With a leashed greyhound in each hand, Pamela Buck has always done a lot of walking around her Clayton neighborhood. But since August, Buck has found herself adding even more walks to her daily repertoire. The 57-year old walks on lunch breaks, walks with friends and walks on weekend mornings.

Whether Cali and Luna accompany her or not, her ex-racer pups are never far from her mind. That’s because even if Buck isn’t walking with the dogs, she’s always walking for the dogs, thanks to an app called WoofTrax (www.wooftrax.com). For every walk she takes, the Walk for a Dog fundraising tool will donate money to her designated rescue, Golden State Greyhound Adoption.

“I learned about WoofTrax and figured, 'What a great way to earn money for my favorite nonprofit,’” Buck said. “I feel strongly about greyhound rescue, and it means a lot to know that I can help contribute.”

That’s the exact mentality that WoofTrax CEO and founding partner Doug Hexter wants to cultivate.

“My business partner and I originally set about building an app where people could track how far they walked their dogs,” said Hexter, whose free app is available for both iOS and Android devices. He realized, however, that without an incentive to use the app, interest would quickly fade. Then, inspiration struck: What about correlating the activity of people walking their dogs with donations to their chosen animal organization?

“The idea was to provide an incentive for dogs and their humans to bond through exercise while simultaneously harnessing that energy for a social good,” Hexter said. “After that, the rest of the idea came together, and Walk for a Dog was born.”

Hexter said that with the Maryland-based app, they wanted to tap into something that people were already doing that could be readily measured with a smartphone. Unlike a standard pedometer, WoofTrax uses GPS to track distance.

“It’s hard to get people to do something new,” he said. “But millions of people are already walking their dogs every day. We simply wanted to encourage that activity and add more value to it.”

WoofTrax was initially funded by private investors, and donations to the users’ selected animal organizations are made possible by sponsorships, advertising and investors. The tool plans to be fully supported by advertising and sponsors by 2015.

“We give marketers a unique way to connect with consumers, especially in the pet product space,” Hexter said. In the United States alone, the pet products industry is a $60 billion-a-year market, he said.

Since the app was introduced in January, WoofTrax has garnered almost 100,000 users, who have taken 800,000 walks for more than 3,500 rescues and shelters throughout the country. Even people who don’t own a dog can get in on the act with an option called Walk With Cassie, named after Hexter’s rescued foxhound mix. Cassie represents shelter dogs everywhere, and donations go to the user’s animal organization of choice.

“Every funding period is going to be different,” Hexter said. “About twice a year, we send donations to organizations with active walkers. The donation pool is divided based upon the number of people walking for a particular organization and the number of times they walked.” An example is Golden State Greyhound Adoption, who has 24 users. Over the course of just four days, they started strong with 196 walks.

“Don’t just take your dog for a walk,” goes the WoofTrax slogan. “Take your walk for a dog. It’s healthy for you, your dog and your selected animal organization.”

It may not roll off the tongue, but you get the drift. Now lace up those shoes and walk.

Eileen Mitchell (www.eileenmitchell.blogspot.com) is a freelance writer. E-mail: 96hours@sfchronicle.com

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