Dog Routine

[Cath2907]

My dog is growing up - he is 18 months old now. We've had 6 months of upheaval (divorce, house sale, living with my parents, new house). We are now settled in the new place and I've noticed he has really mellowed.

His routine is:
7am - Everyone gets up including dog
7 - 8:15am - Breakfast and dressing. He begs, mooches and follows us around!
8:15 - 9am - WALK (his best bit)
9 am - 12:30 - He snoozes and occasionally shouts out the window at postmen / passers-by. I work from home so I am here but he does his own stuff in the next door room.
12:30 - 13:00 - I eat lunch and he snuggles up next to me and steals bits and has a stroke
13:00 - 16:00 - He mostly snoozes but at 3pm he comes and tries to convince me it is walk time. My DD is delivered home from school and he jumps all over her and behaves like a prat.
16:00 - 17:00 - WALK
17:00 - 19:00 - I make tea and play with dog and kid. It is a bit of family time. We eat tea. We generally hang out.
19:00 - Kid goes to bed and dog generally joins her.

Is it normal for him to loaf quite so much. I am not complaining - loafing is good! On the weekend we are far more active and he tends to come along with most of what we do. He sleeps a lot less on those days.

[Nesssie]

Completely normal.
My dog does nothing but sleep from 9am-5pm. But he will happily run a full marathon with me on the weekends.

Routine is great for dogs, they thrive on it. As long as he isn't showing any signs of bad behaviour/boredom - excessive chewing/barking etc then keep doing what you are doing.

[Cath2907]

Thanks - it is wierd to have him not being a shitty annoying puppy! The change was gradual but I guess I missed it due to the upheaval in our lives. I am a very happy dog owner and he seems to be a very comfy snoozy dog. He has a seat in the front window and one by the back patio doors but mostly he lies along the back of the sofa where he can see out of front and back windows! He no longer destroys anything but if I say "walk" he is up like a shot and bouncing!

[Nesssie]

Well done on getting through the awful puppy stage and coming out the other side!

You could look at some brain games and enrichment ideas for him during the day or in the evening? Frozen kongs, puzzle feeders, lickimats, snufflemats etc are all great fun for a dog to amuse himself with.

[adaline]

Sounds very similar to us! Our pup is 16 months and on days where he's not at daycare his routine goes like this:

7am - up, toilet and mooch for an hour while we get ourselves up.
8am - walkies.
9.30am - back home for breakfast and a chew.
10am - 4pm - he sleeps mostly, waking to bark at the postman, pee, chase the cats or have a cuddle on the sofa.
4pm - he wakes up around then, has a play and follows us around while we sort out dinners and things like that. He's awake but mooches about
7pm - dinner and another chew.
7.30pm-9pm - normally a bit of a play, sometimes he'll sleep, sometimes cuddle, sometimes have another chew, it depends.
9pm - falls asleep by our feet and pesters to go upto bed.
11pm - toilet then bed and he sleeps through until morning.