To quote Wikipedia: “The turnspit dog was […] bred to run on a wheel, called a turnspit or dog wheel, to turn meat as it cooked.”
That article also has the following picture of a woman sitting on a ~stool~ chair (puhtaytoh puhtahtoh) while a dog is toiling away to power the spit.
A dog at work inside a wheel near the ceiling; from Remarks on a Tour to North and South Wales (1800) - via Wikipedia