respondents (n = 1,151) reported that they would take their dogs for a walk and they most frequently walk their dogs once or twice a day (75.9%) for 30 min to 1 hr (83.1%). The probability of a companion dog having contact with other dogs during dog walking was estimated to be 0.83 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.81–0.85), and the associated daily contact rate was estimated using log‐normal distribution with a mean of 2.73 (95% CI: 2.42–3.11) and a standard deviation (SD) of 6.39 (95% CI: 5.18–7.84). Multiple linear regression revealed that the contact rate is mainly influenced by the social behaviour of the owner and to a lesser degree by his/her demographic characteristics including the area of residence, the breed size of dog and the age of the owner. In addition, ten Likert items measured on a 5‐point scale were designed to assess the practices towards potential cases of rabies among dog owners. The respondents (n = 972) achieved a mean score of 2.99 (out of a full score of 4) with a SD of 0.90 in responding to situations related to dog bite incidents and injury from stray cat scratches during dog walking. They achieved a higher score in responding to situations related to sighting a stray or wild animal during dog walking and situations related to non‐specific clinical signs of rabies and bite injuries from stray dogs or wild animals during dog walking with a mean of 3.70 (SD = 0.58) and 3.84 (SD = 0.34), respectively. The level of best practice was also proved to be significantly associated with the demographic characteristics of the dog owner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]