Adopting dog, basic routine advice please!

[BillieEilish]

I'm adopting a Spanish rescue hound (female) 2 years

59 cms 22kgs

I've had dogs in the past but have forgotton everything. Could any kind mumsnetters give me their rough routine on what food, timings of food and walks?

I plan to walk am and pm and have a large garden. It's food I'm mostly concerned with. Quantity and content, wet or dry? Can I make her food now and again? ie pasta/rice with vegetables/chicken? the internet suggests this is fine?

Thanks so much to anyone who replies. I really appreciate it.

[PollyPolson]

People are all different but no day is the same for my dogs so we do not have a set routine. However obvioulsy some things do happen everyday but not at the same time.

I feed raw but you can choose to feed kibble food, wet or dry food or raw, Some people home cook food. I would not fed my dogs pasta or rice but some do. A website to help with commerical food is all about dog food

There are lots of sites with information regarding how to feed your dogs and they often contradict each other so you need to decide the way that works for you.

COmmercial food will give measurements on the packets usually aim for the lower side of what they suggest and watch your dog to see if i is suitable. Dogs should have a clear waist if hey don cut down. Also observe poos if runny then you may be overfeeding. Working out quantities of home cooked food is harder and you do need to have a meal plan to ensure the dogs get the nutirents they require. Raw feed dogs eat between2-4% of their body weight per day.

Walks a day vary the location and when the dog is trained off leads walks are great (but they have to have great recal for this)

Allow time each day for some fun training as well as walks.

DOnt do too much when you first get your dog - give them a while to settle down and relax.

Many dog trainers offer classes for rescue dogs so worth a look to see if someone is doing that near you.

enjoy your dog

[welshdaisy]

Hi congrats on the new pup, how exciting... My sister adopted a dog and although he was really good, he still had a few accidents and was anxious. Basically she treated him as though he were 8 weeks old and started from scratch. This was 7 months ago and now he's like a new dog. With regards to dog food, there is a great website called allaboutdogfood.com and it shows you nutritional information on foods, and you can choose a good one in your price range. You can even input your dogs details and it'll bring up a list of foods wet, dry and raw with rating and price.. We have a puppy ourselves and used this website to help us choose a good food for him. We actually use Butternut box now as it's the only one which doesn't cause him an upset tummy good luck with the new dog x

[BillieEilish]

polly immensely helpful, thank you.

Yes, websites do give contradicting information. Thanks you for the link I'll look at it now.

[BillieEilish]

@welshdaisy, thanks so much.

That's two votes for the food website... exactly what I needed. Thank you! I am in Spain (so not obvious info here) but with access to UK food etc so this is really super helpful.

[Sitdowncupoftea]

I'm not sure what type of hound you have my dogs require a lot of exercise so I do 2 walks a day. One morning one night. I feed their daily intake of food in two feeds after they have exercised not straight away though I let them settle first. I feed a good quality dry food read the labels and use the website the other lady suggested. Some people feed raw some dry its your choice. You will soon get into a routine with your new dog.

[vanillandhoney]

My hound has a routine and he absolutely thrives on it (he's a beagle). It's typically something like this.

6am - DH gets up, let's him out for the toilet and he potters around downstairs for an hour or so.
7am - DH to work, dog comes upstairs with me. Sometimes he goes back to sleep, if not we get up for the day.
7-8am - he sleeps/potters downstairs while I get ready, get housework done and eat breakfast.
8-9am - walk. Ideally offlead so he can run about, though it'll be on-lead if I'm a) in a rush or b) the weather is bad.
9am - we either go back home, or he goes to my in-laws depending on what dogs I have booked in that day (I'm a dog walker).

Between 10am-4pm it really depends. If he's with the IL's he tends to follow FIL everywhere, gets fed toast (!), plays in the garden and gets a walk around 3pm. If he comes to work with me then he's on the go a lot. If I'm not working, we potter at home and he sleeps mostly.

He gets fed between 3-4pm, potters and plays for a few hours and crashes out at about 8pm!